Bicycle rides in The Netherlands

Neither Rotterdam to Kinderdijk or The Hague to Delft is a particularly picturesque bike ride. It’s mostly, if not all, only built up area where you will be biking thru. The only exception is the last part of the way from Rotterdam to Kinderdijk.
From Leiden to Haarlem is much more scenic, but it’s almost a 2 hour bike ride one way. Which means 3.5 to 4 hours to get to Haarlem and back to Leiden. Are you up for that?

Hi Jill,

My teenage son and I spent spring break in Amsterdam, I think 2018, and we rented bikes and rode into the area known as Waterland. https://www.amsterdamtips.com/waterland-amsterdam

We rented bikes from a bike shop behind Centraal Station. I looked at Google maps and it appears the shop is still there. Starbikes Rental. If you google "bike rental Centraal Station Amsterdam" and look at the google map, you'll see that there are several bike rental shops there. You can also see that there are ferry routes marked crossing the Ij river. I think we used the ferry closest to the bike shop. Still looking at the same google map showing bikes shops at Centraal Station, zoom out a bit and see the A100 highway...we crossed under it and rode right along the coast as far as Uitdam. We looped back and had lunch in Holysloot at a schoolhouse that had been converted into a cafe.

Along the way there are little fishing harbors, campgrounds, villages, farmland with cows, and views of the North Sea. It was so quiet out there I could hardly believe we were just a few miles from Amsterdam. This ride was one of the highlights of our trip.

the bike paths were signposted the whole way. We could have gone as far as Marken if we had gotten an early start. We also got a paper map from the bike shop with a suggested route through waterland.

I read this article before we went; you might find it helpful; it also has a route map: https://bromptoning.com/traveling-adventures/cycle-route-amsterdam-waterland/

I second what kayla.p. says. Very lovely area just north of Amsterdam. You can include if you like a ferry ride between Volendam and Marken in case you have enough time.

Biking along the Vecht between Weesp and Utrecht is another option. Best part is between Vreeland and Breukelen. Taking the train to the latter is possible and including a visit to De Haar Castle with village Haarzuilens is worth considering too.

In 2017 our family road bikes from central Amsterdam north to Zaanse Schans (old windmill cluster and museum). Great memory. It was about 20Km. We brought our bikes with us on the train for a ride back. I believe you can bring bikes on many of the trains so riding one way somewhere and getting a lift back is an option (or vice versa)

Just returned yesterday from a 9-day bike trip through the Netherlands. From Leiden we cycled to Delft. That is a beautiful ride and fabulous city. We were on a self-guided tour organized by Dutch Bike Tours. Dutchbiketours.com They handled all of the arrangements from bike rental to providing GPS tracks. Although they specialize in longer tours like ours, they were quite responsive and seem to have bikes all over the Netherlands. Perhaps they could do private tour for you. If you are familiar with aps like "Ride with GPS," you may be able to search for your own tracks and plan a circle ride. Our one-way track to Delft was about 19 miles. We spent two days in Leiden and, on the extra day, we plotted our own round trip track to Keukenhof Gardens (22 miles) using ride with GPS. I think that, sadly. you are too late for the Garden. You really should pursue your biking plan, it absolutely is the best way to really see the Netherlands. You will be amazed at the high quality, traffic separated bike routes. Enjoy!

I did 2 bike tours. One in Haarlem around the national park and the beach and the other I got bikes in Hillegom and rode around Lisse. I don't think it matters where you ride bikes as long as its not in Amsterdam as that is too crazy. Why not ride a bike from Delft to Scheveningen beach ? that would probably be a nice ride.

Surprisingly even to myself, I've done every bike ride described or proposed so far in this thread. Information on all of them is accurate.

I think your best bet for a memorable beautiful bike ride might be out of Leiden. Both north and south of Leiden you eventually wend through pretty coastal dune areas with dedicated bike paths. I've seen herds of wild horses out there.

If you ride North to Haarlem you can catch the train back. Provided it's not rush hour in the wrong time of the year on given weekdays. Google Netherlands rail bicycle rules, pretty straightforward. And if you do catch a train back, eventhough it's a short trip try to be conscientious of other users and keep the bicycles out of the way.

