Guest book archive

Hi.
The July 2018 law re mobile phone use while riding a bike. The word ‘operating’ in the law is a bit vague. If I’m riding my bicycle and I have an earbud, my phone is in my pocket, am I allowed to talk in the phone? Hands free, eye on the road etc.

Hello

I'm very exited and interested in doing a 5 to 7 day self supported bike tour in Holland. For a first time person what route would you recommend? I plan to camp most of the time so please think about that. Your HELP WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED.

Kind Regards

Kirk Slaczka

Thank you for such useful information.  There are plenty of great details regarding the purchase of a daily cycle ticket for the trains in Holland but nothing saying if & how to reserve a bike space on a particular train.

Neal

Hi any signed books by shirley agudo please I know she has written two .

Hi, we're a couple that are coming to Holland in July '19. for a month bicycle tour. Could you please tell me the directions of prevailling winds on the north coast. Thank you very much. Regards. Annie & Tony.

It is very difficult to find a touring bike with panniers. Amsterdam has few place where you can ret them, but others city to not have any.

Lasse

I would like to find an English version of Stap Op. Does it exist?

Thank you,

Joie

Very helpful thank you.  I am planning a cycle trip across the Netherlands in June starting from  Hoek van Holland to Twello to see relations and then on to Veden in Germany. Any suggestions and advice on campsites etc would be most welcome.

Thank you for your advice.

Cheers

Katia

Hi,

How easy is it to get on the zuiderzee cycle route from Amsterdam. Would you advise hiring a bike or bring your own.

Thanks Steve.

Hoping to skate across holland next year using the LF4 route. Is the whole route suitable for skates or are there sections of gravel/dirt paths?

Stuggling to find out info on the path surface.

Thanks

Riann

I tried downloading the cycling app, and it is all in Dutch. Are there any plans to have an English version in the future? Is there another app for cycling Holland in English?

thank you! 

Mike

Hi!

thanks a lot for clarifying the new rules for pedelec ebikes. still have one question however. are those bikes completely banned from dedicated cycle lanes in urban areas or still allowed but then up to a speed of 30km.

thanks in advance.

olivier

Great website :)

Thanks for an information that makes me sure to send my daughter to Holland. My daughter is 12 years old, Indonesian Champion for BMX Cross (Challenge) and Roadbike Series on her age ... 

So, for me and my daughter, Holland is our 'Land of Dream' (too many champ in a both discipline :) )

If you have any informations about cycling school and how to get like a 'scholarship', please give us a clue. Many many thanks for your help :)

Best regards,

Gilang (Jakarta Indonesia)

Hi Hilary and Steven,

Great blog about riding in Holland. I used to live across the border in Aachen, Germany and I'm impressed with the road conditions there. Unfortunately it was during the winter and I didn't get a lot of riding done.

Would definitely be back with my bike the next time.

Cheers,

Bernard

I have just completed the Rijnfietsroute from the Swiss mountains to Hoek van Holland, a wonderful trip - really enjoyable.

Cycling through the Netherlands was an absolute pleasure and I plan to return soon, this time with my wife. Your site looks like a great resource with which to plan our next cycle holiday.

Hi

Have used your site to plan trips after arriving in Holland.

Excellent website, very easy to use.

On my way to Holland at the end of May and can't WAIT to try out the country's cycling infrastructure.  Your day trips page is like a candy shop - so many choices!  I look forward to riding a few.  Thank you for a great page!

Love all your online bicycling info.  Thank you and greetings from Cologne.

Hi,

I had come to Groningen during the first week of May. It was a great experience to see people of all ages prefer cycling than cars. On seeing citizens cycling I reminded of some one telling that cyclists' nation does not create jobs, because , the nation of cyclists does not need gym, doctors, dentists, hospitals and medical shops every where. When citizens choose to travel through two or four wheelers, car industry grows, insurance companies pick up business, marketing people love to earn money, Macdonalds mint profit, dental surgeons are needed, general surgeons are order of the day due to fast food and fast life.

