Destination Netherlands: Where to go? How far to travel?
Any successful multi-day cycling trip in the Netherlands will require an up-front investment in planning. This is often one of the most enjoyable parts of the process!
The things you’ll need to figure out include:
- where you want to go;
- for how long;
- how far you’ll cycle each day;
- where you’ll stay;
- how you’ll get to your starting point and from your end point;
- how you’ll navigate your way around; and
- how to get hold of a bike to begin with!
All of these questions have easy answers, even though they might look overwhelming at this point.
In this post, we’ll look at how to go about choosing your destination, your route, the distances you plan to cover and how to get around the Netherlands by public transport.
The ideas stage — where to go?
My main sources of inspiration for routes are Dutch-language cycling guidebooks and Dutch websites. With a couple of notable and extremely useful exceptions, you won’t find a great deal of English-language content outside of this particular Medium publication!
As I’m not a Dutch speaker, this is one of the many ways in which technology comes to my rescue.
Websites
For websites, I’m heavily reliant upon the in-built Google Translate support in Chrome. This does a pretty amazing job of accurately translating most of the sites I use, though you still have to use a bit of intuition occasionally when the context is lost in translation.
The main web sites I use for inspiration are route.nl, anwb.nl andfietsen123.nl . You might find other routes by using the word fietsroutes in Google together with a place name, e.g. Amsterdam.
Guide Books
I always keep an eye out for books containing cycle routes whenever I’m over on one of my trips, though I don’t always buy them while I’m there just because I try to minimise the weight I’m carrying around.
Ask yourself two questions: can I buy it over the internet and have it delivered; or can I buy it closer to the end of my journey from another retailer?
There’s been the odd occasion when neither was possible (such as when I bought a box-set of routes and maps from an ANWB shop in Leiden) so I took my purchase straight to the nearest post office to send home.
To get over the language barrier, I use the Text Fairy app on my Android mobile to take photos of the pages I’m interested in and automagically extract the words. I then run those words through Google Translate, and — hey presto — the book’s content is translated into English.
A couple of suggested books for getting your ideas flowing are: X and y.
First experience of bicycle touring?
If you’re planning your first bicycle tour, I strongly recommend a circular route around Amsterdam. You’ll see why as we look at a few other aspects of planning your trip.
How long and how far?
This one can be a toughy if you’ve not done this kind of thing before. To make it even harder, you are the only person who can truly answer this question. However, I can share a few tips to help you begin to formulate your own answers.
How many days?
This might be dictated by external factors — e.g. annual leave constraints — but you should also consider your stamina and speed.
For first trips, I’d recommend no more than three days of cycling in total.
For seasoned cycle-tourers, you might be able to fit more kilometres into your schedule than usual given the flat terrain.
Either way, make sure you’ve factored in time to rest, relax and truly experience and appreciate the places you’ll visit. It’s not all about eating up the kilometres!
How far should I cycle each day?
If you’ve not done this before, you’ll probably be amazed at how far you can go in a day. But you’ll also be tempted to over-estimate your ability too!
There are several ways to get a better understanding of your fitness, stamina and preferences.
One is to go for increasingly longer rides around your home town to find a distance sweet spot.
But my approach was simply not to worry too much about it. By making my first trip a circular route around Amsterdam, if I decided that I’d had enough, I’d just go back to my centrally-located accommodation by public transport. I’d be able to see what I could do without putting any pressure on myself to reach a particular destination by sunset.
For me, I discovered that I’m happiest somewhere between 60 km to 70 km a day. But everyone is different!
