1.5 to 2.5 hour bike ride on our own

Posted by dayto on 09/28/15 01:47 AM

We would like to try a bike ride from Amsterdam (from central station area) & do just a short/medium ride to see if our kids will like it.

We thought about taking the free ferry to Broeke & then do some biking from there ; I have read that Edam would be fun to see (but only 1 windmill); where else would you suggest?

OR, we have thought about doing a bike ride in the Zaanse Schans (I guess we would take the train to here), rent bikes, but then would we just ride bike around this area, or some other little towns/villages near by?

OR, do you have other thoughts? Again, we are hoping to just do approx. 2 hour bike tour, but would appreciate your expert advise.

THANKS!

Posted by Rachel

Washington

09/28/15 02:23 AM

920 posts

Hi,
I did a bike tour with a very small company called Yubike. I notice they are now offering what they call "excursions" in Amsterdam. A few hours; can include lunch if you like. The owners are nice people and may be able to tailor something for your needs if you want to go with just your family but would like a local guide to bike along with you. Their website is www.yubike.org.

Posted by dayto OP

09/29/15 02:50 AM

10 posts

Hi Rachel:

THANKS for giving me some info. We really don't want any type of guide....we just want to go biking with the 4 of us. We are just wondering which way to go for approx 2 hours......go to Zaanse Schans or go to Broeke and bike from there?

Is there a good map that I could down load so that I could understand/calculate how long it will take from one town to another?

Posted by Robert

Colorado Springs

09/29/15 03:19 AM

2980 posts

Another possibility is to head up to the scenic little village of Marken after you exit the free ferry. It's a fairly level ride all the way, and the route takes you up on one of the dikes next to the Ijmeer. Very pretty, and not much traffic. Took us about an hour and a half as I recall. The bike shops sell a detailed map of all the dedicated bike paths in and around the city - costs a couple of Euros.

Posted by Ceidleh

Boston, MA, United States

09/30/15 12:17 AM

1806 posts

You can catch a commuter train from Amsterdam to Rotterdam and then take the water bus to Kinderdijk. Bike rentals are available at Kinderdijk and there are nice bike paths that are pretty flat and easy for kids and non-athletic types - and your kids can see the more than a dozen windmills as they ride their bikes. Bike rentals are by the hour, so if they tire of it quickly, you can at least walk around the area and take a tour inside one of the windmills while you are out there.

Posted by Kim

San Francisco

09/30/15 01:52 PM

1008 posts

We did that this past summer. We caught the Waterland bus (http://www.localbus.nl/) from Centraal Station (go through and behind the station) and started in Edam. We went to Volendam and Monnickendam (more because we wanted to ride than the destinations). It was super easy to find your way around, easy paths, well marked! We also used our google maps a bit.

We rented from Ton which is just around the corner from the Edam bus "station" (parking lot).

It was really fun and easy! You really have to stay on the right though because we didn't see many other bikers out there, but the ones we did see were ZOOMING!

Here is my blog post about that day:
http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gatorfreud/2/1439337600/tpod.html

Have fun!
Kim