When I saw people cycling here, I went back to my school days in India,when I used my cycle to travel and roam all around. It was a fun. Cycle was considered to be poor man's wealth and vehicle. Due to market and materialist economy, the cycle has lost its glory and people think that having scooters and cars are symbol of prosperity. Now at the young age, people get heart attack,sugar, BP and what not. One has to pay through nose to lose weight. It is wonderful to know that Dutch people still love cycles and devote roads for cyclists. What an amazing experience in the world of materialism and chase for fast moving vehicles. The cycle may be slowest vehicle, but definitely the healthiest vehicle for mankind. This should be understood by citizens of world.

Almost after 35 years, I started using cycle in Groningen. What a delight. The joy of riding a cycle cannot be measured at the age of sixty. I recalled my college days in Coimbatore city in the state of Tamilnadu, India. Perhaps, cycle is the vehicle for good health and all other countries should follow Dutch in promoting cycle and cyclists , so that pollution is reduced and people lead a healthy life.

S.A.Srinivasa Sarma  
Groningen

I have been touring, recently in Holland riding a Saxonette. I prefer a two stroke engine to an electric bike. I take, with me, a 5 litre jerry tank reserve fuel. This gives me a total of 6 litres fuel, a range of 400 km!!  An electric bike must stop to recharge batteries. Also they deteriorate in time over 5/6 years. Replacement will cost €500/700 depending on type. 

I take Vrienden op de Fiets for overnachtingen. Very friendly and not expensive. €19.00 inclusive breakfast.

Saxonette facts.  Twee takt 30cc , 500 watts power rating, 1 litre fuel gives 70 km range. Max. speed 25 km/hr. Typical average speed when long distance touring is 15/16 km/hr.  

Looking forward to next year touring in Holland. Beautiful landscape. Onions and more onions! and potato velden everywhere! Very safe fietspaden. Belgium is years behind. They never planned their road systems years ago. Now it is too late and expensive to change. 

Groetjes,

Malcolm,
Brasschaat, Belgium

Hi,

I came across your website when doing a last minute search to come up with a plan for day one of our holiday when I realised how early we had to disembark from the ferry! We downloaded one of your day routes - Haarlem Dunes - and had a wonderful day's cycling, taking in a great variety of sights and landscape. I suggested your Amsterdam route to some friends who cycled it a week later, and said it was a lovely days cycle ride. Thank you

Love all the online bicycling info.  Thank you.

Hi, I´m from Brazil and I´m studying the cycling culture in several places in the world, including the regulations applied in those places.

I´ve just read the "Traffic rules and regulations for cyclists" and I wonder what are the punishment for cyclist who doesn´t follow those rules.

Thks a lot in advance!

Hi Hilary,

Your website has been the best resource that I have found while preparing for a tour in early May.  A friend and I will be riding from Amsterdam to Vendun via Venlo, then we will return to Amsterdam by train from Virton (BE).  Though we have not ridden in Holland before, we were attracted by the cycle-friendly culture in your country.  Last year we toured Spain, and seldom saw another bicycle.  One thing that is confusing in your region is the many different railroads with different rules for bikes.  I was gratified to see your post concerning the IC Direct trains allowing bicycles starting in “mid-2017”.  Do you know if a specific start date has been established for this service?

Thanks…………Steve Blagg

Thank you for such good concise information. I am hoping to bring my family for a cycling holiday in April and was worried about cycling from the Europort (from Hull) to Rotterdam - you have reassured me that it is safe to bring my children and that I can get a good map  (and which to buy). Thank you for such good information.

Thank you very much for the cycling information. Do you have other city pages or planning to add other city pages ? How do I get notifications for new update ? I don't have any idea about RSS feeds subscriptions.

Hi Hilary Staples,

Very helpful information on your website, thank you.

I'm a cycling enthusiast from East Africa, I do road and off road cycling on my Saracen 26" bike. I would love to do cycling in Holland sometime. Can you kindly connect me with a club or an individual I can share this interest with. I have never been to Europe before.

Regards,

Samuel Wanyoike

Are tandems included in bikes that can now be transported on Dutch trains?

