This spring the 25^th edition of the Holland Handbook has hit the book shops and since the first edition rolled off the presses in 2000, over 200,000 copies of what has become known as the “expat Bible” have been sold.

The book is bought by individuals as well as companies and universities with international employees, as a guide to starting life in the Netherlands. And recently, says publisher Bert van Essen, there has been a noticeable uptick in interest from Americans.

Need a weather app? Interested in the history of the Dutch royal family or want to understand road signs? Not sure about your rights to maternity leave or how to rent a house?  It’s all there on one of the 289 pages in the 2025 edition.

“At the turn of the century we were publishing a quarterly magazine for expats, called The XPat Journal, which had a loyal readership,” says publisher Bert van Essen. “But it soon became clear that there was also a need for a complete handbook that offered up-to-date, practical and comprehensible information.

“We also realised that a book that covers so many different topics would have a short shelf life, due to legislative changes and political and practical developments, so we decided to make it an annual, updated version.”

At that time, the internet was in its infancy, and it was hard to find information, let alone reliable information, about expat-related issues, says Bert. But despite the plethora of websites and online organisations now available, the book has remained in demand.

Over the years, expat relocation packages have been slashed and more companies are leaving it up to new arrivals themselves to arrange housing, insurance, education for their children. Though much of the information can be found online, Bert says it can be hard to see the forest for the trees.

“For a while, we had an app-version, offering the same information, but our readers clearly preferred having the physical book to browse through and earmark,” say editor Stephanie Dijkstra. “We use some of the content for our website www.xpat.nl, as we know that especially younger expats really only search online.”

And for the future? Is there likely to be another 25 editions? “With the arrival of AI and the disappearance of printed media, we don’t expect to be publishing 25 more issues,” he says.  “We are realistic enough to be aware of what is ahead of us. But we do see a market for this book for a while yet. After all, we’ve made a name for ourselves.”