Below there is a link to my "day off" ride last summer from Leiden to Haarlem. I returned by train since it wasn't a touring day, but rather just a bike ride on a day off from the bike tour. I liked this route - pretty scenery took me right past the Dutch boy with finger in dyke (from the Hans Brinker story) statue just outside of Haarlem.

https://www.komoot.com/tour/933145279?ref=avs&share_token=aNXWe7Wf7Orw8J0fHzW3t1cen4JEep5p4NsqKNVvEDUSKDx4zU

And here is a part of a different day out of Leiden that I rode with my 10 year old daughter. Shorter as with my kid. It is the second half of that day's ride; in the morning we rode from Leiden to the pretty awesome Duinrell amusement park, easy ride, maybe an hour. Duinrell is charmingly themed (it's like a Dutch themed diversion of Knott's Berry farm) with some thrilling roller coasters and such. Maybe your kids are too old. But anyway, the first part of this journey not on my route map takes you through pretty farmland, then some of the wealthiest exurbs in the Netherlands - it's horsey country with big houses and English riding outfits. And then you pass through the most beautiful dunes area in the Netherlands. When you hit the beach area near the Hague, all of a sudden there are boardwalks and beach club restaurants, fresh herring and fries stands, ferris wheels - the full on North Sea coast tourism experience.

Again you could loop back to Lieden by train, or maybe better catch the train out, and then ride back.

https://www.komoot.com/tour/75420159?ref=avs&share_token=aQfTh59Pm2ndFFUVJlWVmb0Aqayn68fFDVBEprFgmUFpC2KsMe

Edit: the end of the above ride we didn't go right along the beach, but you of course can. That's also a fine ride.

One more idea, You can do a big ring around Leiden. The near in countryside around Leiden, particularly to the North and Northeast where there's a lot of sailing going on, is really pretty. Lots of tiny little bike lanes with quaint little bridges going over little canals, cheery little ferry boats to go across the longer stretches of water. It's a worthwhile day.

Great ideas. Thank you!

My wife and I recently returned from vacation in the Netherlands - staying in Amsterdam and Delft. Our hotel in Amsterdam (the Kimpton De Witt) had a small fleet of bikes for guests to use. In Delft, we rented bikes at the Halfords in town (10euro/day). Definitely get/use bikes!
One valuable tool we "discovered" was the "fietsknoop" system (www.fietsknoop.nl/) and the app that goes along with it. It is a waypoint system that lets you plan or follow routes throughout all of the Netherlands. Check it out. When I was familiar with it, I was able to plan out a beautiful 60km ride around Delft that took in all sorts of beautiful countryside. Prior to using the app, I was generally navigating by google maps which worked fine, but often chose less scenic routes in favor of direct ones. In the Netherlands, though, there are about a dozen ways to get to any one place, so we often adapted our google-suggested routes with our own assessment of a path while riding to make it more scenic but slightly less direct.

Also, talk to locals. We rode our bikes to a canoe adventure, and were discussing our trip back to Amsterdam, and the guide gave us a really nice suggestion bike route that was great and not on our radar until that point.
It was SUPER easy to get around by bike, so I'd suggest making bike rides a more central component to your visit. IOW, not just a single outing on the bikes, but regular and daily use (weather permitting) where you get around primarily by bike or foot.
Another thing to remember is that it is a VERY short distance on bike from "big city" hustle to "country" quiet. From Amsterdam, it was a short ride from the hotel to the ferries, a free ferry ride, and then rapidly into the suburbs and then countryside. From Delft, it was even quicker. I'm guessing it is similar across the country.

Jill drilling down a little on safety advice, know that while the Netherlands has the best cycling infrastructure in the world, nearly 300 cyclists were killed in traffic accidents in 2022. That's close to one person per day killed on a bike. And given that these deaths are violent trauma, it's likely that at least twice that many people suffered brutal life-changing injury but survived.

You don't want any part of any of that! Here's my number one tip for keeping yourself safe as an unfamiliar rider in the Netherlands, garnered from easily more than 1,000 mi of bike touring around that country:

Understand an internalize what the triangles on the ground at intersections mean. If you see triangles painted on the tarmac across your pathway with the pointy end pointed at you, that means that you do not have the right of way at that crossing! Usually there is no other sign or indication beyond the triangles that you need to yield or stop.

