Cheese and Seaside Boulevard Tour

DAY TO DAY SCHEDULE

The first hotel you will be staying in is ideally located in the center of the Netherlands on the edge of the Rhine river. Utrecht has a wonderful old historic city center full of culture, shops and restaurants. Utrecht can be reached by train from Amsterdam Airport in approx. 45 minutes.

Your second day will start in Utrecht and continue to Harderwijk. The greatest charm of this route is the combination of woods, water and polders. A castle where former Queen Beatrix lives. Along the banks of the Randmeren you reach the old Hanseatic town of Harderwijk. Harderwijk has a harbor and a city square with plenty of restaurants to take a bite.

The third day you cycle past farms, forests and the farmlands of Flevoland to Lelystad, where you can visit an exhibition on how the polder came to be. You’ll cross Lake IJsselmeer via a 32 km dike from Lelystad to Enkhuizen, called the Houtribdijk. Enkhuizen is a major tourist center and was a very important port in the Golden Age (117th century), which is still clearly evident in the many historic buildings and homes you can find here. It was once the center for herring fishing. Dont miss the excellent Zuiderzee Museum! This outdoor museum gives a picture of how and where the native Dutch people formerly lived and worked in the Zuiderzee villages.

Today you will ride a coast-to-coast bike route from Lake IJsselmeer to the North Sea. Through the beautiful old cities like Alkmaar – the city with the famous cheese market – you reach the attractive village of Heiloo. Like so many other Dutch cities, many of these cities owe its prosperity to the glory days of the Golden Age. You will pass by Holland’s oldest polder – the “Beemster” – drained by windmills in 1612. You can also visit an interesting “museum windmill” as well as cheese town Alkmaar. The cheese market is on Fridays.

One of the best days of this tour! You will cycle right through the beautiful Dutch dunes on special bike paths to the beach resort town of Zandvoort. The North Sea coast offers a combination of long sandy beaches and dunes and beautiful nature in the North Holland Dune Reserve. Near Velsen you will cross the North Sea Canal by ferry to continue your way to the famous seaside resort of Zandvoort through the National Park Kennemerduinen.

Another great day! Today you will (depending on the season you are travelling) cycle through multicolored bulb fields (daffodils, hyacinths and tulips). You will also cycle through coastal towns such as Katwijk and Wassenaar which provide plenty of large, lively beaches to small, cozy family beaches. When you arrive in lively Scheveningen with its famous Kurhaus and biggest seaside boulevard of the country, choose one of the many attractions and restaurants to visit in the afternoon.

63 km
The Hague, our seat of government, is brimming with things to do and see. Our pick: Vermeers “Girl with a Pearl Earring” in Mauritshuis Museum and Mesdags “Panorama of Scheveningen”. After visiting and staying overnight in Scheveningen you will continue the trip through the Green Heart with polder landscapes and typical old Dutch towns and villages to the beautiful old city of Gouda, including the famous city of Gouda cheese.

Rivers, polders and lakes describe your last cycling day the best (bird lovers bring your binoculars!). You will cycle through the city of Utrecht. The city owes its historical but also very lively character for the most part because of the beautiful “Venice” like canals, low terraces directly on the water with cafes and restaurants, almost nowhere else to be found in the world unless in Venice.

After breakfast you will return home.