Is Leiden safe for solo female travelers?

Leiden is considered an extremely safe destination for solo female travelers. The locals are generally friendly, respectful and willing to assist in any way. The city is well-lit at night and also well-policed. While it's always important to maintain awareness of your surroundings and take normal safety precautions, overall, you can expect to feel secure while exploring Leiden.

Safety rating

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How safe is Leiden for female travelers?

Asmin

Asmin

Netherlands

Solo travel

Leiden is a student city. It's overall very safe, but like everywhere else during the night in some places, you need to be more sharp. It has many museums and is called museum city. The botanical garden is very pretty from the end of March until the end of September. It has a cafe but you can also do a picnic. It's very pretty and located in the middle of Amsterdam and Rotterdam. You can walk everywhere, you don't need to take a bus. In 30 mins, you can be at the beach too (Katwijk or Noordwijk). There are no hostels and the food is also expensive.

Posted: May 4, 2025Experienced: April, 2025
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How safe is Leiden for women?

Local safety index

4.5 /5

Based on 17 local experiences

Local crime index

1 /5

Based on 17 local experiences

Very safe for women who are travelling solo. The only thing I would advise women who are travelling solo is that when you go out at night, make sure you are safe on your way back to your hostel, hotel or host. Personally I would like to be sober enough to stay vigilant, and I prefer someone to walk me home at night. Also I would go home at night on my bike because I live very close to the city centre, but I wouldn't recommend biking all the way through the suburbs or another town at night. Generally Leiden is very safe, but I would advise to take these little precautions to avoid an incident with the rare crazy individual that you can encounter anywhere around the world.

Posted: September 17, 2025
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It is very safe, I live here for a while and it’s truly peaceful and quiet! Occasionally I bike around the city, distance from my home and back, which is 2 km from the central station in Leiden, and it’s always the same, during the day, as well as during the night.

Posted: September 6, 2025
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Leiden feels very safe to me. It’s a small town and the ambience is good. I’ve never experienced ugly stuff here but therefore ik also not a person who goes out much. I am on the streets at midnight to walk sometimes and that’s always okey.

Posted: July 29, 2025
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Leiden is a very alive city with lots of families and different ages which make me feel safe. The police is in de City centre and always around without a feeling of chasing bad guys, just having a lookout. During the day and most of the night, there are enough people out and about to feel safe on the streets

Posted: July 8, 2025
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Rayanne

Rayanne

I moved to Leiden months ago and from my Latin American point of view this is paradise. It's not a big nor a small city, but if feels like both, there's nice places to see, nice things to do, everything is nearby and it's very very safe. I only feel insecure after dark because I'm still a woman, but I went home by bicycle after midnight a couple of times and it was absolutely fine. I heard rumors that sometimes people break into houses here but it's not common, so just keep doors and windows locked to make sure.

Posted: June 8, 2025
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Safety in Netherlands