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Baarle Post Office: Belgium, the Netherlands and a Border That Couldn’t Make Up Its Mind

  • Date of visit: July 9, 2026
  • Post offices visited: Baarle-Nassau Post Point (the Netherlands), Baarle-Hertog Post Office (Belgium)
  • Cost of sending a postcard: Belgium Post: €2.95 to Europe, €3.17 to the rest of the world Netherlands Post: €2.11 worldwide;
  • Delivery time to Germany: from Belgium: 5 days; from the Netherlands: 8 days

In July this year, we were driving home to Estonia from England after our unexpected British post box hunt when we realised that a small detour would take us to one of the strangest towns in Europe: Baarle-Nassau/Baarle-Hertog, right on the Dutch-Belgian border.

At first glance, there was nothing particularly unusual about the landscape or the town. Our car, however, started behaving strangely. Whenever we cross a national border, it announces that we have entered a new country.

Baarle on Google Maps – and suddenly our confused car makes perfect sense.

“Welcome to the Netherlands,” our car announced in its usual monotonous voice.

And almost immediately afterwards:

“Welcome to Belgium.”

The closer we got to the centre of town, the more often it changed its mind. The Netherlands. Belgium. The Netherlands again. Soon the announcements were coming so frequently that the radio barely had time to play any music in between.

Occasionally we spotted white crosses painted on the road marking the border, but otherwise absolutely nothing seemed to change when we entered another country.

We drove right into the centre and started trying to work out where to park. This was our first practical lesson in Baarle geography: it was better to park in the Netherlands, where parking was completely free. On the Belgian side, only the first two hours were free.

For once, our first stop wasn’t a post office. It was the tourist information centre.

Baarle Tourist Information – one information centre for two Baarles.

There we met Ad Tuljetelaars, who was clearly used to visitors arriving with questions about this geographical puzzle. Even his business card had two flags and two town names on it.

At least the tourist information office was one thing the two Baarles could share.

Baarle has 30 enclaves – 22 Belgian and 8 Dutch – almost half of the 63 enclaves that still exist worldwide.

So how on earth did Baarle end up like this?

Ad explaining Baarle’s geography – and checking whether I was still following.

Ad explained that it all goes back to 1198. At the time, there was a conflict between the Count of Holland and Duke Hendrik I of Brabant over Breda. Godfried II van Schoten, Lord of Breda, sided with the Duke, and the resulting division of land laid the foundations for today’s extraordinary patchwork.

Over the following eight centuries came wars, inheritance, changing borders and eventually Belgian independence, but somehow the patchwork survived. Ad explained it all with great enthusiasm, regularly checking whether I was still following. I was. Mostly. Somewhere between the Count of Holland, the Duke of Brabant, the Lord of Breda and several centuries of European history, his explanation began to sound a little like our car: the Netherlands, Belgium, the Netherlands…

I read more about it afterwards, but if you’d like the full story, Visit Baarle explains the history in more detail. And if that’s still not enough, the local historical society goes deeper still.

More than eight centuries after it all began, we were standing in the result.

Ad’s lively explanation was certainly more entertaining, but the tourist information centre also tells Baarle’s complicated history in pictures and text.

Ad then moved on to present-day Baarle.

The border doesn’t just cross streets and gardens here. It runs straight through some houses. Which country a house – or a shop – belongs to is determined by where its front door is.

During Covid, this geographical absurdity suddenly became rather less amusing. Ad told us about a shop where the border ran straight through the premises. When crossing the border was restricted, the owner had to tape off the part of the shop that was technically in the other country.

“Wait,” I interrupted. “If you live quite literally on the border, which country is actually better to live in?”

Apparently, there is no simple answer to that either. Ad explained that one side may be more advantageous for young families, while taxes for working people differ, as do the pension systems. It all depends on who you are and what stage of life you’re in.

Right. But what about the post offices?

That part we decided to investigate ourselves.

Our first postal stop was on the Dutch side: a PostNL point inside a bookshop. This wasn’t a grand post office with counters and rows of post boxes – postal services were simply one counter of the shop. On weekdays it was open from 9 am to 6 pm, and at weekends until 5 pm.

The best selection of Baarle postcards was actually at the tourist information centre, though the bookshop had a few as well. With postcards already in hand, we wrote them, added the Dutch stamps and got them ready to send. Postage was €2.11 worldwide.

Much to our delight, they had no problem with us using the date stamp ourselves to cancel the stamps on our postcards. Once everything was stamped, we simply left the cards there to begin their journey.

Two countries, two post boxes: the Dutch one inside the bookshop, the Belgian one outside the post office.

Half an hour later, it was time for postal experiment number two. The Belgian post office was only a five-minute walk away, across another almost invisible border. We had left this one until later because that day it didn’t open until 2.30 pm. Its opening hours were considerably more limited: weekdays only, either in the morning or afternoon depending on the day, and closed at weekends.

It felt much more like a traditional post office – and the rules were different too.

The Belgian postcards before posting. No photos were allowed inside, so unfortunately I couldn’t photograph the Belgian date cancellation.

There were no postcards for sale, and postage was more expensive: €2.95 to Europe and €3.17 to the rest of the world. No stamping our own cards this time. The postal worker quickly applied a clear hand cancellation to each one herself, leaving us in no doubt that our postcards were in safe hands.

Back at the tourist information centre, we had also picked up a map with a walking route connecting some of Baarle’s more interesting sights.

Once we had followed it, we felt we had pretty much explored the town.

Before leaving, we needed fuel. Parking had been cheaper in the Netherlands, but this time Belgium won – fuel was cheaper there, so naturally, that was where we filled up.

Leaving Baarle sounded remarkably similar to arriving.

“Welcome to Belgium,” announced the familiar monotonous voice from the car.

“Welcome to the Netherlands.”

Belgium. Netherlands. Belgium...

Eventually it settled on the Netherlands, and we continued towards Estonia.

And if you still haven’t had enough of enclaves, this signpost in the middle of Baarle offers a few more directions. Seven of the world’s eight counter-enclaves are here in Baarle. The only one elsewhere is Nahwa – a small piece of the United Arab Emirates inside Madha, an Omani enclave that is itself surrounded by the UAE. We visited Nahwa in 2025, but with no post office there, our postal stop was in Madha. But that’s another post office story.

That’s all for this time. My next-trip postcard lottery is still open – until September 4 has arrived everywhere in the world.

Until we meet again at the next post office.

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