Blog

Have you ever heard of the Hanseatic League? It was a German trading association in the Middle Ages whose goal was to promote trade: a medieval version of the European Union, but with as many as 150 member cities! While Amsterdam and Rotterdam were still small, insignificant villages, trade and culture flourished in the Hanseatic cities in the east of the Netherlands. The prosperity that trade brought allowed them to build magnificent merchant houses, richly-decorated trading offices and imposing city walls. Painters, master builders, poets and philosophers settled in these…

You’ve finally made time for your friends, your family or your hobby. And for being on the road together and discovering new places: traveling with your own group is always a special experience. You’ll carry fond memories of the experience: enjoying and sharing your most beautiful photos and savoring your best stories from your trip together. Because we at Boat Bike Tours know how important it is to spend time with your loved ones, we can make it possible for you to book an entire ship with us for your…

On a recent Active Travel Adventures podcast, host Kit Parks interviewed Charlotte, who is 70 years old and has taken eleven Boat Bike Tours so far! In the interview, they mostly talked about the Southern Holland route, which Charlotte took this past September. As they talked, though, Charlotte dropped lots of great advice into the conversation that would apply to any of the routes. Here’s just a selection of her tips:   Impressions of Boat Bike Tours Charlotte had a lot of positive things to say about Boat Bike Tours.…

One of the things we’re most proud of here at Boat Bike Tours is the number of repeat guests we have. Jim, 76, has enjoyed six of them! “You never know what’s around that next turn,” he says, as he describes his latest experience on the Historic Hanseatic Cities tour – Hansa tour, for short. “We’re biking through woody areas, hilly areas, parts of the Netherlands none of us knew existed. It was a real surprise!” Kit Parks, of Active Travel Adventures, interviewed Jim for her podcast and wrote about…

You know the feeling: you feel like you’ve only just checked in, but then suddenly the holiday is already over. When you’re enjoying yourself and having fun, time just flies by. This can also happen to you on our trips by bike and boat. Most of our tours last eight days and they’re over so quickly! Would you like the fun to last longer? Then read the tips here and find out how you can stretch your vacation by bike and boat; we’ll introduce you to our longer trips and…

So you’ve taken a Boat Bike Tour and you’re thinking of taking another, but you’re not sure? Meet Ene, who has just taken her seventh Boat Bike Tour! Born and raised in Estonia, but a Swedish resident, Ene took her first Boat Bike tour in 2014. She chose this company because she didn’t want a group tour, yet didn’t want to travel entirely alone. It turned out that these tours allow her to make friends over dinner, for example, but to cycle mostly alone during the day, even on the…

Cities straight out of a picture book, exciting bike paths through forests and heathland, and boat trips through idyllic river landscapes along the historic Hanseatic route on the IJssel River: if you ask our tour leaders about the Hanseatic tour, they won’t stop raving. The multi-faceted journey through the lesser-known east of the Netherlands is their secret favorite. Why? Read on, and we’ll tell you! It doesn’t always have to be the North Sea Sure, the Dutch coast has its own special charms – but there is also life beyond…

Have you been browsing our website but having trouble making a decision about which tour to take? The Boat Bike Tours website has so many tours on offer: nature-focused, city-focused, tours by sailboat, tours by motor barge, tours in a single country or several. It’s hard to choose! To help you out, here are some questions and some advice to help you make your choice: 1. What country or countries would you like to see? Since we’re based in the Netherlands, it’s not surprising that we have the most tours…

Eelke and his wife Carlijn have been the proud owners of the Lena Maria since 2020. Eelke himself, as the captain, steers the guests of Boat Bike Tours to the most beautiful places in the Netherlands. We talked to Eelke about his great passion for boats, traveling on the Lena Maria and his plans for the future. Eelke can’t really remember when his enthusiasm for ships, boats and life on the water started. “It’s actually always been that way. I spent every spare minute I could on the water,” he…

Have you ever wondered what happens to the Boat Bike Tour ships in the winter season? Are they still sailing? Or do they just sit in harbors, waiting for the spring? We had a chat with two ship owners, Johan ten Kate and Roy van der Veen, co-owners of two Boat Bike Tour ships: the Princesse Royal (formerly called the Magnifique) and the Fluvius.   Maintenance The short answer to what they do in the winter is maintenance. During the high season, there just isn’t any time to do maintenance.…