This easy bike route rides along the west coast of south Holland. The wide paved path is safely away from car traffic, riding through the dunes and scrubby landscape behind the beach. There are plenty of opportunities to stop for refreshments, visit the beach and explore. Since the route parallels the train route, you can easily shorten or length the ride.
| Location: | Zandvoort aan Zee, Netherlands |
| Car: | Parking: Thorbeckestraat 27, 2042 Zandvoort From Amsterdam 35mins |
| Train: | Train station: Zandvoort aan Zee From Amsterdam 30mins |
| Trail: | 45 km one way, about 3hr30 on bikes |
| Condition: | paved and gravel path away from car traffic |
| Skill: | easy |
| Services: | restaurants in the villages |
| Cost: | bike rental €12.50/day, e-bikes €22.50/day |
| More info: | www.visitzandvoort.com |
Location
This bike route is along the west coast, from Zandvoort aan Zee to The Hague. You can return to your starting point by train or ride back.
Bike route
We started in Zandvoort aan Zee where we were staying and followed the coastal path until we were tired of riding. We stopped near The Hague and caught the train at “Den Haag Mariahoeve.” Since this route parallels the train route, you can shorten or lengthen the ride as needed.
See interactive route on Komoot.
Route numbers: 79 – 31 – 86 – 43 – 32 – 22 – 63 – 97 – 41 – 40 – 44 – 46 – 54 – 58 – 11
Bike rental
We rented from Behind the Beach Bike Rental located in Zandvoort village – Haltestraat 51, 2042 LL Zandvoort.
They are open daily 10:00 – 18:00. They have a variety of rental bikes including city bikes, mountain bikes, e-bikes, tandems, children’s bikes, etc. Regular city bikes cost €12.50/day. E-bikes cost €22.50/day. You can pay extra to rent them 24 hours if you want to keep them past closing time.
Getting there
By public transport: Take a train to Zandvoort aan Zee. If you brought bikes you can start here. Otherwise, it’s a short walk to the Behind the Beach bike rental.
By car: If you need to rent bikes, the rental shop suggests you park at Louis Davids Garage. Or you could park at Thorbeckestraat 27, 2042 Zandvoort or see more parking in Zandvoort.
Returning by train
Since this is a one-way ride, you need to take the train back to your starting point. We ended our ride at the Den Haag Mariahoeve train station. We bought one-way tickets back to Zandvoort aan Zee and bike day passes, which cost €7.50.
There was an elevator to make it easier to get our bikes up to the train track. The train had a car with a bike symbol, meaning it had more room for bikes. It had a low floor (no stairs), which made it easy for loading. We had to change trains in Haarlem, but our connecting train was on the adjacent track, making it easy to change.
Photos of bike route
Entering the dunes after leaving Zandvoort.
The path is paved with two lanes, lots of bike and pedestrian traffic. No cars.
Early on the ride, we saw a lot of people stopping here and walking over the beach. So we did the same. There are many such areas to stop along the ride.
We locked our bikes and walked over the dunes.
There was a restaurant on the other side, where we had a drink before continuing our ride.
We stopped in Katwijk for lunch and and ate at Zand – delicious! See on map.
Our boys had Korean fried chicken. I had a sushi bowl with salmon and tuna.
More views of the coastal landscape.
