groovestew

I'll be going to Amsterdam in mid-June for work, but I will have three days between engagements to do...something. I had originally planned to take 4 or 5 days and ride to Bruges, Belgium and back, but my schedule got cut due to an additional work engagement, and Bruges and back is too far for 3 days.

Any suggestions for a three-day cycling tour starting and ending in Amsterdam? I'm okay with up to 90-100 km/day. The Hague is within reach, as is Rotterdam. Are they worth visiting? I've already been to Kinderdijk and don't need to go again.

And please don't say, "Stay in Amsterdam", because I'll have enough time to see what I want to see outside of those three days. I really want to get out and see a bit more of the country.

jefnvk

We did Oegstgeese to Amsterdam in a couple hours along the coast, it is right outside The Hague. If you had three days, you could probably take the coast down to the Hague, over to Rotterdam, and back up through Gouda and Utretch fairly easy, depending on how much you wanted to stop and smell the tulips versus flat out ride. It is 200km in total, so 65ish a day.

Also, if you don't know about it, there is a wonderful organization called Vrienden op de Fiets, literally Friends of the Cycles. It is a collection of accommodation for hikers and cyclists along the cycling routes. There is a nominal fee to sign up, then a flat rate of 19EUR a night per person. Could be anything from a room in a persons house to a B&B to a canal boat or a hotel with unused rooms. Nice resource for budget accommodations.

Doug64

I think jefnvk's recommendation is a great option. The Hague is worth visiting. We were riding north, and ended up spend 2 nights there.

Don't forget your rain gear


Be sure to stop in Gouda. If you can visit the small towns on a Saturday, you can experience the street fairs, which are really fun. We rode/walked through 3 of them one Saturday.

jefnvk

Yep, in addition to that the cheese market in Gouda is on Thursday morning. Well worth a visit, if you are into cheese and around there at that time!

djb

In the second photo Doug, I suspect we are all thinking the same thing of what she was saying at that exact moment....
;-)

groovestew

Thanks for the suggestions. I breezed through Gouda last time, but didn't stick around long. Wish I would have. If the cheese market is on Thursdays, that would probably work out for my schedule.

fietsbob

I landed @ Shiphol , in the afternoon, put my boxed bike together, then rode to Zandvoort , on the coast that night,
Camped and, in the morning jet lag was done..

ride around the Ijsselmeer, and back across the Afsluitdijk to den Helder, & south..

or take the bike path along the coast to the Delta works,,on the southern coast..

with the national rail station directly below the airport, you can take the train to other places to visit.



...

JaccoW

You can find lots of longer routes through here: https://fietsrouteplanner.eu/english-translation/

you can always ride to Belgium and take a train back.

fietsbob

Or ride to Cologne and do the same rail return ..

Stadjer

Depends on what you like and how the weather is. Some people like the Dunes but you got both hills and wind there. If it's raining all day, not entirely unlikely, you might want to see more places with a roof on it and visit cities. Broek en Waterland north of Amsterdam is very nice, very green lots of water, Haarlem is a nice city, Zaanse schans, Edam and Volendam are very touristy. If you go to the Hague you can cycle through 'the green heart', het groene hart, which is pretty, the Hague has interesting historic stuff. Amsterdam to Utrecht has a very nice cycle route. Cities like Gouda, Delft and Leiden are quite compact, old and not very touristy, Rotterdam has interesting modern architecture, most of the old stuff is gone, the port and the flood barrier there are impressive.

Everything in the West is very close to eachother, it's not difficult to do a part of the route by train, there's daylight after 10 pm, you can ride everywhere except and everybody speaks English so you don't need to plan everything precisely not to get in trouble, and leave room for improvisation, depending on the weather. You might want to consider making trips from Amsterdam and back everyday.

That Stolkse boeren in front is a good cheese. Centre of Amsterdam is becoming too much of an open air museum/tourist trap, especially when it comes to cheese.

HobbesOnTour

This! :-)

Can't possibly advise without knowing what you like to do other than ride a bike!

I live in NL and cycle all over. If you like camping you can just head off at that time of the year. Follow your nose (or avoid the wind!) No problem finding campsites. But, if it's a work trip you probably won't have any camping gear?

For route planning I can recommend Bike map Cycle route planner cycle.travel.
Put in your address in Amsterdam, use the suggest a ride option specify your distance and away you go! It'll show you accommodation options as well, according to your specifications.

Altternatively, for signposted long distance routes, Holland-Cycling.com - National LF network

You can also take your bike on most trains for a flat E6,50 per day (outside peak hours). Handy to go somewhere you fancy and bike back to Amsterdam. Smile, be friendly and you'll probably be allowed to put it in the back of a carriage when bikes aren't allowed on that train.

One thing to remember at that time of the year the bike paths can be busy which might mean that you won't be travelling as fast as you'd like. Especially sunny weekend days.

If it was me, I'd grab a train to Dusseldorf and follow the Rhine back (although Cologne is a nicer city, the section after Cologne is not very attractive). Lots of history, great cycling, big cities (Arnhem, Nijmegen), small villages and lots of chances to pop across the river on the little ferries! There's a few variations of the route and lots of signposts & maps so no stress in following a route.
Or Maastrict, follow the Maas to Arnhem then back to Rotterdam/Amsterdam.
Or the Ijselmeer as mentioned above. Lovely little towns, some amazing engineering..... but lots of wind!

