Seeb | Zeeuws-Vlaanderen surprised me: human, creative, and full of opportunities!
“From ‘where is Hulst?’ to ‘we’re never leaving here again.’ From Zwolle, via Bergen op Zoom to Hulst. Seeb takes you along on their journey!”
If you had told me nine years ago that I would buy a house in Zeeuws-Vlaanderen in 2024, I probably would have laughed in your face.
Hulst? Where even is that? But here we are. It’s 2026, I’ve now lived in this beautiful city for two years, we’ve completely renovated a house here, and in the meantime, our son was born. Apparently, I just needed to be slowly lured toward Zeeland.
I was born and raised a true, proud Blauwvinger “Zwollenaar” and enjoyed that beautiful city for 25 years. Zwolle was home. Family, friends, work: everything was there. Zeeland, to me, was mostly something way over to the left on the map. Until I met my girlfriend in 2018. She’s from Hulst, and when we moved in together in Utrecht, that unknowingly started my slow journey toward Zeeuws-Vlaanderen. Every few weeks, we’d drive to Hulst to visit her family. My first thought when I got here? Is this a village? Luckily, my second and third thoughts followed quickly: cozy and friendly.
The more often we came to Hulst, the more I started to like Zeeuws-Vlaanderen. The old city center, the little streets, the terraces, and especially the fact that people here actually know each other. Slowly, it even started to remind me a bit of Zwolle. A kind of mini-Zwolle. As a Zwollenaar, I took that as a huge compliment. But actually living here? Hold on. That was still a step too far for me.
After two wonderful years in Utrecht, we moved to Bergen op Zoom during the corona period. At the time, that was a good compromise for me: a lot closer to Zeeland, but technically just not quite Zeeland yet. A safe distance, in other words. We lived in Bergen op Zoom for four great years. By then, we’d been together for six years and started thinking more and more about the future. We wanted to start a family, so the question arose: where do we actually want to live?
So, off we went, house hunting in Bergen op Zoom. But it just didn’t feel right. We quickly realized that, outside of our life together, we didn’t have much there. Family on both sides lived at least an hour’s drive away. An hour doesn’t sound so bad… until you think about having a baby and suddenly realize how nice it is to have a grandparent living nearby.
And so Hulst came back into the picture. Yes. That place I’d thought, just a few years earlier: nice for a weekend.
In 2024, we started our house hunt. We viewed a few houses, but it was never quite right. Until, after about two months, we found a house in the Vogelbuurt. And of course, before the viewing, we took a walk through the neighborhood. Pure research. Okay, and a little bit of peeking inside. But come on, who doesn’t do that? The house was on a beautiful little square, next to a playground. A spacious semi-detached house with a nice garden. It was empty, so luckily we could go see it quickly. There was just one small detail. Nothing had been done to it for about fifty years. But hey, I’m a designer. We just call that a lot of creative freedom.
We were able to see past it, and six weeks later we had the keys. From that moment, we got right to work. Demolishing, renovating, making choices, more demolishing, and sometimes wondering what we’d gotten ourselves into. In the end, we really made it our own little gem. And to be honest: that’s also one of the big advantages of living here. The houses are still somewhat affordable. We could buy a spacious home and still had the opportunity to renovate it completely to our own taste.
“Especially in the areas of culture, creativity, and entrepreneurship, there is much more potential in Zeeland and Zeeuws-Vlaanderen than I expected beforehand.”
During the renovation, we discovered we’d gotten something for free. Our neighbors. We got to know the people in the square incredibly quickly. First a chat here, a helping hand there, and before you know it, it sometimes feels like you’ve landed in a Dutch version of a cozy sitcom. For example, when there was a solar eclipse, we suddenly found ourselves outside with the neighbors because one neighbor happened to have three eclipse glasses. Why does someone have three eclipse glasses? No idea. But at a moment like that, you’re very happy about it.
When the bins are emptied, our neighbor often puts ours back on the driveway. Another neighbor likes to help in the garden and will gladly mow the lawn. Got a dead battery? Someone will be next to your car with jumper cables in no time. Organize a yard sale, and everyone stops by. And now it’s not just the adults. The neighbor’s son loves to come play at our place and regularly pops in. Even our cats are fully settled in and have discovered that there are far more hands in the square to cuddle with than just ours. I think they now see the whole neighborhood as their territory. And during the renovation, it turned out you can even get a neighbor to help you work all day in exchange for a nice dinner.
These might all be small things, but it’s exactly those things that made Hulst feel more and more like home. And the longer we live here, the more I see the benefits.
Everything is close by. There’s something to do almost every weekend. You can walk or bike into town in no time. Our son goes to daycare two streets away and – brace yourself, people from the Randstad – we didn’t have to get on a waiting list three years in advance.
His grandma lives nearby. There’s a playground next to our house. The neighbors know him. And when he gets a bit older, he’ll be able to grow up playing outside here. It just feels human here.
I also started to see Zeeuws-Vlaanderen differently for my work. As a freelance designer (thevisualthinker.nl) I initially thought I’d have to look outside the region for creative opportunities. Because, well… Zeeland. What happens here anyway? Well, quite a lot actually. There are 
a lot of interesting companies, organizations, and cultural initiatives here. Especially in the areas of culture, creativity, and entrepreneurship, there is much more potential in Zeeland and Zeeuws-Vlaanderen than I expected beforehand. And maybe that goes for the whole region.
For many outsiders, Zeeland still feels far away. Very far away. You quickly hear words like peace, aging, and “nothing ever happens there, right?” I’m allowed to say that, because that’s how I used to see it too. But now you see more and more people coming back or moving this way. For the space, the peace, affordable living, and the coziness. But I think mainly because there’s still something here that’s becoming harder to find elsewhere: people who look out for each other.
Zeeuws-Vlaanderen feels human, loving, and caring to me. Okay, there are some pretty reserved Zeelanders here and there. But I’ve learned: you just have to give them some time. Apparently, that’s how it works here. Actually, just like with me and Hulst.
Because without my girlfriend, I probably never would have ended up here. First I came along for family visits. Then we moved a bit closer to Zeeland. Then even closer. And before I knew it, I had a fixer-upper and was standing with my neighbors watching a solar eclipse through three shared glasses.
And now? Now our son was born here. His grandma lives nearby. We know our neighbors. We’ve built our own place and Hulst no longer feels like just the city my girlfriend is from. It’s home.
I came to Hulst for love. But secretly, I also fell in love with the city, the people, and the region. And believe me: if you’d told me that nine years ago, I still would have laughed in your face.
My tip? The Koning van Engeland in Hulst! A small, cozy cinema with a big heart for film. From film festivals to Art Week: there’s a surprising amount organized. Add to that the great sound, the comfy seats, and the friendly atmosphere, and for me, you have the perfect spot for a movie night. Truly a gem that fits Hulst perfectly.