Amazing service

I would like to thank the lovely young man at the red information point (bike services) outside Central Station Amsterdam opposite the ibis hotel for his assistance on Monday 12th September 2016 approximately 2/3pm.

The young man went over and beyond to help myself and my group as our rental bike was taken away as we did not chain the bike in the correct location.  

He spent time guiding us in the right direction, allocated the bike office in Sloterdijk, he helped us call the office and we were getting no where however he took control of the situation and spoke to someone at the Sloterdijk bike office so we knew the bike was there. He then helped us find a route via public transport and also he wrote down the address and transport route for our reference.

I would like to thank the charming and charismatic young man for all this help as we would have missed our flight if it was not for his helpfulness.

There were 2 men 1 older white gentleman who was always smiling and the charming helpful young black gentleman.

We have just returned from a month touring the Netherlands in our campervan. We downloaded  the cycle rides before we left and although we did not plan to we did the six we downloaded. They just happened to be in places we wanted to visit. 

Generally we had no difficulty following the routes although occasionally a number was missing but as most junctions had maps we were able to find our way easily. Cities or large towns proved the biggest challenge often because of extensive road works and signs were obscured by lorries of materials. We found in Friesland tourist information provided area maps with all the junction numbers on so we were bale to explore our own routes, other areas maps needed to be bought.

Main reason for the email is to thank you for the site it gave us confidence to give Holland a go in the 28 days we were in Holland we only had one day when we did not ride so thanks.

Thank you for creating a fantastic, easy to use, very informative website.  On Thursday I start cycling from London, UK to the Tulip Fields of Holland via Hoek van Holland ferry - can't wait!  Your website has answered all of my questions, provided me with lots of information I didn't have.  It is marvellous.  Thank you x

Hello Hilary & Steven, 

I would like to congratulate you both on this amazing web site, its been so informative. It has helped me with my planning of my cycle tour of the Netherlands which I start on Sunday. I will be riding a Dutch bike but still wearing my cycling kit. I'll keep you updated on my travels.

Pat (Melbourne, Australia)

Hello Hilary and Steven.

Firstly really great website thank you.  

We are planning to ride both the Middleburg and Vlissingen routes.  We have the personal choice to take either our full on road bikes (riding respectfully of course) or our mountain bikes.  I have google street viewed much of the route and we are still undecided which ones to take.  What would you prefer to ride if you had the choice, road or mountain bike ?

Thank you.

Ian Wright

 Dear Hilary and Steven

We are from Scotland and coming to the Netherlands in July principally to see Andre Rieu in Maastricht.

We will be bringing our bikes and apart from South Limburg are looking for somewhere to stay for about 4 days to have a look around.

Do you have any ideas for nearer to Amsterdam?

Heather and David

Dear people.

I took a Canadian friend, cyclist on a 900 km trip through Holland from September 14 through October 30 2015. Brilliant, did use your web site as my Garmin did not function very well.

Absolute great country with great people and tops for bicycling.

nico vd Stoop
Woodstock, Ontario
Canada

Hello,
I'm attending a conference in Delft this month and as I have a free day, I was planning to ride a bycicle from Delft to Den Haag and then I found your site. This is very nice one and I guess it will be very useful in my planning. I'm from São Paulo, Brazil and riding a bike here is not that easy but things are improving...
Thank you and regards,
Edson

I wanted to say Thanks to this website. I'm a french reader and soon, I'm going to Holland. I love the cycling and your informations are very good. Thanks for this.

Sorry for my english language...Ludivine.

hi! I'll be travelling to see the tour de France in the zeeland near the finish line. I've got few questions:
1- is the map on the website official?
2- I'll be travelling by train with my bicycle on the saterday (early in the day) to middleburg. will I have problems crossing over the neeltje jans that day will they be travel restrictions?
3- will it be possible to find a camping the satuday (day before race)??

thank you
cant wait!

HOI and sincere greetings to Hilary & Steven at HOLLAND-CYCLING.COM, and also to all fans and followers of this website! I'm a 'middle aged' male from the UK and a very keen general cyclist, including touring cycling. I am a big big fan of this website and what it stands for, and a big fan of the Netherlands and it's culture generally - what an interesting (and often underated) nation it is! I only wish that the UK, and other english speaking nations around the world, could enjoy the same level of top quality cycling infrastructure, culture, and government investment in real everyday cycling needs and safety!

