Duh. Who has never been to Villa August If you have been there, you must get in the car, the train, or on your bike. A playful blend of restaurant, shop, vegetable garden, bakery, orchard, and hotel, where the focus is primarily on pure and largely home-grown ingredients. Since 2006, one and a half hectares of the former drinking water company site have been transformed into a large vegetable garden, an Italian garden, an orchard, and a flower garden, with the old pumping station from 1942 in the middle of the garden, which now houses the restaurant and the market. Those gardens alone are worth the trip, especially when the figs and quinces look their autumnal glory.

Cleverly enough, you don't have to go home empty-handed: instead of a hotel shop, there is a market where virtually everything from Villa Augustus is for sale, from fresh bread and jams to flowers, wine, and tableware. The hotel now has 45 rooms: twenty in the water tower, seventeen garden rooms, and eight floating rooms. Those floating rooms are located in a floating office from 1903 that served tugboat companies in the Port of Rotterdam for over a century; you fall asleep there to the lapping of the Wantij. Also fun: boat trips through the historic city center or to the Hollandse Biesbosch depart from Villa Augustus.

A huge, huge, huge fan of Rood, wit & rosé. A wine shop and wine bar in one, and that is something you don't see often in the Netherlands. We preferred to stay here from the beginning to the end of the day. Rood, wit & rosé has been located in the city center since 2007, making it the oldest wine bar in Dordrecht. Since 2017, the business has been run by Peter and Ilse, who import wine themselves from France, Italy, Spain, Germany, and the Netherlands under the name DolceVino. And connoisseur or not, they select the best wine for you. You can indicate your preferences, but it is even more fun to give them free rein.

At the shop on Voorstraat 227, you can choose from around 200 wines, and at the same address lies the wine bar on the waterfront of the old Wijnhaven, where about fifty are served by the glass. You can taste alone or with company, but be sure to make a reservation. The bar is currently open Thursday through Saturday from 12:00 to 19:00, and by appointment the rest of the week. The absolute best is the high wine for €29,95, featuring five wines served by half glasses and five matching snacks (there is also a deluxe version for €39,95). We felt this might just be the nicest outing in the city.

Red, white & rosé

Butchers' Street

The Vleeshouwersstraat runs from the Groenmarkt to the Lange IJzeren Brug, where the butchers used to be located. Now, it is home to small and charming shops. At number 42, for example, sits Gartine at Home, the cake and jam shop of Kirsten Eckhart, who ran the Gartine lunchroom in Amsterdam for twenty years, wrote two cookbooks, worked for Delicious, and ended up in Dordrecht for love. Her shop is stocked with twelve varieties of jam, cakes, and chutneys. If the yellow table and chairs are outside, she is open. A few doors down, at number 14, Jennifer bakes her own pastries and sells artisanal ice cream at Loki's Room.

front street

At 1200 meters, this is the longest shopping street in the Netherlands, wow. At FLO's Label at number 356 stands Floor Versteeg, who was once a technical manager and changed course. Here you can score casual chic at affordable prices. You can complete your outfit immediately with a bag or earrings. Jet's Favs belongs to Jet Krijgsman, who started a webshop as a school assignment at the age of sixteen and opened her own boutique six months later; she goes buying every week, so there is something new hanging there every week. Further down the street, at 451, you will find the plant shop Florale Extase with three floors full of forgotten plants and a view of the Grote Kerk, and at 261 sits Bluebirds in the Backyard with a concept store and a separate preloved fashion store.

Vriesestraat and Nieuwstraat

De Vriesestraat is the coziest and most creative street in the city center. LOTT. Boutique at number 44 belongs to Charlotte van Geenen, who displays the latest trends from Paris there every week, plus handmade jewelry. Boutique Loek's Nice at 67 belongs to Marloeke, who, after training in interior design, graphic design, and styling, started her own business in 2016 selling interior items, interior-proof toys, baby clothes, and mountains of felt, ceramics, and dried flowers. At 33 you can shop for fashion, at 78 for sustainable toys at Juffrouw Pollewop, and at 130 Distilleerderij Rutte has been distilling gin and jenever behind an Art Nouveau facade from 1903 since 1872. Afterwards, walk into Nieuwstraat for No.28 Wonen en Lifestyle, the address for home decor.

L'Archiviste opened in the former premises of Il Giardino Gelato at Groenmarkt 141. And how lovely it is! On the street side, you see a bookcase filled with thick French books, and stepping through it leads into the atmospheric restaurant with a nod to the 1920s. Behind the bookcase await plush sofas, French classics with a modern twist, and a carefully curated wine and cocktail list. There is even a French courtyard, a hidden city garden with grapevines and fig trees, a pergola, pétanque, and piano music in the evenings.

Lunch is available, just like dinner. For that, you choose a four, five, or six-goose dinner. A la carte is also an option, but we suggest the set menu. And then let's just hope it was as delicious as the steak tartare, veal cheek, salmon, and chocolate mousse (vegan and gluten-free even with minimal ingredients, but this one didn't taste like that, wow).

The Archivist

Bluebirds used to be located in a smaller building in the same city and moved to a building that resembles a small castle. That is Huis Roodenburch at Voorstraat 261, where, alongside the restaurant, there is a shop full of sustainable and vintage lifestyle products. By now, it is three businesses combined: the Garden Café with a terrace, the Concept Store, and a Preloved Fashion Store. The kitchen is plant-based, offering all-day breakfast, fresh pastries, lunch, and high tea made with sustainable, local, and organic ingredients, and inside there is a large play area with a play kitchen, blocks, a doll pram, and books. Moreover, it serves as a training workplace.

Bluebirds in the Backyard