Our first cycle tour in the Netherlands

Kids Bike Search

210 bikes match

Is a cycle touring holiday with young children realistic, or just a recipe for tired little legs? Cycle Sprog review panel member Dan Wilkinson and his family decided to find out.

With Robyn (5) and Harry (3) along for the ride, Dan and Kate took the overnight ferry from Newcastle to Amsterdam for May half term, armed with camping kit, plenty of bags and very little in the way of a plan.

Over five days they cycled around 200km through the Netherlands, letting the wind and weather decide where they went. In this blog, Dan shares how the trip unfolded, from playgrounds and museums to beach days and a lot of chips, along with practical advice on packing, route planning, food, booking campsites and cycling with little ones.

If you're thinking about your first family cycle holiday, it's a great place to start.

About Dan and his family:

We are a family of four: Dan, Kate, Robyn (5) and Harry (3). We really started to cycle recreationally when Robyn was around a year old.

We could go on family adventures with her happily coming along in a trailer, and we felt as though we were being active. Over time we progressed to balance bikes, front seats, a double trailer and a tag-along, with plenty of adventures on all of them.

We are really fortunate that both our children enjoy cycling, can now pedal their own bikes independently, and love being outside.

At some point last autumn we were discussing holiday plans and throwing ideas around. We have always been into the outdoors, and are very passionate about sharing this with our children. Having spent some time researching adventures with children, we felt cycle touring was something we would all enjoy as a family.

To test the theory that we'd enjoy it, we booked the Newcastle to Amsterdam ferry as cyclists for May half term, on a sink or swim basis. We'd either have a great time, or regret our life choices for a week!

The only overnight trip by bike we had done before was a 20km ride into Düsseldorf to stay in a hotel for the night. We hadn't really considered how we would carry four people's worth of camping equipment for four nights whilst also pedalling with two children, but we took the view that once it was booked, we would work it out from there!

Cycling onto the ferry in Newcastle felt like the start of a real adventure. The ferry travels overnight, departing around 5pm and arriving around 9am the next day.

Having a mini cabin was an experience in itself, with fold-down bunks and a small en suite. As we sailed out of Newcastle, we checked the weather and started to think about the route we would follow over the next five days.

We'd deliberately left route planning until the last moment, as we had read on a couple of blogs that wind has the biggest effect on cyclists in the Netherlands. With no real target in mind, we had decided to go wherever the wind took us!

Strong winds and a heavy band of rain were forecast for our first night ashore, so we bravely booked a hotel in Amsterdam, as we didn't want a torrid start to the adventure.

We had a picnic dinner on the ferry, and booked the breakfast buffet (kids eat free!) for the morning we arrived.

The ride from the ferry terminal into Amsterdam took a couple of hours and was the least pleasant riding of the trip (but still significantly nicer than any riding at home!).

We managed to beat the rain, which was our main focus, and had a great few hours exploring Amsterdam. I'm sure there is a nicer route, but on the first day we just used Google Maps to find our way into and through the city to our hotel.

Over the following days the weather improved significantly, so we left the shelter of the hotel and headed west towards Linnaeushof (marketed as Europe's largest playground!). We set up camp at a nearby campsite and spent the afternoon at the playground.

On day three we headed towards The Hague and spent the afternoon at the children's literature museum (highly recommended). Day four saw us following the coast north-east and spending the night at Camping de Lakens (again, highly recommended!), before spending our final day on the beach and heading back to catch the ferry home.

Over the five days we cycled around 200km (140 miles), spending a couple of hours in the saddle each day and the rest of the time exploring, playing, or cycling between campsites and attractions.

The biggest questions we had before the trip were around the logistics, so I've broken down how we approached some of these challenges and what worked well for us.

Luggage for the trip:

We each had two rear panniers, and borrowed a set of front panniers and a front rack from a friend.

In these we managed to pack four sleeping bags and mats, a cook set and a change of clothes each, as well as spare shoes, a wash kit (with mini pack towels), snacks, and a couple of activity books and card games.

On top of our rear racks, I carried the tent and Kate had a dry bag for our waterproofs and warm layers. Kate also had a frame bag holding the repair kit, pump and first aid kit, and we each had a handlebar bag with easy-to-reach jackets, locks and more snacks.

It was surprisingly easy to pack everything into the bags: two of the rear panniers held two sleeping bags and mats each, one held our clothing, and the other held the overspill and wash kit. The front panniers held our cooking equipment and food.

Route planning:

We chose not to tie ourselves to a route ahead of time. Having camping equipment meant we could be really flexible about where we were heading and how far we rode each day, and we could work around the weather.

We were totally flexible, to the point that we had discussed just staying at one campsite and cycling out from there each day if the weather stayed inclement.

Once we had chosen a destination, we used Komoot (a route planning app) to plan the best cycle route and check out any must-see sections or points of interest on the day's ride.

Eating:

Whilst we carried a stove and an emergency pack of Super Noodles each, we ate chips. Lots of chips! We generally picked up breakfast the night before (we carried a box of cereal and topped this up with fruit and yoghurt), and had some cheese slices and a cucumber so we could make sandwiches whenever we found a bakery on the route.

We had planned to have takeaways for dinner to cut down on faff and make the most of our holiday time, so frites a few times were a win!

Booking accommodation:

We used Google Maps to find campsites a day in advance, once we had a clear weather forecast, and booked them either online or by email.

The campsites were very supportive and flexible towards cycle tourers, with many not offering one-night stays on their websites, but accepting them by email.

Prices varied from €30 to €55 a night for the family, depending on facilities, but all the campsites we stayed at were lovely. Our hotel in Amsterdam cost €120 for the first night, including breakfast.

We would seriously consider staying in hotels for a shorter trip, as the price difference wasn't very much once the included breakfast was taken into account.

Cycling with little ones

We both had a FollowMe Tandem set up on our bikes. This is a coupling that attaches a child's own bike to the back of an adult's bike, lifting the child's front wheel off the ground so they can pedal along or rest.

These gave us the most flexibility for fully loading the panniers without worrying about clearance, the most stability (they pull from your axle, rather than seatpost) and are really robust.

They also allow us to disconnect so the children can ride their own bikes unencumbered by us, and let us tow tired legs when needed.

This flexibility meant that when exploring towns, we could lock up our bikes and wander freely with the children riding their own bikes, without always having to find somewhere to leave our fully laden bikes.

From our experience, we can recommend the following kit:

Rear pannier racks: Sonder
Panniers: Ortlieb
Front fork cages: Blackburn fork-mounted cages (cages that bolt on to the front forks to carry extra bags). We bought these for this trip and didn't need the space, but they have proved useful since!

Towing: FollowMe Tandem
The kids are big fans of their Alpkit inflatable mats.
One has a Decathlon children's sleeping bag, and for the other we tie a strap around the foot of an adult sleeping bag. I wouldn't bother with a children's sleeping bag again, as they're not as light as adult ones!

Top tips for others thinking of doing a Cycling trip with their kids:

Do it! Both children said it was their best holiday ever.

Invest in padded shorts for your children. Decathlon do some (we bought ours a couple of sizes up and they wear them on the outside of their clothes!).

Take sleep masks if you're camping in the summer months.

Be flexible. We had hoped to head north from the ferry port, but the weather dictated otherwise, and with the flexibility shown by the campsites it was really easy to bounce around.