The Green Heart of Holland Tour
Bike & Barge plus Pickleball
This 8-day tour is all about the joy in cycling, travelling with the barge Elodie — and Pickleball! As an addition to our well-known Bike & Barge program we are offering this special tour for all of you who already love playing Pickleball — or who are eager to get to know it.*
We will be biking through beautiful and peaceful countryside, picturesque villages and towns and return each day to the warm welcome onboard the Elodie, our floating „Home Away from Home“. On various days there is also the possibility to visit a local Pickleball club and play with Dutch players. If you are new to the sport, your guide will offer you an introduction to Pickleball on the first day. You will find that it’s an accessible sport, easy to learn and fun to play. No wonder that there are already about 30 million players alone in the United States of America, with clubs and courts in almost every town. And it’s becoming more and more popular in Canada, Down Under, New Zealand – and Europe, too, of course!
One of the highlights of the tour will be the Pickleball Double tournament at the end of the tour, exclusively organised for our group, in the beautiful city of Haarlem, where you can participate if you wish (your guide will take care of registration, if wanted).
Cycling, of course, will make the tour complete. From the thriving capital Amsterdam we will find our way into the province of Noord-Holland. We will be visiting Alkmaar, known for its cheese, world famous Zaanse Schans Open Air Museum, with its original historic windmills and well-kept historic houses, barns and workshops. And we will bike along rivers, lakes and through pretty, old Dutch villages, mostly on designated bike paths.
The vibrant city of Haarlem has so much to offer that we will spend some more time there and explore not only the city’s many sights and museums or simply wander about or do some shopping. From here we will also go on a round tour into the dunes on the North Sea Coast and experience some of the wildest and highest of them in all of the Netherlands.
* a Pickleball paddle for your own use is included in the price of the tour; costs for entries and tickets for the clubs, venues and the tournament will be collected onboard, at the end of the tour (approx. 10 € per person/per venue).