I’ve just returned from a week in The Netherlands. I’ve been numerous times but this was the first time I had the opportunity to experience cycling there. It was only brief but what a liberating experience. Can’t wait to get back and really explore more of this amazing country on two wheels 🙂 🇳🇱
I always love these videos about foreigners coming over to the Netherlands for a bike trip! First thought, it seems bizarre to me to have to book a train ride in advance if its not an international journey. Here, people just go to the train station and catch a train, the fees are fixed depending on distance. And you wre correct, a bike ticket has a flat fee of 7 euro. Only valid outside the rush hours though, so avoid the morning and evening commute times from 6:30-9 in the morning and 16:30 to 7 in the evening if you want to bring a bike on the train. Second, to elaborate a bit on "friends on bikes" that you can use to get accomodations on your bike trips. Campsites and hotels and restaurants and private accomodations can be found on there that are bike-friendly. They will have bike parking and they wont mind if you come inside all sweaty, thirsty for a drink! Most bars and restaurants in general wont mind if you park your bike along a fence or something, or park it along the roadside. Dont forget to bring at least a light-weight U-lock for your bike though, so it wont get stolen. There are also a lot of nature campsites (natuurkampeerterreinen) which generally are cheap, located in nice nature areas, and dont have too many luxury 'glamping' facilities, so you will probably meet a lot of other bikers, hikers, and people who love nature at those places. Third, as for GPS and route planning apps, in the Netherlands we have a system of bike connection points. Its a network of points, they are all numbered and the routes between the points are marked. You can google for "fietsknoop" or "fietsnetwerk" to find apps and websites that you can plan your route on. Or you can just get up in the morning, start cycling in the general direction you want to go, and pick up on the network along the way when you see a sign. They are white and green and have numbers on them and theyre on every bike path intersection. As well as signs showing the distance and direction to nearby towns. You wont get lost even without a GPS but of course it is nice to have one to be sure. Every accomodation will have a coffee machine, it is absolutely an essential part of life here. I cant imagine getting up early and going on a bike ride without making a nice strong cup of black coffee in an old-fashioned drip coffee machine. It would be miserable! The ferries across the rivers are mostly ran by volunteers and they are very cheap, so use them! Dont feel afraid to tip either, if you can afford to, they really can use it to maintain and operate the smaller ferry lines. The ferries in Amsterdam specifically are completely free and operated by the municipal transport authority. That underground bike park at Utrecht central station is the largest in the world, it has space for 22 thousand bikes and believe me, we need even more spots because its always full :D You can also rent bikes at any train station, those are the yellow and blue colored ones shown in the video, it costs 4 euro per 24 hours, so you can travel anywhere and get one to go on a day trip. I use them to bike to work sometimes. They are quite heavy but theyre sturdy so you wont need to worry about damaging them. Nice to see Gouda on any video, its the town I grew up in and its an underrated place to visit. You missed the cheese market, which is every Thursday, but at least you got a fresh stroopwafel. The town hall is one of the oldest in the country, its construction was started in 1448. The Saint Johns church at the town square has world famous lead glass windows that have recently been restored. Oh and Gouda has an aquaduct with a motorway running through a tunnel under a canal so you can drive through while boats are sailing overhead. If you get a pizza at an Italian place and youre waiting at the bar, if it takes a while, you can definitely get a free beer or a shot, I do that myself sometimes hehe The cycle tracks along the coast extend along the entire coastline, and most of it is through nature reserves. Its absolutely beautiful, especially north of the Hague around Katwijk and Noordwijk. The "garden house" in Amsterdam is a converted bike shed haha, usually we just put our bikes and tools in there but I guess it can serve as a small guest house. I have honestly never seen that before. Very creative. At Schiphol there is a runway that goes over a motorway tunnel, so when you drive there you can see airplanes taxiing overhead, its very surreal.