The Dutch all ride bicycles, and are very respectful, but there's an absolute expectation that you understand the traffic system and abide by it. The traffic signs and complexity of the bicycle paths can get confusing if you are not brought up in that system. One thing you want to do for sure is keep other people safe. So know where you are going and where you are supposed to be so you don't crash into other bicycles. But in my experience, by far the biggest significant life-changing or life-threatening danger that you will face is riding out into an intersection we're triangles on the ground are the only indicator that you are supposed to yield and getting blasted by a car that is 100% expecting you to stop.

So know what those triangles mean. Internalize it so that it is reflexive. I've included an image below of what this looks like. The surrounding context in the image is pretty calm and easy. Know that things can also be more complex busy and chaotic and you still need to see these triangles and obey the yield.

https://imgur.com/a/P3EYzGM

Make sure everyone in your group understands an internalizes the triangles. If someone goes out front, you can't protect them with your knowledge. If someone's lagging behind same problem.

And then the hedge a bit: although the Netherlands is a small country, with a small population, there is a massive number of miles cycled every year. Because everyone has a bike and everyone rides it nearly every day. As such, the 300ish deaths a year is inflated by a huge amount of bicycle riding. And then the other thing is that this number has risen in the past 10 years due to e-bikes. There's been a steady rise in seniors dying on e-bikes from head trauma. This is because the e-bike is goes faster than their cognitive competency, and because they don't wear helmets. Death rates on regular bicycles and among younger riders have remained fairly steady.

In my estimate, the second and more secondary thing you should be aware of as far as safety goes is that people will ride scooters and other fast moving vehicles on bicycle paths in the Netherlands. These scooters have the expectation that you are going to maintain your position towards the right side of the lane. If you are not used to the fact that you could be passed on the left at pretty high speed by a fairly quiet electric scooter, it's easy enough to lose focus on a long ride and drift out to the left when it seems like there's just no one around. But be aware that occasionally faster motorized traffic can pass by anywhere in the country, even out in the fields and whatnot.

I'm quite cautious about mitigating catastrophic risk. But I certainly go out and live my life. So not at all meaning to be alarmist or to dissuade; it's just in my nature to identify the major worst risks and do what is possible to minimize them. Going for a bike ride in the Netherlands is generally safe and a wonderful rewarding experience, so have fun 🙂

While in Amsterdam, if you have time, rent bikes and take them on the free ferry to the North and in 15 minutes you'll be riding in the countryside with farms and windmills and little villages with old churches. Make sure to get a good map!

We were just at Kinderdijk and quite a few people bike on paved paths to see all the windmills there. Very picturesque and a nice way to visit all 19 windmills. We also loved bicycling in Vondelpark on the weekend with lots of Amsterdammers. Enjoy your trip!

I want to echo what Hank said about watching out for scooters (or other bikes) passing you on your left. I nearly got hit a few times because I drifted out to the left. It seemed that other bicyclists were more scary than cars. Cars would go slowly behind while bikes went speeding by me. I never saw those triangles Hank mentions but I found myself getting off and walking at busy intersections anyway. I hope this doesn't discourage you. I had the best time riding around Amsterdam. Just be careful.

“ If you see triangles painted on the tarmac across your pathway with the pointy end pointed at you, that means that you do not have the right of way at that crossing! Usually there is no other sign or indication beyond the triangles that you need to yield or stop.”

I guess you were too focused on the triangles on the road that you missed the traffic signs. The triangles on the road are always accompanied by a sign that’s shaped like a triangle; https://www.informatiebord.nl/oefenen/verkeersborden-overzicht/87/b06-voorrangskruising-verleen-voorrang/

The sign next to the road and the painted triangles on the road are complementary to each other. Some people pay more attention to indications on the road and some people pay more attention to traffic signs. Also there must always be a traffic sign in case the road is covered by snow for instance.

DutchTraveler I think you might be wrong that the yield triangles on the road are ALWAYS accompanied by a sign? Maybe I've been missing the the signs sometimes, but it seems like the triangles are sometimes there without a sign ....

It's your country so you're probably right (my Friesan friend Bouwina jokes that it's wonderful being Dutch, but hard always being right, and exhausting always letting everyone else know). I'll pay closer attention on my week of bike touring this year and probably end up confirming your claim that the triangles don't exist without a sign. :)

Notwithstanding the above, it's important for foreign cyclists to understand what those triangles mean and to pay attention for them - no fun getting hit by truck on vacation, or causing someone else to be hurt avoiding you!