Over the last few months since discovering, I have been helping to 'spread the word' about this great and very informative website of very useful information, that I sense many visiting tourists (and especialy those new to cycling) will find invaluable to make the most of their cycling adventures in the Netherlands!

As someone in the UK who has done a little cycling campaigning from time to time, I am very aware throughout the UK just how poor infrastructure can be, which in turn discourages people from regular cycling (which all too often means sharing busy integrated motor traffic roads). It is sad that many people are discouraged from regular cycling in their own home countries, because they are not aware of just how good and safe regular everyday cycling can be in highly motivated nations like the Netherlands (not just "holland" but the whole of the Netherlands!), which is why I was only too glad to help by bringing this great site to the attention of such unaware cyclists :o)

Not only is the Netherlands a great liberal and motivated people orientated nation that is well worth experiancing for ones self, but also it is only by directly experiencing such excellent standards of cycling needs, that other people can be inspired to campaign at home for equally good investment in well planned infrastructure, and facilities for cyclists, and especially so over the needs of damaging motor vehicles.

Although I am UK born I do have a hint of 'oranje' in me, which is possibly the reason why cycling is important to me and also second nature to me. Yet there were still some things I have learnt from this website, that will be put to good use when I take my bike to NL for the first time next year (2015)! I'm also a keen nature photographer, and like very much the picture galllery here. I like a little 'bicycle art' with my information :o)

I find that the best websites out there, are the ones written and produced by individual people themselves who care about what they are giving to the world, as opposed to a profit making organisation or company... so well done Hilary and Steven for giving us this website!! "It's really Gouda!" :o)

Kurt in the UK, and his trusty bike "Silver"!

Hi, I've moved to Holland this year and I'm really enjoying the cycling - your website has provided some great information but I have one question: what gps can you recommend for cycling in NL? I use my Garmin Nuvi in my car all the time and it saves a lot of map-reading. I'd like to be able to download cycle routes e.g. some of your gpx files.

Thanks, Monty

My wife and I are traveling from Portland, Oregon, USA. We have a trip planned to bike one-way between Amsterdam and Bruges. Sept 3-12.

It seems quite easy, EXCEPT for concerns about the wind. What is the predominant wind direction? We are thinking going Bruges to Amsterdam - and hope to have the wind at our back. Is this correct?

PS: Great site in English - !

Hello,

Last month (June) a friend and I spent two amazing weeks cycling Holland with the help of this wonderful sites resources. We had not one problem and info provided here on this site assured us one memorable trip! I've recommended this site (and cycling in the Netherlands ) to many cycling friends. Thank you!

Robert

Hi there !

I am going to do Zuiderzee Route this summer! I need some help! At first I'd like to know if July is a good month for one week bike travel :-) ? Won't it be very hot? At second how much will cost the rent of bike for me for one week? And at last I've heard that Zuiderzee Route isn't very difficult..I mean there are no hills or mountains...is it true ? :-) I am not professional and not very...sportive girl ))))))))))))))))))))

Thanks in adv :-)

I can't tell you enough how helpful this website is. I'm from Australia and coming over in August for a wedding. I really wanted to bring my own bike with me but it's way too much hassle, especially given how easy it should be for me to hire a bike over there!

Anyways keep up the awesome work!

Ben

We, a couple at the age of 60, plan to visit Holland on August 2014 for about a week. We'll have a car and carry our own bikes. The enormous availability of bicycle trails is confusing so it is very difficult to plan.

I'd request your recommendations for up to 10 daily trips (every day separate), 60-90 Km each, that will allow us to see the most beautiful landscape and monuments.

Thanks,
Itzik Yoffe

Thank you for a great site. This is first time I am visiting and there is just so much useful and relevant info in one place. Excellent! It would have taken me several cycling trips to holland to discover all of this. I feel inspired and enabled to plan a longer cycling holiday in Holland for the summer. Thank you :)