Giethoorn

Giethoorn was settled in the thirteenth century by peat cutters, and the digging left a landscape of narrow waterways between strips of raised ground. The old core has no road through it: the thatched farmhouses sit on small islands linked by around 170 wooden footbridges, and everything from groceries to building materials still arrives by boat. Locals use flat-bottomed punts with quiet electric motors, which is why the village is unusually silent for somewhere so visited. The reed-thatched roofs are not decoration but the cheapest material the peat marsh produced.

History

The lakes around Giethoorn were formed by peat digging, and in the old village there were no roads, so all transport went by water along its canals. It became famous especially after 1958, when Bert Haanstra filmed his comedy Fanfare here, and it was a separate municipality until 1973 (Wikipedia, Giethoorn).

What to look for

• The footbridges - around 170 of them, the only way across on foot.
• The thatched farmhouses - reed from the surrounding marsh, still maintained.
• The punts - flat-bottomed boats with electric motors, hired by the hour.
• The Weerribben-Wieden marsh - the wider reserve the village sits inside.

When to go

April to June and September to October. Come early or stay late: between about eleven and four in summer the canals are solid with day boats and the paths with coach groups. Winter is quiet and occasionally freezes hard enough to skate. Book a boat ahead in season.

What to expect

It is severely overvisited for its size, and in July and August the experience is a traffic jam of rental boats. The village has roughly 2,800 residents and receives hundreds of thousands of visitors a year, which shows in the prices and the number of souvenir stalls. Parking is outside the centre and paid. Wet weather makes the unpaved paths muddy.

Nearby

Weerribben-Wieden National Park surrounds it; Zwolle is 40 minutes south.

Key facts