LF2 Alternatives

[The Crofted Crest]

The Friends on Bikes website is https://www.vriendenopdefiets.nl/en. You pay an annual membership fee of 18 euros (2021 prices). An overnight stay in someone's house is 22.50 euros per person per night (including breakfast: you will in event have a boiled egg!). Hosts prefer it if you book at least one night ahead (it gives them time to stock up on eggs). For your membership fee, you get a membership card, a book of addresses and access to addresses on the the website. The website is obviously more up to date -- and therefore more reliable -- than the book. Some hosts have stopped hosting because of the pandemic, but in my experience not many. We've never had a bad experience as guests but we stopped hosting because we'd get a telephone call on a Friday evening just as we were about to go out and the caller would say something like "We'll be at your house in half an hour and we'd like pasta. There are six of us". Friends on Bikes also has addresses in Belgium (and Germany) and is open to cyclists and walkers.

NB Evening meals are not provided. Many hosts will let you make sandwiches for lunch if you don't eat everything at breakfast.

 

[nylontoestraps]

As already said you won't be doing much cycling on the road. There are cycle paths everywhere and if available you're expected to use them. Traffic won't be shy about letting you know.

Because you're on paths you shouldn't count too much on high speed travel, some of the paths can become quite congested depending on location, time etc.

I've no idea of your cycling fitness but three 100km days in a row can be a lot if you're not used to it. Since it's your first tour I'd encourage you to give yourselves lots of time. A mechanical, bad weather, going a bit off course can all lead to pressure. Of course, the great advantage over there is that you can always hop on a train to make up time.

If you do a search of the forum using the right keywords you'll find lots of info from previous threads.

I can understand the urge to follow a route, especially for a first timer, but in all honesty Belgium & NL are probably the easiest places to cycle. Depending on your likes, interests and preferences you could make up your own route that will be equal in quality to an existing one.

Good luck!

Thanks for the reply, appreciate your input Irritated car drivers ? It'll be just like home then !

Plan currently is to travel to Brussels early morning and ride to Antwerp (50km), then Antwerp to Rotterdam the next day (105km) and finally Rotterdam to Amsterdam (75km). Fitness levels are pretty decent, sore backsides may be the issue for a couple of the party ! Want to make the most of the time in Amsterdam as we're meeting some other friends there so won't be straying too far off the paths. Certainly will be looking at a day trip out from Amsterdam after a rest day though.

Thanks again for the response, all the best

 

[nylontoestraps]

The Friends on Bikes website is https://www.vriendenopdefiets.nl/en. You pay an annual membership fee of 18 euros (2021 prices). An overnight stay in someone's house is 22.50 euros per person per night (including breakfast: you will in event have a boiled egg!). Hosts prefer it if you book at least one night ahead (it gives them time to stock up on eggs). For your membership fee, you get a membership card, a book of addresses and access to addresses on the the website. The website is obviously more up to date -- and therefore more reliable -- than the book. Some hosts have stopped hosting because of the pandemic, but in my experience not many. We've never had a bad experience as guests but we stopped hosting because we'd get a telephone call on a Friday evening just as we were about to go out and the caller would say something like "We'll be at your house in half an hour and we'd like pasta. There are six of us". Friends on Bikes also has addresses in Belgium (and Germany) and is open to cyclists and walkers.

NB Evening meals are not provided. Many hosts will let you make sandwiches for lunch if you don't eat everything at breakfast.

That's eggcellent, will definitely have a look at this

 

[The Crofted Crest]

Rotterdam to Amsterdam

Rotterdam to quite close to Amsterdam is on the international North Sea Coast route. Previously known in Holland as the LF1, it was recently rebranded the Kustroute. It is well signposted , easy to cycle and impossible to get lost (just keep the sea on your left hand side). It also skirts many interesting towns on the way (Delft, The Hague, Leiden, etc.). By "quite close to Amsterdam" I mean you cycle up the coast to Zandvoort and then turn right (Amsterdam will be signposted). But beware, the route from Zandvoort to Am'dam is a depressing 40 kilometre trip through a never-ending edge town of warehouses, engineering firms and the like.