@@TheSuperappelflap thanks for all this information. I really want to return and see more of the country as it's just an amazing place to cycle. It's so different to the UK, but so close and so friendly
@@Dan-Dans-Travels Generally only people on racing bikes wear helmets, for a bikepacking trip where you will be going 20, 25km/h mostly it wont be necessary. The low speeds and safe seperated bike lanes mean the accident rate is very low. The biggest danger isnt cars, but other people on bikes who arent paying attention haha
@@TheSuperappelflap in England I wear it all the time, we just do not have the same cycling infrastructure. Also, car drivers in the Netherlands accept cyclists, in England it is the oppositw.
I am glad you enjoyed your stay. I know where about your Utrecht stay was and that might be one of the better spots when it comes to houseboat locations. Was a bit weird seeing such a recent video shot in 4:3 but I enjoyed. Greets from Utrecht.
Glad you enjoyed so much your time here in the Netherlands. I guess losing your helmet on the way out would normally be a disaster but you were headed to the one place you didn't need it 😂. Hope you will try more cycle touring off this success!
I'm glad you enjoyed your time in our new home,: NL we're up in Haarlem and love the pro-cycling lifestyle. We live a quick 15-20 min bike ride to the beach, and I even commute into Amsterdam for work and it's fantastic, almost all on segregated bike lanes.
I did cycle close to Harlem as I cut over from the coastal path to Amsterdam. It is a lovely area, great to see so many people on bikes enjoying the outdoors.
Niet te saai/ Not at all boring, we like concise and to the point. All you need is clean underwear, a rainsuit and a debit card. The rest you can get localy and is a good souvenir.
Its nice to bring some cash if you go on a bike tour, there are a lot of farms that sell their own produce by the side of the road in little cabinets and you can put some cash in a lockbox to pay for it. Generally the quality of the vegetables, eggs, cheese and meat you can get there is amazing and the prices are good, its a shame to pass by.
Well done. Gives a nice impression of some of the attractions in the western provinces and Utrecht (in the center) I doo recommend however to also tour the southern provinces and the north-eastern provinces. They are well worth a (bike) visit and very often forgotten by cyclists.
Great video, Danny. Be good to see you doing some more bike touring videos. I've enjoyed the few on your channel so far. I like the set up on your Boardman there too. Keep up the good work, I'm now a subscriber 👍
Thanks👍I struggle with the editing side of things, but have a number of tours planned for the future so will hopefully be getting out on the Boardman soon.
Well lol, we are surely a wonderful nation, but do not expect mountains, with large natural forest areas. But fun and beautiful it will sure be. Hehehe...your editing assumes a bit that we look like any other nation. But well we do have pretty areas like the Veluwe, and some hills. LOL Thank you so much for visiting our nation. You are very welcome in our mids.
You can spend at least a week cycling around the Veluwe and staying at different campsites. But I would recommend not going in the height of summer, it can get very hot and dry there in that period. Not this year though, jeesh what bad weather we are getting.
@@Incorruptus1 ja dat kan helaas niet, gemeentelijk monument dus mag niks aan de voorgevel maken. Misschien steiger huren alleen maar om een zeil aan te hangen maar dan moet ik de helft van de voortuin rauzen.
Good to know that something like Friends on the Bike exists. Tho, it's a 30 hours trip from NZ to there, and that is way too much for me. Maybe if it was a one-way trip... 😆
Looks like you had a nice time in my country. Just remember you did a nice part of my country but you barely scratch it so many good places to cycle to. As for forgetting things you are only a bike ride away for purchasing it thats the dutch way ( i would recommend not forgetting any meds you need though). And google maps is pretty handy in finding these stores if you forgotten something. For the rest listen to this guy. One pro tipp don't forget the toilet paper.
Thanks for a really informative video. Looks like its worth going just of that pizza 😂 The “Friends on Bikes” accommodation is a really good shout, I’ve just been looking and there’s load of places in France, which is where we are off to this spring.
My buddy and I are coming over from Vancouver Canada next year to ride around the NW part of Europe so it was great to see the kind of thing that we’re going to experience.
