Family cycle touring, Netherlands, August

Please can I request some STW wisdom? I have persuaded my wife and 15 year old son to bring our bikes on the Hull-Rotterdam ferry the week after next, with the promise of short distances, safe flat riding, happy camping and carefree hedonism. It will be their first “tour” but we all ride bikes at home. (The teenager mostly imagines hiding in a tent with a guitar and getting pissed and stoned, of course.) Four nights in NL before we get back on the ferry.

I imagine a clockwise loop, spending a couple of nights camping (and swimming?) on the coast North of Rotterdam (Den Haag, Katwijk, Zandvoort?), heading to Amsterdam for a night in a hotel, then a night camping in the green bit between Utrecht and Rotterdam, then home.

Does this seem reasonable? Places to include/avoid? Are there better options (e.g. just camp and get a train to Amsterdam for the day?)? And will we be OK just rocking up to campsites and hoping for the best? We all much prefer the adventure of spontaneity, but I don’t want them to hate the whole experience.

Thanks!

mayo and chips, sounds like a great trip. Can I come?

The weather is looking good for the next few weeks. Check out the wind direction before deciding on which way to do the loop. Watch out for the hills 😉

It seems like a good plan.

I would think that you will be able to camp without booking.   Probably best to have the flexability to modify plan acording to weather.

Be  careful with your bikes,  I gather that bike theft in Amsterdam is a big problem just like in London.  So need a hotel with bike storeage.

No problem with cycling in to Amsterrdam done it lots of times,  but  if you find a good campsite, getting a train in good as well.    The coast route is great when the weather is good.  But if wet and  windy using trains is a good option.

Even in age of online maps  probably worthwile buying a cycle map from a tourist office when you arrive.

Are you or any of them into WW2 history? If yes, Arnhem and Nijmegen (of A Bridge Too Far fame) are worth checking out and easy enough to get to by bike.

I’ve never had any trouble finding campsites, but it has been about 5 years since I last toured there.

YOu need to sus out the junction routes network.  basically every junction has a number and some of them map boards.  You check on the map, memorise a string of numbers to get to where you want to go.  ONce you run out of remembered numbers then stop and check a map board again. before each junction there will be a sticker on a bit of street furniture telling you which number are which way.  It takes in scenic routes

[personally I wouldn’t want to cycle into and out of amsterdam unless you really want to visit – cycling in amsterdam is crazy.  It will be a real culture shock.  Takes me a few days to adapt when I go.

ON the cycle paths look out for old folk on ebikes at 15 mph everywhere – they will overtake without warning.

the route down the dunes is really nice

this is an app for the junction routes
https://www.fietsknoop.nl/talen/english

https://holland-cycling.com/tips-and-info/finding-your-way/numbered-cycle-network

There are campsites just for cyclists IIRC – nature sites or something?

https://holland-cycling.com/planning-your-trip/where-to-stay/camping

Recently returned from our third family cycling holiday in the NL. You can’t really go wrong route-wise anywhere in there NL. If you know roughly where you are heading, all the significant towns are well signposted, and the paths and roads are uniformly excellent; clean, pothole free and cycle friendly. If you want to plan your route a bit better, Google Maps works very well, or download the Fietsknoop app for cycle specific route planning using the best designated routes.

The coastal routes are generally pretty nice. From memory there are some bunker museums to visit between Rotterdam and Amsterdam, of you are interested in WWII history.

For cycle camping, there are various small eco/farm camps with more basic facilities, and I think they would be easier to get a place in at short notice than the bigger motor camping sites. Just search Google Maps for possibilities.

I would also suggest not staying in Amsterdam. It’s OK to cycle through, but you need to keep your wits about you. Much easier to camp somewhere near a station and just catch a train in for the day. We were going to take a day trip to Amsterdam on our final stop at Alkmaar, but opted for Haarlem instead. Lovely city, much smaller and more relaxed, plenty of shopping, a great museum and we hired a boat for a circuit of the canals round the centre, which was a bit more interesting than we anticipated due to some extremely low bridges!

Previously we have camped, but this time we mostly used Vrienden op de Fiets (Friends on bikes) which is a network of pedestrian and cycle friendly B&Bs. Accommodation is a flat 25 Euros pp, including breakfast. You can join online (10 Euros to get a membership card and access to the list of addresses). Bit random (ended up sleeping in a tree house one night!) but everyone we stayed with was friendly and the breakfasts were excellent.

Yes, seems reasonable. Trains are good and cycle friendly (though you need to buy a ticket for your bike, we got told off before we realised, Dutchies aren’t rude but will go out of their way to correct you when you’ve messed up, especially on the correct way to say Gouda(you may get wet).

