Blog:

Can we cycle the Eleven Cities tour (Elfstedentocht)?

Every year when it is getting cold in the Netherlands, people start to suffer from the so-called Elfsteden-fever. The Elfstedentocht is a ice-skating tour of almost two hundred kilometers which is held in the province of Friesland and where 11 Frisian cities are visited.

Because of the sometimes miserable conditions under which the trip is skated, the Elfstedentocht is also called the “tour of the tours”. Just think of the thing you can ever imagine being most exited about. The release of a new book of a series? prom night? going on a big adventure and your stomach is upside down? This multiply this feeling by 10 and you will get a good idea of how a big part of the Dutch are feeling when it is a very strong (very cold) winter for a long period of time.

As the ice needs to be really thick to hold thousands of people and weather is changing, the Elfstedentocht is less likely to happen each year. Sadly, the last tour was in 1997. A few times in the years after it has been very close to happening. The last serious option was in 2012. Unfortunately the ice was not thick enough before it started to melt again.

Yet what not all Dutch know is that since 1912 there is also a 235km Elfstedentocht on the bicycle! See the video below of a cyclist joining the organized tour in 2017. As only 15,000 cyclist are aloud each year to join this tour, we are happy to accommodate anyone who would like to cycle this route on a different date. You can request any route as a Tailored Tour.

Click here to go to Tailored Tours