The Dutch hotel at the heart of Netflix’s ‘Toos: The Van der Valk Kidnapping’

On 26 November 2026, Netflix will release ‘Toos: The Van der Valk Kidnapping’, a series inspired by the abduction of Toos van der Valk, who ran the largest hotel empire in the Netherlands with her husband Gerrit. The date is no coincidence: it falls 44 years to the day after the kidnapping. And part of the story plays out in one of the family’s hotels, in Nuland, where you can still spend the night.

☰Contents

1. 26 November, 44 years to the day
2. Who was Toos van der Valk?
3. Hotel Nuland, the family’s refuge in 1982
4. Gerrit’s, Bar 1862 and High Tea by Toos
5. Suites with a private sauna
6. A dynasty born in Voorschoten in 1862
7. Why a toucan and not a falcon?

26 November, 44 years to the day

On 13 October, Netflix unveiled the first images of the series and set its worldwide release date. Lies Visschedijk plays Toos van der Valk, with Frank Lammers as her husband Gerrit. Around them, Juda Goslinga plays Inspector Cor Mulder, Gijs Blom plays Joep van den Nieuwenhuijzen, and Joy Verberk and Richelle Plantinga play Marijke and Carlita van der Valk.

The series is written by Maaik Krijgsman and Carl Joos, directed by Inti Calfat and Dirk Verheye, and produced by the company Submarine. For Lies Visschedijk, what stands out about Toos is her resilience and dignity in terrifying circumstances; hence, she says, a deep responsibility to tell her story with care and respect.

Who was Toos van der Valk?

According to Netflix’s synopsis, Toos has it all: wealth, prestige, a close-knit family and the unconditional love of Gerrit, with whom she runs the largest hotel empire in the Netherlands. On 26 November 1982, she becomes the victim of one of the most notorious kidnappings in the country’s history.

Twenty days of ordeal follow. The whole country follows the case, the press scrutinises every detail, the government fears setting a precedent if the family pays the ransom, and the kidnappers’ demands grow more impossible by the day. The van der Valk family puts it soberly in the press release: even after all these years, the kidnapping remains a very sensitive chapter in their lives.

Hotel Nuland, the family’s refuge in 1982

While Gerrit and the children search desperately for Toos, Inspector Cor Mulder moves into the Nuland hotel, where the family is staying during the crisis. Undercover, he poses as ‘nephew Cor’, trying to track down the kidnappers and hold together a family buckling under the pressure. Netflix has not said where the series was filmed: this is the hotel of the story, not necessarily the one used on set.

Today, the Van der Valk Hotel Nuland lies a few minutes from ‘s-Hertogenbosch (Den Bosch to locals), the capital of North Brabant in the south of the Netherlands. The hotel has 120 rooms and suites, meeting rooms and a function hall where you can get married.

Gerrit’s, Bar 1862 and High Tea by Toos

The couple’s first names even appear on the menu. The restaurant is called Gerrit’s, and in the afternoon it serves a ‘High Tea by Toos’, with tiers of small cakes, scones, cream and jam, finger sandwiches and warm bites. The grand café offers à la carte dining and buffets with live cooking, Sunday brunch is a house tradition, and Bar 1862 opens from Thursday to Sunday evening.

Suites with a private sauna

Comfort rooms in the annexe measure 50 m², Deluxe rooms 43 m². Each wellness suite has its own features: private sauna, double rain shower, separate bathtub or whirlpool bath depending on the suite, with up to 70 m² in the Suite Cerise and Suite Rubis. For the night of the series release, 26 November, the cheapest room was listed at €141 for two, without breakfast.

A dynasty born in Voorschoten in 1862

The group traces its origins to 1862, when Nicolaas van der Valk bought the De Gouden Leeuw farm inn in Voorschoten, between The Hague and Leiden. Martinus van der Valk, the youngest of 24 children, and his wife Riet created the first rooms above the café, then raised 12 children: Martinus wanted a business for each of them. In the 1980s and 1990s, two of his sons came to the fore: Arie on the finance side, Gerrit as the entrepreneur and public face of the group.

The birthplace no longer takes guests: the De Gouden Leeuw hotel has been closed since July 2021 for a complete rebuild; the site keeps its restaurants, wellness area and market. The family, meanwhile, keeps opening new addresses, such as the Van der Valk Exclusief Maastricht-Maas on the banks of the Meuse or the Valk Exclusief in Woerden.

Why a toucan and not a falcon?

Van der Valk means ‘of the falcon’, yet it is a toucan that sits on the rooftops. The group adopted it after buying the Avifauna bird park: in the aftermath of the war, a bird of prey was too reminiscent of Nazi symbolism. A toucan, Gerrit van der Valk used to say, is a big, cheerful and sociable tropical bird that suits the family better. Today, the bird marks nearly a hundred hotels in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, France, Spain and the Dutch Caribbean. And for more series locations, see where Netflix’s ‘El problema final’ was filmed.