Touring Holland - advice needed

Bensadventures

Hey guys,

Due to a budget year I am heading to Holland this summer (July) for eight days of awesome touring. I'm hoping to see as much as possible. I have a rough plan of where I would like to visit. I still need a few ideas of what's essential to see whilst in Holland. Any ideas? Good places to visit? Friendly campsites?

My question for today - has anyone biked across Afsluitdijk (North Holland)? Was it worth it? Is there a charge for crossing?

Cheers,

Ben

ridgerider

I've driven across it a few times, no charge the last time.

Try to get to the Kroller-Muller (sp?) Museum near Utrecht, fantastic art gallery in a wonderful car free park.

FJS

I'm from Holland, and there's loads of things to advice, but it depends a bit on your interests and riding.

Afsluitdijk is free, it's an interesting experience, riding surrounded by water, but can get a bit boring too. You also ride just next to the motorway. There's a bike path all the way (of course, almost every road has a bike path/lane). It's a bit less than 20 miles, best to do it with tail wind .

Many great cities and towns, too many to list without knowing the area you want to visit.
Veluwe (where Kroller-Moller museum/sculpture park is) is good for cycling, as are Friesland and Drenthe in the North, Betuwe in the centre (region between the big rivers of Meuse and Rhine) and Zeeland and Limburg in the South (easy to hop across the border to Belgium).

Amsterdam is essential, something for everyone, but Utrecht, Groningen, Nijmegen, Maastricht, Bergen op Zoom, Den Bosch, Middelburg, Kampen, Zwolle, Alkmaar are interesting cities too. Rotterdam is best if you like modern architecture and modern art.

Probably best to avoid the regions of Almere, Lelystad, and Emmeloord - massive areas of reclaimed land, an all pretty boring flat straight-lined, planned farmland, think Kansas.

In July campsites close to the coast (or Amsterdam) will probably be very busy.

Bensadventures

Thanks for your comments, much appreciated

After your comments I have put together a rough route which should provide a great experience of what Holland has to offer:

Day 1 - arrive Hook of Holland, bike to Rotterdam
Day 2 - Bike through Gouda (grab some cheese!) and then onto Arnhem
Day 3 - spend the morning in Arnhem, visit the WW2 sites and then bike north towards Groningen
Day 4 - Start heading south across the Afsluitdijk
Day 5 & 6 - Bike to Amsterdam and stay for a 2 days
Day 7 & 8 - Continue heading south towards Hook of Holland
Day 9 - return to UK

I think this might be a good route.

Please feel free to comment. I have checked the millage and it is achievable whilst enjoying the sights.

jc4lab

Been twice..Once the Bulbfields linked to visit to Amsderdam for Queens Day but also Hull to Rotterdam ferry From there up to Amsterdam ,follwed by the famous towns that take you up to Friesland then simply the coastal road back to Rotterdam .....The large famous Dyke you see on the map which links Frieseland to Den Hagg is heaven if the wind is behind you(north to South is was at the time ) but worse than hills if it aint....

rolf_f

Haarlem, Delft, Leiden, Den Haag - lovely little cities and all within a stones throw of each other. Can't visit Holland without visiting at least a couple of these.

I'd like to visit Kinderdijk - the only place left where you can see a large number of windmills together.

Don't bother bringing any gears with you

FJS

Roughly, the most densely populated part of the country is the West, roughly the area of Amsterdam-Haarlem-Leiden-Den Haag-Rotterdam-Dordrecht - which contains some lovely cities, but also is very densely built-up, so cycling's not as nice as outside this area.

I'm not sure of your distance targets, but in general scenery does not come easy in the Netherlands (like say a main road through the Alps or Scotland can still be scenic), you have to get on the the small roads, which will obviously add to distance, to enjoy the scenery. Arnhem-Groningen for instance can easily be a very, very long day (but then, maybe that's what you're looking for). Roads along rivers on dikes are often good. There's a signed network of cycling routes covering the whole country in a dense network, all routes interconnecting and numbered so you only have to remember numbers on intersections: http://www.fietsersbond.net/fietsroutep ... veplanner/ Apart from number-signs there are often maps on key intersections too.