It rains a lot in the Netherlands, but when the sun is shining the weather is absolutely perfect. This past Saturday was one of those days. Now that fall is in full swing and winter is just around the corner, I wanted to take full advantage of the beautiful weather, so I planned a visit to my first Dutch national park for a day of adventuring in the great outdoors.
After some research, I landed on the De Hoge Valuwe National Park, a 5,400 hectare (13,300 acre) park that’s only about an hour east of Amsterdam and an easy day trip from the capital city. It takes around two hours to reach the park by public transportation from the city center, but driving is much faster. So we rented a car from a nearby Europcar and were on the road by about 10:00 — before long we found ourselves in the middle of an Autumn wonderland.
About the Park
De Hoge Veluwe National Park is one of several parks that are grouped together in this part of the country in an area called the Veluwe. The park is privately owned and is primarily financially supported by its 500,000+ visitors a year.
There are three entrances to the park: Hoenderloo, Otterlo and Schaarsbergen. At each entrance is a parking lot and ticket office, where you can purchase tickets to enter the park (€7 per adult, €9.50 per child ages 6-12). You can also buy a ticket to park at one of the external lots near the entrance (€3.30 per car).
Between the Otterlo and Hoenderloo entrances is the park’s Visitor Center. The Visitor Center gives a nice overview of the park’s history, its landscapes, and the area’s flora and fauna and has several fun interactive displays for kids.
Next to the Visitor Center is the Park Restaurant, which has a simple lunch menu of burgers, sandwiches, salads, and the like. The food was decent, but a better alternative would be to pack your own lunch and picnic in the park — there are a number of picnic tables dotting the paths or you can always just bring along a blanket!
Note: A map of the park may be purchased at either the Visitor Center or at the ticket booth at each entry point.
Activities & Events
The Park hosts a number of fun activities and events year-round, including holiday markets, Easter egg hunts, and guided outdoor meditation sessions. You can even saw your own Christmas tree on certain days in December. Visit the De Hoge Veluwe website for the full calendar.
Getting Around
→ By Car
There are several roads that traverse the park for those who wish to sightsee from their car or who would like to drive to the visitor center or museums. If you plan to take your car into the park, you’ll need to pay an additional €6.75 per vehicle. There’s a ticket booth and PIN-only machine at the entrance, but tickets may also be purchased in advance on the De Hoge Veluwe website.
→ By Foot
In additional to the paved roads and bike paths, the park is crisscrossed by a number of pedestrian-only hiking trails. The Netherlands is an incredibly flat country, so you won’t encounter much in the way of hills, valleys, or lookout points, but walking the paths will give you a different perspective of the landscape. Plus you may have a better chance of spotting some of the resident wildlife!
→ By Bike
The best way to experience the park is by bike!
At each of the park entrances are bike parking lots with rows upon rows of bike racks. There are also bike racks at the Visitor’s Center and Kröller-Müller Museum within the park. The park has 40 km (25 mi) miles of paved, car-free bike paths. There are two primary loops: Route 1 which is 10 km (6 miles) long and Route 2 which is 26 km (16 miles). We opted for Route 2, which took us a couple of hours to bike with several stops along the way.
You have three options if you want to bike at De Hoge Veluwe:
- Bring your own bike
- Rent a bike or e-bike
- Use the park’s free White Bikes
You can bring your own bike into the park, free of charge with standard admission, but another option is to rent a bike. You can rent a “Blue Bike” from the Bicycle Workshop next to the Visitor Center within the park, or if you’d like more options, you can also rent a bike at one of the many local bike shops outside of the park. There you can rent your standard one or two-person bicycles, or another option is to rent an electric bicycle or e-bike, which makes it even easier to see every part of the park.
If you want to explore the park by bike but didn’t bring (or rent) one, the park has 1,800 “White Bikes” that are for communal use and free to use. You can find the White Bikes at any of the five bike parking lots. All of the bikes have a rear seat for small children and some have both a rear and front child’s seat; for bigger kids, there are also free-to-use children’s bikes.
The White Bikes work on a rotation system, and therefore can’t be booked in advance and are not allowed to be locked. These bikes are simple with no gears, lights, or bells, but they’re sturdy and certainly get the job done. We did the full Route 2 loop on these bikes and had no issues.
The Highlights
Landscapes
The best feature of this park is its diversity of landscapes. There are four types of Forests with deciduous and coniferous trees, Heaths and Grasslands, and Sand Drifts, which are areas of barren, shifting sand dotted with moss and lichen. From the park’s website:
De Hoge Veluwe National Park contains a great variety of original Veluwe landscapes, from sand drifts, lichen covered ground, moorland and grassland to planted forests, and a corresponding variety of plant and animal species. Among its spectacular features are the ancient, solitary Scots pines in the open expanses of drifting sand at De Pollen that contrast starkly with the pools and marshes of the Deelense Veld, yet the two areas are within sight of each other.
For long stretches of road you’ll swear you’re on a safari in the Serengeti. When we visited, Autumn was in full effect with bright oranges and yellows on the trees and leaves covering the ground. For a few weeks in August, the Heaths and Grasslands turn a beautiful vibrant purple when the heather is in bloom. And in winter, you can saw your own Christmas tree or attend one of their holiday markets. There’s something to see here in every season!
Wildlife
The park is home to a wide range of wildlife, including 200 deer, 150 roe deer, 50 wild boar, and 200 Corsican rams. There are seven camouflaged game observation posts throughout the park where you can try to spot some of the larger animals that call De Hoge home.
Kröller-Müller Museum
The crown jewel of the park is the national art museum and sculpture park called the Kröller-Müller Museum. The museum was founded by an art collector named Helene Kröller-Müller and was opened in 1938, two years after she donated her full collection to the state of the Netherlands.
Amazingly, this museum houses the second largest collection of Vincent Van Gogh paintings in the world (second, of course, to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam) due to Helene’s early recognition of the artist’s genius. Van Gogh’s famous painting Café Terrace at Night is on display here.
The museum entry fee is €19.00 for adults and €9.50 for children ages 6-11. Museumkaart holders receive a discount on admission — €9.50 for adults and €4.75 for children.
Click here to read more about museum passes in Amsterdam and the Netherlands.
Jachthuis Sint Hubertus
Near the Kröller-Müller Museum is the former home of Helene and her husband, known as the Jachthuis. The home and its interior was designed by the famous Dutch architect Hendrikus Petrus Berlage and may be visited by guided tour only. A tour of the home only lasts 45 minutes and costs €4 per adult and €2 per child. Another tour of the home and its surroundings is also available — this one lasts 75 minutes and costs €5 per person.
Tours can be booked in advance on the De Hoge website.
