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Arnhem entered global memory in September 1944, when Allied paratroopers landed around the city in Operation Market Garden and fought one of the Second World War's most desperate and celebrated battles for control of the Rhine crossing. Cornelius Ryan's book 'A Bridge Too Far,' about the operation's failure, immortalised the city's name and the John Frost Bridge over the Rhine, named after the commander who held its northern end for four days against overwhelming German forces. The bridge, rebuilt after the war, still carries traffic through the city, and the Airborne Museum Hartenstein in nearby Oosterbeek tells the story in remarkable detail from a villa that served as British headquarters during the fighting.

Arnhem is also the home of the Openluchtmuseum, the Netherlands' Open Air Museum, which has reassembled historic Dutch buildings, windmills, farmhouses, and workshops from across the country on a large wooded estate north of the city.

It is one of the best places to understand the texture of Dutch life across four centuries, presented without condescension. The city itself sits in the Veluwe, a large area of heathland, forest, and sand dunes that makes up the largest national park in the Netherlands, and cycling through the Sonsbeek Park or into the Veluwezoom woodland on the city's eastern edge is a pleasure in almost any season.