Experience big city life in Rotterdam on this most important and busy avenue.
The shopping street Coolsingel Rotterdam is in terms of real estate prices one of the most expensive streets in the Netherlands and connects the fountain at Hofplein to Westblaak (direction Erasmus Bridge Rotterdam). Coolsingel (pronounced as ‘coal single’) is now a major throughfare in Rotterdam, but has been a town canal, that was drained during World War I. Coolsingel mainly consists of office buildings, but abeam Koopgoot and Meent, you also find many shops. Coolsingel is also the center of major events in Rotterdam, like the Summer Carnival Rotterdam and the Rotterdam Marathon. To create a more attractive main street of Rotterdam, a renovation with more trees and less traffic at Coolsingel is planned for the years to come.
Walking down from the Hofplein roundabout with the fountain onto Coolsingel you will see the Hilton Hotel Rotterdam and the Old Luxor Theatre at Kruiskade on your right. A little further on your left hand side, you will find the Rotterdam City Hall and Stadhuisplein (Town Hall Square) on your right, with many outdoor eating areas and nightlife. Through Stadhuisplein you can walk to Lijnbaan, the main shopping street of Rotterdam. The former post office of Rotterdam is located next to the Rotterdam Town Hall. This Coolsingel Post Office will be transformed into a luxury five storey shopping mall with fashion, food and design and a design hotel. Next to the Rotterdam post office at shopping are Meent Rotterdam, you’ll see the first McDonalds restaurant in Rotterdam.
Opposite the Meent shopping area, you see Aert van Nesstraat with the Atlanta hotel and a shop Aert for qualitative and classy menswear. A little further down Coolsingel you will find the large department store Bijenkorf. On the left side of Coolsingel there’s a flagship store of Van Lier (Coolsingel 46a) with quality shoes of Dutch manufacture. Next to Van Lier there are a number of other stores such as Daka Sport Rotterdam (sports wear), perfumery La Bourse, Prenatal (mother and baby care) and Intertoys. Pass the Koopgoot (underground shopping street) and Beursplein and you get to the fashion department store C&A and Van Os Travel Goods. At the end of Coolsingel on your right you will see the Rotterdam.info shop where you can get tourist information about Rotterdam for free.