Holland / Netherlands

Alternatively, you could use this one, along another river (Afgedamde Maas) with a couple more small dike-villages (but you'll be missing out on the small bike path from Werkendam to Hank along the edge of the Biesbosch national park):

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My write up just above has a route which does essentially what you're proposing but in reverse, I noted down some good stops (all vegan/bike friendly) at the bottom too.

We had a great time so I'm sure you will too!

Thank you - this is really kind - adding the first one to our route!

Looks awesome - 2x veggie so taking note

Ah, nice. Have fun!

The Limburg and Brabant areas are more rural, but full of small villages with nice food, cycle lanes, nature reservations for bird watching and lots of war graves / musea if anybody on here feels like they want to visit a less touristy area.

The war museum in Overloo, Brabant is really good if you are into war history. Maastricht is lovely, Limburg is known for good food. Lots of small pretty towns and forests.

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Due to a last-minute change of plans my partner and I are now hiring some "trekking" bikes from Antwerp and have 6 days to do a loop of cycling and camping back to Antwerp.

After looking at the LF and Eurovelo routes I have plotted this route following these around the south of the Netherlands (LF13 > Coastal Route > Eurovelo 15 > LF2)

I would however love some feedback on whether there is anything obvious we are missing or on the other hand if there are any corners worth cutting out.

We are looking to take it quite leisurely and do 60-70km a day.

Route: https://www.komoot.com/tour/901072712

Thanks in advance

I'm doing a circuitous route from Hackney to Amsterdam in a few weeks, itinerary looks something like this:

Clapton to Harwich
Hook to Rotterdam (not really much of a 'ride', I know)
Rotterdam to Alkmaar
Alkmaar to Zwolle
Zwolle to Utrecht
Utrecht to Amsterdam
Amsterdam to Hook

Aiming to do it in about 5 days. We were gonna go the whole hog and camp but tbh I CBA taking a tent so hostels or AirBnbs it is.

Has anyone got any tips on things to see/places to stay etc?

Also, someone, I think it was @hippy recommended a bikepacking toiletries set on one of the threads. I can't find it anywhere, does anyone remember what it was?

Also when I say 'things to see' I don't really mean in Amsterdam, I've been there for more stag dos than I care to remember.

It wasn't me but I commented on it. I can probably find it..

https://www.lfgss.com/comments/16603521/

https://www.weirdosonbikes.com/product/travel-stay-fresh-bundle/

That's the one, cheers!

Stayed for a week in Zeeland in the past month in a Landal just north of Zirkzee. Was a very fun holiday, and very beautiful. Not going to bang on about the elevation but I will say my back hurt a bit from not gettting out of the saddle at all.

Zeeland was mad pretty but a lot more agricultural than I thought, and hardly any trees. Lots of little bun runs and shenanigans on a rented ecargo but did bring the fixie for an actual ride or two. Did a areat loop though, we started in Schouwen-Duivland and went south through Zirkzee and across the Zeeland Bridge to Noord-Beveland which was fun as we had a tailwind. Good fields around here but felt really remote. I fucked up at this bit as we should have ridden across the N256 but I thought I saw a tiny bridge in the middle - this turned out to be ferry so we had to stop for a coffee and a sandwich to wait for the hourly boat. Was actually really lovely as I'm usually a no-faff kind of guy. Then east to Middelburg which was a cool city, smaller and cleaner than I thought it would be. Stopped for fried fish on a bridge in the heat. North of Middelburg we linked into some serious cycling infrastructure, there were like a jillion e-cycle tourists on this section north, was pretty mad. Is this like a known spot to come and bike around? Anyway we got to the Oosterscheldekering which was an amazing piece of engineering. Had a northerly wind on the return leg though so it was pretty fucking brutal over the bridge and for the next 25 miles. Hugely satisfying though to work against it, especially for spinning so easily on the way out.

Oh yeah one of sat in the ecargo while the other pedalled to Brouwershaven to a sports bar to watch some premier league. We got a lot of stares rolling in but was fun as hell to ecargo back drunk at night on the segregated infra.

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Forgot to come back and say thanks your suggestions! We ended up doing this first one and it was one of the best sections we did.

A few things we learnt that I hadn't seen confirmed online before were...
-You need euro coins for small local ferries across rivers, and it pays to check when the last sailing is! But they are a really good way to break up rides. I think we used at least one a day for a week
-Maybe because it was summer and busy, but we found it best to get up each morning and book the next evenings campsite (normally sent them an email). Some of the best ones I'd really recommend are this small family run one near Bokhoven and this one inside the actual Veluwe park.

Would really recommend for a gentle tour! I think next year we will do similar but cross into Germany.

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Planning a trip where we ferry to hoek, train it to Utrecht, do a little loop as shown below (probably try and pad the bit from Apeldoorn to Arnhem to add some miles), then go from Utrecht to Dordrecht, then back to Hoek, but haven't got any real ideas for the routing.

Actually the stayokay at dordrecht is booked out so I'll rephrase, has anyone got any good locations between Utrecht and hook van holland?

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We did sort of two ways (see post up thread) this summer gone. The Biesbosch park Dordrecht way was definitely the better riding - which doesn’t help for your hotel problem!

We did do Utrecht to hook via den Haag and the sand dunes in one day on way back to ferry. It was still really nice - but serious head wind around the coastal bit. Can share route if you’re interested.

TY I will check upthread

Planning my next Holland tour, our first night is in Apeldorn. If you were arriving in Hook of Holland in the morning and needed to get to Apeldorn by evening, and looking at something like a 100km cycling per day, how would you get there? Hoping to use some of Holland's famous public transport infrastructure. Thought maybe cycle to Delft (I like delft), then a train?

Train and ride I'd have thought. Train to Utrecht and ride 70km? Depends what you want to see/do.

I've taken the Eurostar over and gone via Roosendaal and then further train to Utrecht and then ridden to the start of Race Around the Netherlands. Toured through Apeldorn from Amsterdam too but that was almost 20 years ago.

I have an old The Netherlands Lonely Planet here still if anyone wants it.

Hoping to use some of Holland's famous public transport infrastructure.

Be aware you're only allowed to take a bike on the trains on weekdays during off-peak hours (that is between 9.00 – 16.00 & 18.30 – 06.30). During the weekend, holidays, and the months of July and August this doesn't apply.

Hope you have fun!

Thanks for the input all. Think we'll cycle to Den Haag then take the train to Amersfoot. Hopefully by getting a bit further out we can ride through a bit more of the Green bits to the north west of Apeldoorn.

Approx route attached, mostly done by trying to go through as many Komoot highlights as possible whilst hitting the stayokays we managed to book. Apeldoorn, Arnhem, Utrecht and Den Haag.

Excited to return! Hope the weather is as good as last year...

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Weather wasn't as good but it was still good.

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more

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