🥾 Wandelen — guided nature walks
Day stages of the waymarked Dutch long-distance paths, with a naturalist in your pocket: spoken narration in English, Dutch and German, the landscape and wildlife at every stop, and clear guidance on following the waymarks. Walk at your own pace — the routes are signed in both directions.
6 day walks · 2 national trails (LAW) · 2 regional Streekpaden
Pieterpad
The best-known long-distance path in the Netherlands: roughly 500 km in 26 stages, from the clay and wierden of Groningen, over the ice-age Hondsrug and through the brook valleys of Drenthe, across the Sallandse Heuvelrug and the Achterhoek, over the Montferland ridge to the Rhine, and finally into the loess country and chalk hills of South Limburg. Devised by Toos Goorhuis-Tjalsma and Bertje Jens and walked out between 1978 and 1983.
Horizontal white-over-red stripes mark the national long-distance paths (LAW). They are signed in both directions, so you can walk the stage either way.
🗓️ Best season: Walkable year round. No official season is published; spring and autumn are the usual choice, and winter stages are muddy with short daylight.
⚠️ Access: Waymarked and walkable year round, but check before you go. Breeding season is not one fixed national period: reserves set their own, from 1 March to 1 September in some coastal areas to 15 March to 15 August elsewhere; follow the signs and marked diversions and keep dogs leashed. On the Sallandse Heuvelrug part of the heath closes 1 March to 15 July for black grouse. Stage 16 depends on the Millingen-Pannerden foot ferry, which runs a reduced winter timetable and can be suspended in storms or extreme water levels. Ticks are active March to October, with about half of all reported bites in June and July. Oak processionary caterpillar runs May to July, and pressure in 2026 has shifted north into Friesland, Groningen, Drenthe and Overijssel. Grazing livestock: keep at least 25 metres away and walk around a herd rather than through it. Downloadable GPX tracks do not include temporary diversions - check pieterpad.nl/etappes for live route changes before setting out.
🛤️ Route check: no closure notices found on the operator's page (checked today). No notice is not a guarantee — follow the waymarks and the operator's updates.
Pieterpad Stage 1 — Pieterburen to Winsum
The gentlest opening on the trail: twelve kilometres of Groningen sea-clay country, past dwelling mounds raised against the sea long before there were dikes,…
Pieterpad Stage 4 — Zuidlaren to Rolde
The heart of Drenthe: a brook valley that was never canalised, drift sand and heath grazed by sheep and Highland cattle, medieval cart ruts…
Pieterpad Stage 26 — Strabeek to Sint-Pietersberg
The last stage, and the least Dutch-looking: a freely meandering river, chalk grassland grazed by Mergelland sheep, marl quarries full of bats, and a…
Trekvogelpad (LAW 2)
The "Migratory Bird Path" crosses the country horizontally from the North Sea dunes to the German border at Enschede, following the broad west-east line that migrating birds take across the Netherlands.
Horizontal white-over-red stripes mark the national long-distance paths (LAW). They are signed in both directions, so you can walk the stage either way.
🗓️ Best season: May to July for the Naardermeer's breeding colonies (purple heron, black tern, spoonbill); autumn for quiet light over the peat meadows. The Hoge Veluwe rut diversions (1–30 September) affect later stages, not this one.
⚠️ Access: On the Hoge Veluwe, rut rest-areas from 1 to 30 September divert the route around Pampelse Zand. The Hoge Veluwe is fenced and ticketed with nightly closing, so time your day around the gate.
🛤️ Route check: no closure notices found on the operator's page (checked today). No notice is not a guarantee — follow the waymarks and the operator's updates.
Trekvogelpad — Weesp to Bussum
From the fortress town of Weesp through the peat meadows, past a Waterline fort, and along the reed edge of the Naardermeer — the…
Drenthepad (SP 6)
A long circuit of Drenthe taking in three national parks, the Hondsrug, heathland, esdorpen and the greatest concentration of megalithic tombs in the Netherlands.
Horizontal yellow-over-red stripes mark the regional Streekpaden, which are usually circular routes.
🗓️ Best season: April to June for woodlarks, curlew display and fresh heath green; August for flowering heather on the Drouwenerzand; the hunebedden are good in any weather.
⚠️ Access: Gieten and Borger are served by bus, not rail (nearest stations Assen and Emmen). Ticks are active March to October on the heath and juniper sections, with the bite peak in early summer. Wandelnet's route-change page for the Drenthepad is a directory, not a feed — treat the absence of a notice as "unknown" and follow the waymarks on the ground.
🛤️ Route check: no closure notices found on the operator's page (checked today). No notice is not a guarantee — follow the waymarks and the operator's updates.
Drenthepad — Gieten to Borger
The Hondsrug in a single day: along the ridge that the ice left behind, looking out over the Hunze valley, across the drift sand…
Krijtlandpad (SP 7)
A circular route through the chalk country of South Limburg: the marl plateau, the Geul and Gulp valleys, sunken lanes and slope forests. The only Dutch landscape with real hills, real caves and real chalk grassland.
Horizontal yellow-over-red stripes mark the regional Streekpaden, which are usually circular routes.
🗓️ Best season: Late April to early June for the wild garlic and wood anemone carpets; May and June for the orchids on the chalk grassland.
⚠️ Access: Gulpen and Vaals are served by bus, not rail. Ticks are active March to October, with about half of all reported bites in June and July. Wandelnet's route-change page for this trail was last updated in April 2025, so treat the absence of a notice as "unknown" and follow the waymarks on the ground. If you see a fire salamander, do not handle it and clean your boots afterwards: the population has collapsed by over 99% since 2013 because of the Bsal fungus, and walkers are a vector.
🛤️ Route check: no closure notices found on the operator's page (checked today). No notice is not a guarantee — follow the waymarks and the operator's updates.
Krijtlandpad — Vaals to Gulpen
The chalk country in a single day: from the three-country point on the Vaalserberg, through the highest church village in the Netherlands and the…
Prefer a city? Try the guided city tours or a scavenger hunt — the first one is free.