Vaals

  • Print

Vaals is a town in the extreme southeastern part of the Dutch province of Limburg, which in its turn finds itself in the southeastern part of the Netherlands.

The municipality covers an area of 23.90 km² in the foothills of the Ardennes–Eifelrange and is located about 23 km east of Maastricht and 5 km west of the city centre of Aachen.

Map of Vaals
It borders on both Belgium and Germany. The three borders meet on the Drielandenpunt, a few meters from the highest point of the Netherlands, the Vaalserberg. The Vaalserberg used to be called "Hubertusberg".

The village of Vaals can be interpreted as a Dutch suburb to the German city of Aachen. A quarter of the inhabitants are German and the village is well embedded in the Aachen local transport system.

The dialect of Vaals is a part of the Middle German Dialects and is the form of Dutch most deviant from Standard Dutch. Together with the dialect of Cologne, it is a part of the Ripuarian language family. It sounds more German than Dutch, partially explained because German has been the shared cultural language of the municipality for centuries, and in some ways, it still is.

Tourism is regarded as the main source of income for Vaals. The neighbouring coal industry and textile industry were to a large extent lost starting from the 1960s. Most inhabitants commute today to the larger neighbouring cities of Heerlen, Kerkrade and Maastricht as well as to Aachen and surroundings. A sixth of the population is classified as poor in the current national poverty monitor of the Netherlands.

Hotels in Vaals

Print