Tour of Netherlands

Psychler

Hi all - planning a tour of the Netherlands in 2008. 40 miles per day, 5/6 days From Hook of Holland back to the Hook - can anybody help with routes, places to stay, things to see and do etc. Many thanks!

mmuk

I can lend you some maps, if you want to mail me. I've done Hoek - Arnheim where there are various war museums etc (and even hills!), - s'Hertogenbosch (den boss), a nice regional town, - Amsterdam, then down the NSR to Hoek. Like most countries, it all depends on what you want to see, if you like architecture, go to towns! going cross country can be interesting due to the number of dykes to cross.

Mike

ankev1

I would definitely put Utrecht on my list if I were you. The best thing you can do is buy a decent travel guide to the country and pick the places you like the look of. Don't worry about maps, just pick them up from the first garage you come to when you get there. If memory serves you can get the whole country on 3 or 4 sheets (poss 1: 100,000) and all bike paths are marked. Alternative is a little hard backed book of the whole country - bike paths again marked. Basically every main road other than motorways have bike paths at the side and everything else is cycleable. The main thing is to check out the wind direction at the time you travel.

Kobie

This site is in Dutch, but easy enough to figure out - it's a cycling route planner.

http://www.holland.com/fietsrouteplanner/

Unfortunately the maps they print out are not of the highest quality, but are good enough. The routes given tend to be along 'recommended' routes and are not necessarily the shortest way to get form A to B, but are usually very pretty.

Here's another site. Again in Dutch unfortunately, but easy enough to figure out. Plenty of user submitted routes, often with maps and GPS coordinates.

http://www.fietspad.nl/Fietsroutes/

Enjoy,
K.

P.S.
If you hadn't figured it out, Fiets = Bicycle

Unknown

When I toured there last year I made the mistake of buying a road map.
It didn't have the bike paths on it.

So it was fun to "follow" the bike route signs, got lost a few times in towns, but had a great time.

There are several long distance routes worth using, like the Zuider Zee route, as a start and then modifying them for your own tour.
I did most of the Zuider Zee route, but went over both the long dykes instead of doing the populated southern bit.
The books of the routes have very detailed maps, with camp site etc.

the only thing wrong with Holland is having to pedal... all the time.

I stayed with friends in a couple of places but there is always
the warmshowers site

enjoy

george

_________________________________
Trip
www.pedalpatagonia.co.uk

2 Bikes
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/imjibi/Bikes

bof

If you get ANWB regional maps (ANWB are the Dutch AA) - they have cycle routes shown and are highly accurate. Not sure if you can buy them here.

Visit tip - Hoge Veluwe National Park, especially the Kroller Muller museum. An art gallery with gigantic sculptures and many works by major 20st century artists in a country house only accessible by foot or bike.