What would you suggest for 5 days riding and camping in or around the Netherlands? Roughly 150 miles.
First thought is Bruges to Amsterdam on the EV12 route along the coast but does it get a bit samey? We will quickly get bored if it's 100% sand dunes.
Either a ride with a train link back to the start or a loop route is perfect.
What should we see? What should we avoid?
Any insight appreciated, cheers
Pic from last year's trip Angers to Saint Brevin
by Murky_Worldliness_33
5 Comments
You may want to consider The Green Divide. 300km. through the heart of the country, mostly flat and mostly nature.
As a Dutch fellow cyclist, I can advise you the route:
Arnhem – Zutphen – Deventer- Raalte – Ommen – Hoogeveen – Beilen – Assen – Groningen,
Or from Ommen to Hoogeveen, Emmen, and upwards to Groningen .
If you plan your routes using [this routeplannee](https://routeplanner.fietsersbond.nl) and select the “knooppunten” (cycle by numbered nodes) you end up with beautiful routes.
Using the numbered system, your kids can help finding the next number.
Also you can search for [natuurkampeerterreinen](https://natuurkampeerterreinen.nl/?lang=en) for nice camping sites in nature.
I’m using openstreetmap maps, using OSMand on my phone and can both see the numbered “knooppunten”, campsites and search for supermarkets.
The coastal route is beautiful and I didn’t find it boring, but i can imagine some will. The scenery is really nice tho and the roads are definitely fun to ride.
Another option could be cycling along the Ijsel or Maas. The latter I also really nice, but can have tiny hill here and there.
You should check out “LF routes” its a Dutch website with long distance (relative to the country size) route in the netherlands.
Did the EV 12 from Rotterdam to Bruges last week. First thing to note, is that your direction is WAY less windy. We did ~8 km/h on the Brouwersdam just due to the enourmous wind.
The coastal path is really beautiful, and when you pass Hook of Holland you can make little deviations to The Hague, Delft or Haarlem, all really beautifull city’s. In Zeeland there is a nice mix of dedicated cycling paths through dunes and dykes.
Going to do the green divide this weekend, but that is mainly a more off-road route, and I think the EV12 is more typical Dutch. Loved it.
The Delta works in Zeeland are very cool. You can combine them with Veere and Middelburg.