We recommend getting to Amsterdam early (or even a couple of nights before) to discover this wonderful city. Enjoy the famous squares of Dam or Rembrandtplein or spend some time on a canal boat and explore the city by water.
Spend the morning exploring the city or visiting the Van Gogh or Anne Frank museum before starting your ride through Kennermerland. Your ride today takes you across vast polders, through woods and country estates before arrival in Haarlem. If you travel in April or early May, you can extend your ride to 60km to visit the famous surrounding tulip fields.
We recommend exploring Haarlem in the morning. The city is famous for its hofje, tiny houses facing a quiet, idyllic courtyard and these are well worth visiting.
In the afternoon, enjoy a colourful trip through the Dune and Bulb region. Like the day before, if you arrive in April or early May, you will be rewarded with vibrant colours as the bulb fields bloom in all their splendour. Tulips, daffodils and hyacinths all grow across this landscape.
Your day finishes in Leiden where you can explore this wonderful old university town’s cafes, monuments, windmills and museums.
Today offers a ride through typically Dutch scenery. You will cross yet more polders, pass by old windmills and farmhouses as you pedal towards Delft.
Delft is most famous for the blue and white hand painted pottery called Delftware. Visit small authentic shops still creating these pieces and enjoy a pancake in one of its many cafes.
This morning you will ride through the Groene Hart, or Green Heart, in the Randstad. Its a land that rails against urban sprawl, retaining its rural character characterised by its vibrant green fields. The Green Heart has numerous separated cycle paths allowing you to delve into the countryside.
You will arrive at the city of Gouda at the end of the day. Famous of course for its cheese, don’t miss the famous gothic town hall and inner city canals.
If you are travelling in summer and are in Gouda on a Thursday, spend some time exploring the world famous cheese market.
Then its time to get back on your bike for the longest leg of your bike tour. Your day will be spent riding down the Amstel river and through the Green Heart. Stop for some apple tart en route and explore the beauty of this region.
If 78km is too far, you can spend an extra night in Woerden making today 30km and the following day 48km.
Enjoy a leisurely breakfast at the hotel before departing for your homeward travel.
It’s not called the lowlands for nothing with half the country being less than a metre above sea level. You can be assured of almost entirely flat riding from place to place and the experience of crossing the Dutch polders, land reclaimed from the sea which helps provide the Netherlands with such fertile land.