 

[nylontoestraps]

Rotterdam to quite close to Amsterdam is on the international North Sea Coast route. Previously known in Holland as the LF1, it was recently rebranded the Kustroute. It is well signposted , easy to cycle and impossible to get lost (just keep the sea on your left hand side). It also skirts many interesting towns on the way (Delft, The Hague, Leiden, etc.). By "quite close to Amsterdam" I mean you cycle up the coast to Zandvoort and then turn right (Amsterdam will be signposted). But beware, the route from Zandvoort to Am'dam is a depressing 40 kilometre trip through a never-ending edge town of warehouses, engineering firms and the like.

May look at adding this stretch on depending how everyone is feeling, have a feeling there may be some in the party who want to get to the city and experience the cafe culture if you catch my drift. I'm guessing that the LF1 can be pretty brutal depending on the winds as well.

What are people's experiences using google maps for cycling directions, would like to avoid ending up alongside any major carriageways etc but without doing the trip on streetview first not entirely sure how to avoid this. Best app suggestions ? Once again, thanks for all the input

 

[HobbesOnTour]

I do not recommend using Google for cycling directions.
It's offline maps are useful for saving locations (shops, hotels etc.) but it is totally unreliable to navigate to them on a bike.

 

[nylontoestraps]

I do not recommend using Google for cycling directions.
It's offline maps are useful for saving locations (shops, hotels etc.) but it is totally unreliable to navigate to them on a bike.

Do you have a preference for maps ? Or an offline trip computer ?

 

[HobbesOnTour]

Do you have a preference for maps ? Or an offline trip computer ?

As per my first post
Cycle.travel for online
Osmand for offline.

 

[The Crofted Crest]

May look at adding this stretch on depending how everyone is feeling, have a feeling there may be some in the party who want to get to the city and experience the cafe culture if you catch my drift. I'm guessing that the LF1 can be pretty brutal depending on the winds as well.

What are people's experiences using google maps for cycling directions, would like to avoid ending up alongside any major carriageways etc but without doing the trip on streetview first not entirely sure how to avoid this. Best app suggestions ? Once again, thanks for all the input

You do not need a map, GPS, satnav or need to ask for directions to cycle LF1, and you won't end up at the side of a dual carriageway. It really is that straightforward. And the prevailing wind is westerly, so you should have it at your back. Here take a look:


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5tvHoPbAVw


To be honest LF1 would not be my preferred route from R'dam to Am'dam. Not only because of all the warehouses and light engineering units getting into Amsterdam, but also because a longer route from Antwerp through the provinces of Brabant and Utrecht up the middle of the country would be more interesting. However, if it's your first multiday trip in a foreign country the LF1 would be a very enjoyable eye opener.

ETA:
The LF1 can also get quite busy, especially in the summer, when you can get stuck behind pensioners on sit-up-and-beg bikes.

 

[bitsandbobs]

Thanks for the reply, appreciate your input Irritated car drivers ? It'll be just like home then !

Plan currently is to travel to Brussels early morning and ride to Antwerp (50km), then Antwerp to Rotterdam the next day (105km) and finally Rotterdam to Amsterdam (75km). Fitness levels are pretty decent, sore backsides may be the issue for a couple of the party ! Want to make the most of the time in Amsterdam as we're meeting some other friends there so won't be straying too far off the paths. Certainly will be looking at a day trip out from Amsterdam after a rest day though.

Thanks again for the response, all the best

For Brussels to Antwerp, you can follow the Fietsostrade F1.
Lots of options for Antwerp to Rotterdam. I recently rode Antwerp, Roosendaal, Numansdorp, Heinenoordtunnel and then Rotterdam.
Rdam to Adam - LF1 as above or along the Schie to Leiden, then pick up the ringvaart to Amsterdamse Bos and then Adam.

