Biking Rotterdam to Kinderdijk

The Fietsknoop system is a wayfinding system. It is not a network of bike paths. Basically there is a network of numbered markers with signs point at other nearby markers. By noting down the numbers you can ride your route without needing a navigation system or map.

It is not going to be all separate bike paths. A lot of the routes will just be on quiet side streets for example.

But you will be sharing the street with cars at places. Luckily for you those car drivers are cyclists themselves, and know how to behave.

It’s not the most scenic route between Rotterdam and Kinderdijk you plan to follow. But have dedicated bike paths, except the road along the river between node 58 (54?) and 14 (61). There is no room for this, nevertheless road marks show the bike lane. With speed limits for the other traffic it’s in general safe to bike around there.

@wengenk and @wil are correct, and the network does sometimes run along roads vs separated bike lanes, but, like they write, it is not a "dangerous" situation for cycling as cyclists are all over, the drivers are often cyclists too, and the routes picked are using paths or generally quiet roads.

In many rides using the fietsknoop network, my wife and I have NEVER felt in danger. A few routes I built were not the most "beautiful", but I got better at that every time I was building routes. When in question, I'd look at things like Google street view to figure it out, but honestly, its a pretty darn great network, and I would have almost no reservations taking your route - and would actually strongly recommend doing that ride and then adding other cycling trips as well. One of our first fietsknoop routes was a hodge-podge one I threw together from Delft to Rotterdam. It was a bit of a "mess" - ie not the most scenic option - but it got us there and back easy peasy, and once I figured out I could use the app on my phone and get point-to-point navigation, it became immensely easier.

So, I'd suggest the app (and maybe a single ear bud for the audio) on your phone and a cheap handlebar phone mount to make it super easy to navigate that path (gonna be relatively short and easy anyway) and for the 10 mile ride, I'd budget an hour or so (not knowing the ferry schedule which are often pretty good) for the ride.

Also, the last set of pints looks like 58 (not 54) to 14, and then either a ferry to 31 ...or... to 61 then a ferry to 03, so you have a couple options getting over the river, but not sure which is better.

Thank you, WengenK, Wil, and Tom R, for these helpful replies and reassurance about the bike routes, even noticing that I had one of my node numbers wrong. I hadn't realized there are ferries at both 14 and 61. The fietsknoop website has links to the ferry websites and it looks like 14 to 31 runs 6 times an hour, while 61 to 3 runs about every 40 minutes, but is the same dock as the water bus.

And I was inspired to look at the fietsknoop from previous posts about biking in the Netherlands and Belgium, so I also appreciate all the other posts you have answered!

The ferry between 14 and 31 carries foot passengers and (a few) cars. The other between 61 and 03 only foot passengers. Having a bike or not you can make use of both ferries, but think the first is the cheapest.

If you have enough time and energy you can bike to Schoonhoven and well preserved Nieuwpoort. And continue to Gouda, biking along Vlist and Haastrecht. In Gouda you can take the bike on the train back to Rotterdam for instance. No idea with all trains, so check out before starting your bike trip.