4 days in holland - advice?

[chris3vic]

I have around 4 days to spend away cycling

I've decided on Holland, having cycled there once before albeit as part of an organised family bike holiday.

I want to put the miles in and cycle around 70-90 miles per day if possible. The "tour" will begin and end at the port of Rotterdam. Ideally I'd like to spend at least one night in Amsterdam as I have friends who live in the city center and it would be a good excuse to pop in on them.

Anyone got any good ideas on how I could fill those days effectively?

Someone recommended to me to do a loop of the 5 biggest cities in the Netherlands, so, Rotterdam (start point) -> Eindehoven -> Utrecht -> Amsterdam -> Den Haag (close enough to Rotterdam port to be the end point). That's fine, but Utrecht to Amsterdam is only around 30 miles and can be covered in a couple of hours fairly easily.

Another route I've seen on a different forum is a sort of Dutch E2E, from Rotterdam to Groningen, using somewhere like Haderwijk or Elburg as a waypoint, then coming back into Amsterdam over the Breezendijk and via Den Helder...

It's such a small country, it seems its either short distances or too-huge-for-me distances between reasonable overnight waypoints.

By the way I won't be camping, just going to stay in small budget b&b's

Cheers

[Tigerbiten]

How are you navigating ??

If you look on the Open Cycle Map the whole country is covered with a web of good cycle paths.
So 4 x 80 miles = roughly 300 miles in total or a circle of around 100 miles in diameter.
Draw that size circle on a map going through both Rotterdam and Amsterdam.
Follow that line.
Easy ........

[spicerack]

I recommend including the Breezendijk, it's incredible to travel so straight and flat for such a distance.

And don't forget about the wind, it can make 80 miles pretty tough if it's blowing the wrong direction!

[chris3vic]

I recommend including the Breezendijk, it's incredible to travel so straight and flat for such a distance.

And don't forget about the wind, it can make 80 miles pretty tough if it's blowing the wrong direction!

Certainly from Google maps it looks worthwhile.

I had considered the wind. Difficult on the coast to judge ahead of actually being there and what effect it will have +/- so I guess I'll have to risk it

[chris3vic]

How are you navigating ??

If you look on the Open Cycle Map the whole country is covered with a web of good cycle paths.
So 4 x 80 miles = roughly 300 miles in total or a circle of around 100 miles in diameter.
Draw that size circle on a map going through both Rotterdam and Amsterdam.
Follow that line.
Easy ........

Well I'm planning using google maps, but I'll no doubt be using my Garmin 810 on the journey itself.

[MockCyclist]

Four days to and from Rotterdam and including Amsterdam? I'd drop the trip to Eindhoven largely based on the dull landscape around there. You can get to Utrecht in a day even if you take in Kinderdijk and Gouda along the way, both worth a stop. From there you can head to Amsterdam, then north through Zaandam and the towns on the west of Markermeer before dropping back down through Haarlem and Den Haag.

[chris3vic]

Great advice.

Ok now I'm thinking, Rotterdam -> Utrecht (via Kinderdijk and Gouda)
Utrecht -> Amsterdam (via Naarden and Weesp (to make it interesting, plus I've always wanted to visit Naarden) - This will still be a short day, but will mean a slightly greater time spent with my friend, rather than just the evening.
Amsterdam -> Rotterdam (via Haarlem, Leiden and Den Haag)

[Davidwd]

What about going up to Texel island?

[m-gineering]

You want to get the miles in, and you want to visit the biggest, most densely populated area's/cities and you want to use Google maps? Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me.

First as you are using a Garmin get your routes planned with the routeplanner from the Fietsersbond.nl That should make the route at least bearable traffic (lights) wise.

IF you want to ride your bike, I can't see the point of cycling in large cities, but maybe the experience of riding in traffic which is not dead set on trying to kill you has it's charm for furriners;)

I' would suggest to head east untill you hit the German border and loop back. Sort of Nijmegen, Doetinchem, Apeldoorn, Amsterdam. That should yield a nice variety in landscape

[steady eddy]

A circular tour of Zeeland - the islands in the south are lovely.

[chris3vic]

You want to get the miles in, and you want to visit the biggest, most densely populated area's/cities and you want to use Google maps? Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me.
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I'm only using Google Maps for some tentative, basic planning - looking for possible waypoints, hostels etc etc.

I'm reducing my mileage per day to account for slower speeds around big towns, but there are still swathes of cycle routes between towns and villages which allow me to RIDE my bike, as you say. There is over 50 miles of this between Rotterdam Port and Utrecht for example.

I have cycled before in Amsterdam (to Leiden and back, and to Zandvoort and back) and in the areas around and including Groningen centrum so I know kind of what to expect and avoid. I see your point about riding in built up, densely populated cities, but given these are start and end points I'm not overly worried if the route is planned adequately.

[chris3vic]

What would be the best way way to navigate in Holland whilst out on the bike? Garmin with a decent dutch overlay? Or paper maps?

[Tigerbiten]

How much are you going to stick exactly to a pre-plotted route or are you willing to stick to a rough route ??
Are you going to use the long distance routes or just any cycle path ??

I stick roughly to the long distance route so a Garmin with a bog standard pan-europe map works. I just use it to navigate me out of towns and the last few miles to campsites. I use an Android Tablet for longer distance route panning before plotting the route roughly into the Garmin by hand.
For more detailed route planning/following on the Garmin then an Open Cycle Map overlay would work better.

[chris3vic]

I tend to get a bit tired of my garmin, but not really sure of any alternative.

I kinda just want to plan a basic route, noting the numbered junctions and follow that as best as I can. Is that asking for trouble?

On the map the numbered junctions look easy to follow, in practice, is that true?

[Cyril Haearn]

The national cycle museum in Nijmegen is very good