Museums in the Netherlands

[Brevicollis]

Hello, I want to know if there are any fossil museums in the central Netherland area.

Me and my family plan to make a day trip, and I still need to find a good museum we could go visit.

 

Thanks for any reccomendations and replies !

[pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon]

You've got:

• Tyler's in Haarlem, with the earliest known mosasaur material from the type-area, as well as an archaeopteryx, fossils from Lyme Regis and some other interesting pieces - but the fossil section is just a single hall;
• Naturalis Biodiversity Centre in Leiden, which is the country's main natural history museums with some cool dinosaur skeletons (including a herd of Triceratops sp. on display), ice age fossils and a couple of other fossil specimens;
• Oertijd Museum in Boxtel, which has both ice age material as well as dinosaur skeletons and has grown in recent years, though I haven't been there in decades;
• Natural History Museum of Maastricht in Maastricht, which exhibits primarily fossils from the Maastricht type area, so a lot of mosasaur material, but some dinosaur as well;
• Geologisch Museum Hofland in Laren is supposed to have a decent collection of fossils, but I've never visited.

[ziggycardon]

I have to agree with Alexander on most of these, very well worth the visit.

 

I myself volunteer at the Oertijdmuseum in Boxtel so I might be a bit biased, but I you can you should absolutely visit!
Gorgeous little museum with an extensive collection of local fossils (Maastrichtian type locality, triassic of winterswijk, the rich Miocene/pliocene seas from Brabant, Carboniferous fossils from Limburg and many Ice Age fossils.
As well as our dinosaur hall with the recently named Ardetosaurus as well as a lifesize replica of Brachiosaurus with is breathtaking.
As well as some displays with international fossils like our Burmese amber exhibition, our exhibition with fossils from the Triassic of Poland and displays with fossils from recent expeditions done by the museum to Wyoming (Lance frm., Pierre Shale, Fox Hills, White River frm.), Solnhofen, Portugal, Denmark, Etc...
And outdoors we have a forest with dinosaur sculptures, some (though not all) lifesized.

And in our preplab we are currenly working on crocodile Steve from the Fox Hills, Triceratops Veronika, Plateosaurus Cleopatra, as well as loads of material from Krasiejow and Solnhofen among other things and in the workshop we are currenly assembling Diplodocus Aurora which is reaching completion soon.

 

Another of my personal favorites is the Natural History Museum in Maastricht, mainly because it focusses on my local geology.
Very extensive collection of Maastrichtian type locality, most impressive of all the vast collection of Mosasaur remains as well as turtle, the mammal Maastichtidelphys, the two cretaceous birds Asteriornis and Janavis as well as some rare Hadrosaur material.
Beside the Cretaceous stuff they have a nice collection of rare material from Liessel (Miocene/Pliocene) which hold a couple of very rare pieces including fossils from Liessel Macaque as well as some Ice Age stuff and Carboniferous fossils

 

As for Naturalis, while they have some must see fossils like Tyrannosaurus Trix and the Triceratops herd, (and I also liked their Winterwijk collection).
I personally (as well as my girlfriend at the time) felt a little bit disappointed in the museum itself.
While the dinosaur hall has nice pieces, it's unfortunately quite underlighted and beside the dino hall which is great, the rest of the museum felt quite lackluster...
More an art installation than a museum in most areas, which might appeal to some, but I know many in my circle who share my sentiment about Naturalis.

 

Tyler's museum is also a must visit, like Alexander mentions it has some very historical pieces like the earliest discoveries of Mosasaurus and Archaeopteryx and while the museum collection is rather small, it is still in the style from those early musea which is an experience in itself. Truly recommended just for the experience.
If my memory recalls, I believe @Bobby Rico once made a nice trip report about Tylers some years ago.

 

Another museum I hear is worth a visit is Historyland.

While I haven't been myself I hear it has an amazing collection of Ice Age fossils which is expected since a large part of the personal collection world-leading mammoth expert Dick Mol is displayed there.
And it should have a lot of whale fossils as well.

 

My personal recommendations would either go the Boxtel or Maastricht.
Boxtel lies right next to the highway, so easily to visit but besides the museum there is not much to do in Boxtel unless to want to visit Eindhoven, Den Bosch or Utrecht.
But Boxtel is the only one that only focusses on fossils, the rest have other collections as well.
Maastricht, while a small museum, is located in a gorgeous city with many places to visit.
And while you cannot go searching in the ENCI anymore you can still visit to quarry for walks since it is declared a natural monument.
There a still a few places nearby where you have a chance to find fossils, send me a PM should you want to visit Maastricht and I'll let you know where to go should you want to search for fossils.
As for Historyland, it is located quite close to the famous Maasvlakte where you can find Pleistocene fossils on the beach.
And there are plenty of other beaches in Zealand like the Banjaard, Cadzand, 't Zwin where you can search for shark teeth (Eocene - Pleistocene).

 

[BirdsAreDinosaurs]

I personally really enjoyed the dinosaur area at Naturalis. It is designed to be an experience more than anything else, but I found it quite impressive. I am also quite biased though, because I worked there for a couple of years