Where to live near Hengelo: Enschede, Almelo and Deventer compared

• Train · 7–10 minEnschede to Hengelodirect · 6× per hour
• Bike · 39 minEnschede to Hengelo9 km
• Car · 13 minEnschede to Hengelo8 km

Hengelo has a rebuilt postwar centre, modernist districts such as Klein Driene and a company garden village. Enschede answers with former textile mills turned into housing and museums, the redeveloped Roombeek quarter and a traffic-free centre. Residential neighbourhoods such as Pathmos, Twekkelerveld, Hogeland and Bolhaar fill out the rest, and the student population makes rooms and studios a bigger part of the market, especially toward the campus.

• Train · 10–14 minAlmelo to Hengelodirect · 6× per hour
• Bike · 73 minAlmelo to Hengelo16 km
• Car · 21 minAlmelo to Hengelo19 km

Almelo's stock tells a different story from Hengelo's modernist rebuilding and company garden village: converted mill buildings with apartments in the centre, ordinary residential districts around it, and outlying villages such as Aadorp, Mariaparochie and Bornerbroek within the municipality. The local football club, a cycling race and the Tweants dialect add to a small-town identity, and the hospital, regional court and industry provide steady local work.

• Train · 33–55 minDeventer to Hengelodirect · 3× per hour
• Car · 46 minDeventer to Hengelo51 km

Deventer's centre is medieval, with the Brink, the Bergkwartier around the Bergkerk and the Proosdij, one of the country's oldest stone houses, whereas Hengelo was largely rebuilt in modernist style after wartime bombing and keeps a company garden village from the early twentieth century. Beyond the centre, Deventer spreads into districts such as Colmschate, which has its own station, with the river and its flood works close at hand. It tends to appeal to renters who want old streets and festivals such as the Dickens Festival over modernist planning.