It is located in the municipality of Bergen op Zoom, about 1 km north of that city.

A little village called Polder was located between Halsteren and Tholen in the Middle Ages.

The village was first mentioned in 1272 as Halstert, and means "bend in the highland with a tail".

[5] Halsteren was a separate municipality until 1997, when it became a part of Bergen op Zoom.

It disappeared in a flood in 1570 and most of the village is still buried underneath a metre of mud.