Dutch coast - to tent or not to tent?

[HobbesOnTour]

I don't care about the beaches, I was thinking to get to Bruges so coastal path was the most obvious choice.

If go to CycleTravel, input Hamburg & Brugge, the suggested route is nowhere near the coast and offers some interesting thoughts.

The obvious one is EV 3 south of Hamburg before turning west and possibly even following the Rhine if you don't want to make up your own route.
Arnhem, Nijmegen, Den Bosch are all interesting places to visit before venturing south. Tilburg has the biggest urban funfair in Europe and that'll be the last two weekends in July.

Or, if I really wanted a bit of the sea, I'd stick coastal as far as maybe Groningen, then turn south. Hitting Zwolle, Apeldoorn and then southwards as detailed above. By the way, I'd check the wind direction before hitting that coast.

Check out https://kamperenbijdeboer.nl/# for smaller, friendlier campsites

So what's the most busy part? Den Helder to Hoek of Holland? Or also Zeeland?

It's a tiny place filled with people on holiday at the same time. The whole place is busy, but expect bikepaths on the west coast to be heavy with holidaymaking bike traffic, especially on weekends, slowing progress. It can be very pleasant to cycle - so long as you're not in a rush.

So much of this is down to personal taste. Some people need the hotel reservations, others are happy to explore. Some enjoy the buzz and atmosphere of a town at play and others run a million miles from it. And, these can change from day to day

The Netherlands is a great place for a bike tour (As is Germany).

 

[RobinS]

If you get a copy of "Nederland Fietsatlas" by Falk (available from Amazon, as well as other places) it shows all the cycleroutes in the Netherlands, using this you can easily navigate everywhere on nice cycle trails.

 

[MichaelW2]

I did the N coast, camping. No planning required. The Islands are a highlight and they are almost all camping. You can leave out all the cooking gear .

 

[HelenD123]

I cycled the west coast in July 2018 and didn't find camping easy. Some places were full. Receptions also seemed to shut pretty early (by 5pm) so it constricted the day somewhat.