 

[bitsandbobs]

I used to live 5 minutes from the Belgian border in southern NL. I've cycled all over there.

Free camping is illegal in NL (except for designated "pall" or pole camping sites of which there are a handful. In Belgium there may be more possibilities but in a semi-post Covid world and with so many proper, good and cheap camp sites I think it would be foolish.

Quite a few of them, if not all, were closed down last year. I wouldn't recommend them in any event. Far too much litter (and copious quantities of used loo roll).

 

[bitsandbobs]

ETA:
The LF1 can also get quite busy, especially in the summer, when you can get stuck behind pensioners on sit-up-and-beg bikes.

They're all on e-bikes these days!

 

[The Crofted Crest]

They're all on e-bikes these days!

And they give you a jaunty flick of a wave as they buzz past.

 

[mjr]

The old LF routes 4 and 9 being left to lie fallow, that does surprise me, the Dutch having fought hard for the benefits of cycletracks, to then let them crumble away, I wouldn't have thought they would, [...]

The cycle tracks are not crumbling away. The LF route signs are being allowed to vanish, but the "bingo numbers" (junction nodes) will remain. I've mixed feelings: it'll spread the traffic better, but it's easier to follow LF1a or whatever instead of 75-76-38-84-29-28-27-90-17-99-98-97-15-06-07-53-52-51-03-11-98-05-31-28-38-18-10-84-20-17-16-42-53-79-35-11-30-31-28-29-68-67-61-60-57-56-05 which I think is one inland route Rotterdam-Amsterdam.

There are also a couple of places where LF took a more direct route than the nodes which can result in you doing a Sustrans-ish meander (but happily on better cycleways).

For Brussels to Antwerp, you can follow the Fietsostrade F1.
Lots of options for Antwerp to Rotterdam. I recently rode Antwerp, Roosendaal, Numansdorp, Heinenoordtunnel and then Rotterdam.

Is the F1 signed out of Brussels yet, or is it still necessary to follow fietsroute CK to that place beginning with B (Buda?).

The Heinenoordtunnel is epic for Brits. Test yourself against the escalators

But beware, the route from Zandvoort to Am'dam is a depressing 40 kilometre trip through a never-ending edge town of warehouses, engineering firms and the like.

You make turning off at Noordwijk and approaching through Lisse and Hoofddorp sound like a good idea which of course lines one up better for entering through the Vondelpark.

 

[grldtnr]

And they give you a jaunty flick of a wave as they buzz past.

It's generally thought that the Netherlands are flat, but the LF 1 god's thru' the coastal dunes, and in some places is quite lumpy, not high altitude lumpy, but enough to wish you had lower gears sometimes, bit on the other hand , it is mostly wide, well surfaced and away from traffic.
My suggestion is follow the 'Kustroute'( LF 1), untill you reach the 'Hook of Holland' ,then turn right and follow either bank of the Niuew Maas waterway, the Northern bank is probably the best side, this then brings you into Rotterdam.
The knudepunte system is a little confusing at first, but in conjunction with a proper cyclist map or Atlas from the ANWB , you can plot the days ride on the map , noting down the numbers of the junctions, in sequencitial order, jot them down on a scrap of paper, then tick them off as you go by, each junction is signed by a concrete mushroom, with an arrow and next junction number on it, with sometimes a map on a board, near by just to confirm where you are.
It's really well thought out, and you shouldn't get lost, and if you do, then it's easy to ask a Dutchmen as they nearly all speak good English!
The Netherlands, the perfect cycling Mecca, it might not be wall to wall sunshine, blowing old boots,be rain lashed, but the cycle culture is to be savoured.
Where else can you expect a double lane highway across the North sea ,just for bikes , The Afsluitdike completely separated from the motorway, a near enough 30 km ride, Wonderful.