From the ferry, you have about 12K of docks to navigate(easy, signposted), then the Rozenberg-Maassluis ferry. Off the ferry, turn left to ride up the coast via Hook, Right or jump on the train into Rotterdam, or straight aheadish to head for Delft. If time is short, don’t ride to Amsterdam or go near Utrecht. Delft, Gouda or Haarlem for non metropolis nice little towns. Rotterdam for some amazing architecture around the marketplace.

Edit: Seems the ferry isn’t running, brace yourself for a much longer ride through industrial docklands before getting to the nice bits.

I did a trip a few weeks ago with my 5, 7 and 10 year old it’s was amazing!!!!

Ferry from Hull to Europort.

We stayed at hostels – stay okay in Rotterdam and The Hauge (next to the red light district). I was towing all the kit so wanted to travel light.

The riding and navigating easy easy. Used Google maps and GPS to get around. The 5 year old needed a push occasionally but was amazed how well he did.
<p style=”text-align: left;”>Fyi – There is a cycle ferry from the hook of Holland to Massvlakte which gets you the right side for the return ferry and gives you a nice 40 min break from cycling. There is a cafe/canteen when you land to so great for a lunch stop.</p>

Ps I wanted to take the ferry from Rozenburg north but couldn’t figure out if it was running so continued to Pernis where the is a lift and  tunnel under the river for bikes. Mind blowing!!

Biggest hill you will climb is getting on the ferry. Easy cycling – never on a road. Nice people . Stayed in campsites and small hotels – Belgian beer is better – I’m sure they know that. WW2 stuff is good – they’ve done a nice job of recognising some of the smaller actions – which you just stumble across. Cake a coffee is excellent. Liked the area around Appledoorn – and the area West of Nijmingen, Roman museum at Xanten is good – just across the border. Regret not doing it with my kids when they were in the teens they would have loved it.

Nijemagen is a fantastic place. As is grave and beers! The 101st museum and war graves are a must too.

Most stress free family cycling we’ve done. Went 2022 Whitsun week. Infrastructure is brilliant. People super friendly. We camped/hostelled on the fly, rocking up or booking a few hours in advance and stayed in a fairly spendy eco lodge on the edge of Amsterdam for our last night.

Amsterdam is beautiful, we stayed with friends who live pretty centrally, if you are used to cities, it’s a very small one and easy to get around the pretty bits by bike or on foot.

I planned a shortish 5 day 4 night loop on komoot and just followed my Garmin with the odd foray into Google maps when komoot worked it’s magic on impassable paths or none existent ferries…

The kids (now 15 and 13) still talk about it.

Thank you, everyone! Wisdom, practicality, creativity and kindness, this forum at its best. I will allow myself to get excited now. We’ll keep an eye on those ferry options, it’s all part of the adventure.

I love the WW2 ideas, the others might need some persuading – it might have to (appear to) be spontaneous and accidental. I’ll report back.

Thanks again.

Zandvoort beach is nice.

Bookmarking this. We’ve used the ferry zillions of times with the van and planning that the next trip will be bikes only. Thanks everyone.

We’re back! Thanks again for the advice. We didn’t follow a lot of it, but it gave us the confidence to do our own thing. Here are some things we learned:

We took a train from Selby to Hull, which was easy and friendly. There’s a cycle path along the Humber all the way to the terminal, no need to battle ferry traffic. And there’s a superb pub, The Minerva, which I’d recommend. I love pubs me, and this is a good one.

Google maps shows the Rozenberg-Maasluis ferry as being closed. It’s not. The car/lorry ferry is closed, but there’s a free and regular passenger and bike ferry from the same place.

Camping was easy – there was always space and a warm welcome. We stayed near Den Haag, Leiden and Zevenhuizen; Google maps and word-of-mouth sent us in the right directions.

Dutch cycling infrastructure is brilliant, and so is the culture. Please can we make it compulsory to employ Dutch people in all future UK road and building projects?

TJ’s complicated numbering system made very little sense to me when he described it, but on the ground it works a treat – thanks. We also sometimes just followed what seemed to be sensible/interesting routes based on the red signposts. I can imagine it being frustrating to be in a hurry, but we weren’t.

I wish I’d learned just a bit more Dutch before we left. Northern English + German meant I could understand most things, but I couldn’t say a lot.

Shockingly, MrsDJPower admitted to having a dream about cycling last night. She’s keen to do more, and further.(The teenager might take a bit more convincing.)

Excellent! Pics time….

I think the junction network is typically dutch.  Takes ages to work out, no one tells you haw it works but once you suss it out its great