Short Tour of the Netherlands

[theMec]

Just looking at doing a short tour of the Netherlands and have made a very rough schedule...would be interested to hear people's thoughts....

Day 1 - Oxford to Rotterdam (train to Harwich, ferry to Hook then cycle to Rotterdam)
Day 2 - Rotterdam to Eindhoven
Day 3 - Eindhoven to Arnhem
Day 4 - Arnhem to Amsterdam
Day 5 - Amsterdam to Oxford (see above but in reverse!)

My concern is i won't be keeping to any numbered/signposted cycle route so i might have to concentrate more on where i'm going. The destinations aren't set in stone but i prefer having targets as opposed to seeing what happens. The plan is to find cheap accommodation on days 1 and 5 but camp the other nights to keep the cost down.

I would to keep the trip to 5 days if possible.

 

[slowmotion]

+1 for the Hotel Van Onna. It's on a really pretty little canal and they have a secure garage in which to stash your bike. Try to get a room at the front of the building.

Edit: Book early! Bed spaces in the whole of Amsterdam get very scarce, very quickly.

 

[User169]

Any particular reason for going to Eindhoven? it's not the most obvious place to go as a tourist, although you take a ride on the floating bike roundabout.

 

[CopperBrompton]

Cycle route signposting is pretty good, though you do get occasional gaps where a place is on signpost 1 and 3 but oddly missing from signpost 2. It's worth having the names of some intermediate places, and also places beyond your destination, to help you figure out the right direction at those times.

 

[Alex11]

Loek! Have fun mate. Am half Dutch myself so know you'll have a great time.
Lovely and flat!

 

[theMec]

Thanks for the replies. Now thinking of doing this....http://www.nederlandfietsland.nl/en/long-distance-cycle-routes/zuiderzeeroute

 

[CopperBrompton]

That looks like a good route. Just be aware that the Afsluitdijk is rather windy! We had strong headwinds all the way across.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

That looks like a good route. Just be aware that the Afsluitdijk is rather windy! We had strong headwinds all the way across.

If that is the one I think it is (confirmed it is the one), we couldn't even start to cross it the day we tried. It was actually too windy to even cycle into the headwind on the land before the dyke (like not being able to hold 5mph on 'land' before getting to the dkye crossing) and we ended up turning around and heading down the 'coast'inland to take the ferry across.

 

[psmiffy]

Its a double edged sword - the day I crossed the Afsluitdijk (going NE) I attained my fastest ever flat average speed over the 36 or so k

 

[CopperBrompton]

Yeah, when we crossed it the cyclists coming the other way were doing ridiculous speeds :-)