Enjoy Giethoorn

Giethoorn is known as the Venice of the North. With its many bridges and waterways, this picturesque water village is an experience in itself. To transport the peat, canals and ditches were dug here. This is how small islands were created, on which houses were built that can only be reached via bridges. Giethoorn is also home to dozens of characteristic national monuments. The only continuous connection over land is a cycle and walking path that runs straight through the village. Much of the traffic takes place over the water, via so-called punts that - just like the gondolas in Venice - are propelled by a punt boom.

The area around Giethoorn is also more than worth it. You drive through the beautiful nature of De Wieden, which is part of the Weerribben-Wieden National Park. This water-rich nature reserve in the Kop van Overijssel is an oasis of space and tranquility. Here you see ponds and ditches, vast reed lands, meadows full of flowers and dense swamp forests. No matter how unspoilt the landscape looks, De Wieden is a cultural landscape. From the fifteenth century onwards, peat was dredged here and laid out to dry on narrow ridges, so that the peat could be used as fuel.

In old reclamation villages such as Nijeveense Bovenboer, Nijeveen and Kolderveen you can still see beautiful old farms. In Meppel you will pass the striking water tower from 1883. The tower has a height of almost 40 meters and a water reservoir of 230 cubic meters. Zwartsluis is a picturesque village that lies at the point where the Zwarte Water and the Meppelerdiep meet. The village was once the transit port for the transport of Drenthe peat to Holland.