The Elfstedentocht

The Elfstedentocht is a skating tour of roughly two hundred kilometres over canals, lakes and ditches, linking the eleven historic towns of Friesland and returning to Leeuwarden. It can only run on natural ice, thick enough along the entire route, and in a maritime climate that is a rare combination. It has been held fifteen times since 1909 and the last was in 1997. Every hard winter since has produced a few days of preparation, rumour and radio bulletins, and then a thaw. Skaters who finish collect a small cross, and the towns stamp a card along the way, which is the part that survives outside ice years.

What you actually see

• The eleven towns - Leeuwarden, Sneek, IJlst, Sloten, Stavoren, Hindeloopen, Workum and the rest.
• The stamp card - carried by riders and walkers, stamped in each town.
• The waiting - ice reports, thickness measurements and the national argument that follows every cold snap.
• The alternative tour - a substitute race held on a frozen lake in Austria in most Januaries.

When to go

There is nothing you can book. In a hard winter the decision comes at forty-eight hours' notice and the whole country reorganises around it. In any other year the route works as a summer cycling or sailing itinerary, and the eleven towns can be collected over two unhurried days with the same stamp card.

Honest expectations

The honest advice is that you will not see it. Planning a trip around the possibility is a waste of a winter. If it is ever called, every bed in Friesland goes within hours and the trains are unusable. In summer the route is flat, exposed and repetitive, and the museums devoted to the tour are small.

Nearby

Leeuwarden anchors the route; the Wadden ferries leave from Harlingen on it.