During our trip to the Netherlands, we are renting a car the third weekend in May and driving out to Zutphen, which will be our home base for two nights. We need to be in Amsterdam on Monday afternoon to meet our friends who are flying in then.
We will be driving to see Kamperveen, my grandmother's birthplace, probably on Sunday. Other than that, we have no definite plans. We would appreciate any suggestions on what to see in the area between Zutphen and Kampen, or anywhere in that general area. We enjoy walking and taking in the culture and ambience of different settings and will skip any museums during this outing. I was thinking of stopping in Amersfoort for an hour or two on the way out to Zutphen on Saturday. Should we also stop in Utrecht? We would appreciate recommendations!
Posted by
North Carolina
2492 posts
You will be right close to the Hoge Veluwe National Park, which is lovely.
Posted by
IJzendijke, The Netherlands
2084 posts
Hi,
If you want to visit Utrecht or Amersfoort, take the train as it is likely you wil have to pay more for parking your car there than the train tickets wil cost, supposing you travel with two. The train will be anyway quicker and more convenient. So rent a car from one of these two places or look if it is better taking the train further to Zutphen and rent a car there for the daytrips.
Small and intimate, Zutphen is really a very nice place to stay and one of the best preserved historical cities of the Netherlands. Last June I stayed near Deventer, just a bit lesser nice as Zutphen, but certainly worth a visit. The route north to Zwolle along the river Yssel is scenic and Hattem is a lovely place to recommend. I drove over the “IJsseldijk” along the leftbank to Heerde and further Hattem. The countryside has still something unspoiled there and you can see a lot of houses and farms with thatched roofs. From Hattem it’s a short drive to Kamperveen.
Never visited Zwolle or Kampen but know they are nice historical places and worth to consider. A bit west of Kamperveen Elburg and more north of Zwolle is not to miss Giethoorn (if it is not overrun) and to my opinion Blokzijl worth the detour. Further I am not so familiar with what to see east of Zutphen, but enjoyed visiting once Ootmarsum. Around the countryside there are several estates with castles or luxury mansions that can be of interest to visit or walking.
Main draw more west is palace “Het Loo” near Apeldoorn, will open it’s doors coming April after years of renovation. With a bit of luck you can buy seperate tickets for the gardens, but not sure if this will be the case. You say you want to skip museums, maybe not the Open Air Museum just north of Arnhem. In Brummen near Zutphen there is a huge classic car dealer, as far as I know you just can walk in.
Wil