Renting near Tilburg: Breda, 's-Hertogenbosch and Eindhoven compared

• Train · 13–19 minBreda to Tilburgdirect · 6× per hour
• Bike · 109 minBreda to Tilburg24 km
• Car · 29 minBreda to Tilburg29 km

Breda keeps a castle, moats, a beguinage and Valkenberg park around its centre, whereas Tilburg lost much of its older fabric to demolition. Around the core lie former villages such as Ginneken and Princenhage, now part of the city, and outer areas like Prinsenbeek, Bavel, Ulvenhout and Teteringen, which give the city a looser, village-like fringe. Students gather around Avans, the other applied-sciences schools and the military academy, which gives the centre a young but compact feel.

• Train · 14–16 min's-Hertogenbosch to Tilburgdirect · 4× per hour
• Bike · 99 min's-Hertogenbosch to Tilburg23 km
• Car · 29 min's-Hertogenbosch to Tilburg25 km

Tilburg's housing is spread over big modern districts such as Reeshof and Tilburg-Noord. Den Bosch instead centres on a compact fortified old town of warehouses and merchants' houses along the Binnendieze, with the modern Paleiskwartier, the spherical houses of Maaspoort and separate village cores like Rosmalen, Engelen and Empel. The offer runs from old-town flats to streets on the village edges.

• Train · 21–29 minEindhoven Centraal to Tilburgdirect · 4× per hour
• Car · 36 minEindhoven Centraal to Tilburg37 km

Eindhoven is divided into seven districts, and the historic centre is by far the smallest. Woensel, the largest, grew through big developments, Meerhoven rose on the former airport grounds and Strijp-S turned a Philips factory complex into a mix of culture and homes. Rebuilding after the war was largely high-rise, so the look is more planned and modern than Tilburg's mix of textile-era streets and redevelopment zones, and the large student population tends to shape the rental scene near the university and centre.