When it comes to all the reasons you can have for coming to visit the Netherlands, visiting coffeeshops is certainly one of the popular ones. Especially if you come from a country where marijuana use is very taboo, the option to walk into a shop and sit down and order some off a menu, it can be very fun.

So of course tourists from around the world partake in this tradition. This includes tourists who arrive via neighboring countries (Germany, Belgium). Many choose cities on the border as their destination of choice, where they briefly visit coffeeshops, and then head back East or South.

However two particular border cities have just carried out a major change that will effect these tourists - they have closed all coffeeshops. Bergen op Zoom and Rosendaal, both southern Border cities that have long been the destination for tourists looking for coffeeshops, decided last year to radically change their policies.

The good news if you're used to going to either of these towns for this reason, you can still head to any other Dutch city to enjoy a coffeeshop. Among them, nearby Breda is a lovely city where city officials have reassured the public that they will not be following in the footsteps of Rosendaal or Bergen op Zoom.