Dont know if you already went or will go soon, but I can recommend doing a part of the north sea cycle route, from Calais up along the coast, and when you are in the Netherlands you can cycle pretty much everywhere you want on safe separated bike lanes through nice areas with nature reserves avoiding main roads. Do some homework and learn how our bike road network works, there are numbered points everywhere and you can plan your route along those, so you dont have to stick to any prescribed route, you can choose your own adventure! Just have to look at the map in the morning and write down some numbers and you can go anywhere you want.
Yes, this kind of bikeracks in English trains are a nightmare. Normal bicycles hardly fit in. It's an advantage if you have a short handlebar. Best solution is to have a Brompton folding bicycle. Bikepaths in the Netherlands are very good. So you don't feel much of a difference riding on small wheels.
Hi Danny Just watched your video I am thinking about going in June from Hull as I live in Doncaster found it very interesting and informative. Had a look at your channel and had a little laugh to myself because its very similar to mine ie no particular subject or theme I just do it for fun not subscribers only slight difference is I dont talk a lot in mine just put music to them. Take care and keep up the good work . Mick
Glad you enjoyed it, I'm still learning and hope to get to grips with the software eventually as I find that hard...If you go to Holland, make sure you use the friends with bikes website, really great value.
@@Dan-Dans-Travels English and Dutch are quite similar, as soon as you figure out spelling :) I once saw a documentary about a Dutch ship, De Goede Hoop. Awfull. But if they'd used the English name, it would have been almost perfect ... The Good Hope :)
Links for the websites I used:- Friends with Bikes www.vriendenopdefiets.nl/en/ Trainline:- www.thetrainline.com/information/cheap-train-tickets Air bnb:- www.airbnb.co.uk/signup_login Stena Line (ferry):- www.stenaline.co.uk/ Komoot:- www.komoot.com/
An enjoyable video of a wonderful country! Looked a lot of fun. I'm planning to visit on my bike this year 🤞. How long did it take you to clear border control when you arrived at the Hoek?
Nice video. Btw, It’s Hoek of Holland, not ‘Hook’. Hoek of Holland translates as ‘Corner of Holland’. 😊 And Schiphol: the ‘ph’ isn’t a ‘f’ sound, it’s pronounced as ‘schip-hol’.
@@Dan-Dans-Travels In English it literally translates to ship-hole. Because back when it was open water, a lot of ships would sink there. Its like the Dutch Bermuda triangle :D Dont worry about trying to pronounce our funny language, no one from any other country can do it and we are used to it. In the past, it was used as a security measure, anyone who couldnt pronounce "Scheveningen" correctly was a foreign spy haha Just try your best and we will appreciate the effort!
@@Dan-Dans-Travels I hope to get to the Alps again. But I may decide to take it easy and do bit of France and Germany. The Outer Hebrides are too outer for me.
@@Dan-Dans-Travels Bike in train is pretty easy in France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Netherlands. My favorite area is probably Rheinland-Pfalz with the Mosel river etc. And Belgium has a whole bunch of 'ravels', rail trails. Of course the Alps are spectacular. I wish they built them closer.
@@Dan-Dans-Travels I did a mountain bike trip in the Italian Alps a long time ago and it is absolutely beautiful there. Of course, come prepared for a lot of height meters, its a challenge for sure. But its lovely especially off the main roads, there are a lot of fun dirt trails there. The main roads have a lot of hairpins and high speed traffic so I wouldnt recommend going on a racing bike and staying on those.
@@Dan-Dans-Travels That only shows that Amsterdam is no longer part of The Netherlands but merely an American amusement park, overcrowded by expats and immigrants in which mediocre American food has become widely available. 😚 In the rest of the Netherland a hotdog is almost impossible to get and Pizzahut and Taco Bells can only be found in or around train stations.
@@TheSuperappelflap Typical American to think everything originates from there where in reality absolutely nothing was invented in the US. They just copy and paste and them claim or coin it.
