racetrack
TT Circuit Assen
The Cathedral of Speed -- the only circuit to have hosted a MotoGP round every year since the championship began in 1949.
29 km · about 35 min drive
EuropeNetherlandsGroningen
Groningen
Groningen, Netherlands · Europe
About Groningen
Groningen is worth a stop: 10 minutes from Reitdiep, 36km from Hunebedcentrum.
Groningen is in Netherlands, with about 240,000 people. You drive on the right here. The nearest town is Reitdiep, about 4 km away.
Groningen is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen province in the Netherlands. Dubbed the "capital of the north", Groningen is the largest city as well as the economic and cultural centre of the northern part of the country; as of January 2025, it had 244,807 inhabitants, making it the sixth largestRead more
city/municipality in the Netherlands and the second largest outside the Randstad. As of 2025, the Groningen metro area had a population of 557,369 inhabitants.
Groningen was established more than 980 years ago and gained city rights de facto in 1245, making it one of the oldest cities in the Netherlands, although no written records of a formal grant of city rights remain. Due to its relatively isolated location from the successive Dutch centres of power (Utrecht, The Hague, Brussels), Groningen was historically reliant on itself and nearby regions. As a Hanseatic city, it was part of the North German trade network, but later it mainly became a regional market centre. At the height of its power in the 15th century, Groningen could be considered an independent city-state and it remained autonomous until the late 18th century, when it was incorporated into the Napoleonic Batavian Republic.
Today Groningen is a university city, home to some of the country's leading higher education institutes; University of Groningen (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen), which is the Netherlands's second oldest university, and Hanze University of Applied Sciences (Hanzehogeschool Groningen). Students comprise an estimated 25% of its total population, making it the country's demographically youngest city (although Urk is the youngest municipality overall).
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is there to see near Groningen?
Within an hour or so of Groningen: TT Circuit Assen (29 km), Hunebedcentrum (36 km), Fort Bourtange (48 km).
Are there any good drives near Groningen?
The nearest famous roads are Afsluitdijk and Houtribdijk.
Where is Groningen?
Groningen is in Groningen, Netherlands, about 4 km from Reitdiep.
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Quick Information
- Population
- 244,807
- Continent
- Europe
- Country
- Netherlands
- Region
- Groningen
- Timezone
- Europe/Amsterdam
- Coordinates
- 53.2192, 6.5667
Emergency & Services
Essential numbers in Netherlands
Watch for cyclists. They generally have priority.
Full driving guide for NetherlandsTags
Worth the detour from Groningen
3 notable places within an hour's drive.
ancient ruins
Hunebedcentrum
Museum in Borger beside D27, the largest of the Netherlands' 5,000-year-old hunebed dolmens: 22-metre granite burial chambers older than Stonehenge, scattered along the Drenthe hondsrug ridge.
36 km · about 40 min drive
photogenic
Fort Bourtange
1593 star fortress village in remote Groningen restored to its 1742 form: a living five-pointed star of moats, bastions and wooden drawbridges with a cobbled marketplace at its heart, most striking from the ramparts or the air.
48 km · about 55 min drive
Driving in Netherlands
- Drives on
- the right
- Petrol
- ~€2.04/litre
- Motorway tolls
- None
When to drive here
April to October
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