Have fun!

GerryinHouston

You can take a look at this site:

https://www.tripsite.com/search/page...ust&sort=title

They propose a number of tours in the Netherlands. You can pick an idea and make your own route.

Or, you can let them organize one for you (they will give you the bike, with a bike computer and the route pre-loaded, they will book your hotel and carry your luggage from hotel to hotel). I used them last year and was very happy excepting the saddle my bike came with (a touring Batavus with a saddle with square, upright sides).

travelinhobo

FYI - if you end up biking in the N, stay on the bike paths. The drivers there really get upset if you ride on the road and they'll honk at you to get off! How was I to know?!

jefnvk

Eh, depends where you are, bike paths aren't everywhere. A lot of rural areas, the bike routes are nothing but roads, and drivers were nothing but courteous. That said, IIRC, if a bike path is present its use is compulsory.

groovestew

This sounds really good, actually. It's a manageable distance for 3 days, and I quite enjoyed riding in Germany a few years ago (Prague to Berlin via Dresden and Wittenberg). Thank-you!

HobbesOnTour

You're Welcome :-)

Enjoy all the currywurst, bratwurst & beer! :-) (German cycling food is so much better than the Dutch!!)

Lots of info online about the Rhine route.

If you've never been to Rotterdam I recommend it. 20 years ago I thought it was the most unfriendly place I had ever visited - but that has changed now. Beautiful city, great cycling paths. But watch your bike! Thievery is rampant!

Stadjer

I don't think I can agree. I'm not going to defend Dutch cuisine and beer, but when it comes to fast food like stuff and simple food it's quite allright. The main issue though is that the last part of the Rhine is for a large part a highly industrialized area, in the "Kohlenpott" around Dusseldorf but also the part leading up to Rotterdam, and the part inbetween isn't spectaculair either. The romance of the Rhine with it's hilly banks and castles is further upstream. For a three day tour a route south towards Antwerp and Ghent trough South Holland (The Hague, Leiden, Delft, Gouda, Rotterdam), Zeeland and Flanders seems much more interesting. Bruges is pretty but has become like an open air museum, while Ghent and Antwerp are still real living cities with a soul with a lot of mediaval history too. When it comes to food and beer Flanders can easily match any part of Germany. A route along the north coast, over the 'afsluitdijk' to Friesland and maybe the islands would also seem much more interesting to me.

groovestew

In the end, I decided to keep it short and simple. My plan is to ride to The Hague on day 1, to Gouda via Rotterdam (maybe going as far south as the Hook of Holland) on day 2, and back to Amsterdam on day 3. I'll miss the good German or Belgian beer, but I'll have enough to keep me busy on those three days.

bikemig 

Personally I like avoiding large cities when touring and so I'd either head north (Friesland) or east (Gelderland).

Stadjer

Don't worry about the beers, it's not like the Dutch believe Dutch beer is better and refuse to serve any foreign beer, they have taste buds too. A variety of Belgian beers are widely available. A lovely thing about Germany is that almost any village or town has it's own brewery with it's own local pilsener from draft, usualy better than from bottle, and almost all of them taste better than Heineken. Some of that pilsener does make it over the border, but usually to supermarkets and liquor stores, I like it, but it's not that different from the better Dutch pilseners. A lot of cafes have German Hefeweizens from bottle or even draft. I don't know how many beers you can handle in three days, but if you want to try all the Belgian and German beers available you might consider skipping the cycling.

jefnvk

Don't worry, La Trappe and Zundert are both excellent Dutch monestary beers, you should be able to easily find them on your trip

jefnvk

Oh, and don't forget the windmill microbrewery in Amsterdam, Brauerei 't IJ, also a great challenger to Belgian and German beers!

fietsbob

The Hostel in Kortrijk Belgium, had a Pub in it , nice social place.

acantor

I have cycled in Holland many times and during many visits. My cycling experiences have been enjoyable. My absolute favourite was cycling around Texel Island. I would do it again in a flash.

My big lesson from cycling in Holland is that strong winds are a major impediment to riding, and the "remedy" is to have a bicycle with a wide range of gears. On one trip, I rented a standard-issue Dutch bicycle; I don't remember whether it had one gear or three, and it weighed almost as much as a Volkswagen Beetle. Riding into the wind was almost impossible. I had to push the bike. I promised myself that next time, I would bring my own bicycle, which has "bailout" gears. It does not matter whether one is riding up up steep hills or riding into the wind or both – granny gears help.

groovestew

I've booked myself a road bike, so I should be okay. I couldn't imagine riding any significant distance on an upright bike, but that's just me.

Last time I rode through The Netherlands, I think I lucked out with winds - mostly very calm. I had bought an old, used road bike in Brussels and rode up to Amsterdam. The rear shifter didn't hardly work, but the front did, so it was like riding a 2-speed - big ring for flats (99.5% of the ride) and small ring when needed.