Description

Price includes:

3 x overnight stays
with breakfast (possible dinner, if booked in the arrangement)
Luggage transportation
included
STO guarantee
your payment is fully protected through STO Garant
Reservation fee
included
Extensive travel documentation:
six weeks prior your arrivaldate you will receive a detailed route map and the Friesland Travel Atlas (available in four languages, 260 pages)
Stampcard
collect a stamp in every city along the Eleven Cities route
Free and safe parking
for your car at the start of the tour (Note: The start hotel is always in Leeuwarden if you arrive by public transport)
Charging E-Bike
at participating hotels to keep you powered up throughout the tour

Price does not include:

Travel and cancellation insurance:
this must be arranged with your own insurance company
Lunch, dinner and drinks:
are not included, unless specifically booked in advance
Bicycle sssistance:
if booked in advance, bicycle assistance includes a replacement bike (within 1.5 hours) in case of a breakdown
Touristtax

Cancellation Policy:

Free cancellation
up to six weeks before your arrival date.
Cancellation conditions
For cancellations made within six weeks, the cancellation conditions according to Article 9.2 of the booking terms apply. These are available on our website and will also be sent to you in advance.
Travel and cancellation insurance:
Cancellation is always a matter of your own travel and cancellation insurance, which you must arrange with your insurance provider.
Weather conditions:
Cancellation due to bad weather conditions is not possible.

For whom:

In this tour, you will explore the southern part of Friesland. While you won’t cycle the entire Elfstedentocht, you will visit 7 of the 11 cities. Along the way, you’ll experience a mix of museums, historic cities, and charming restaurants, all while following part of the iconic Elfstedentocht route. This journey combines cycling with cultural exploration, offering a unique opportunity to discover Friesland’s rich history, architecture, and local gastronomy.

Starting day:

You can begin your tour on any day of the week, depending on your preference.

Start and finish:

The start and finish of the tour will be at a hotel along the Eleven Cities Route

STO Guarantee:

This tour is protected by the STO Guarantee, ensuring that your payment is safe. For more information, please refer to the STO Garant conditions here

Arrival and departure

Six weeks before your arrivaldate you will receive personalised travel information for each day.

On the first day you will be expected at your starthotel (between 15.00-18.00hr, please let the reception know in case you will arrive later than 18.00hr.)
You will start the first day of cycling the next day. Please use your personal itinerary for the route and the address of the next hotel.
On the last day, you will cycle back to the hotel where you started the tour, here is your car is parked. The tour ends once your luggage has been delivered by the Friesland Holland driver (between 09:00 and 18:00). Dinner is never included on the day of departure.

Luggage transport

The luggage service is included in the price of the bike tour. Please note that:

Your luggage needs to be at the reception no later than 09.00 am.
Your luggage must have a label of Friesland Holland Travel (you will receive the labels together with the documentation)
Your luggage can be delivered until 18.00hr (if the luggage is not at the reception at 18.00, please call the emergency number in your documentation)
1 piece of luggage per person, max. 15kg.
If you want to bring more pieces of luggage, please contact Friesland Holland Travel

Bicycle assistance (optional € 10,00 p.p.):

If the bicycle assistance is booked in advance, you will receive a new bicycle (within 1,5 hours) in case of a breakdown. This applies to your own bicycle and to rental bicycles. We will then bring the broken bicycle to the end point of your trip, here is your car parked.

Extra night

Book an extra night at the end of the bike tour, in this way you can end the tour quietly and relaxed and you don’t have to wait on your luggage. The luggage can be delivered until 18.00hr at your day of departure.

Documentation set

The information package you will receive at home (six week before your arrivaldate) contains:

Guest information: contains the addresses of the hotels / restaurants and the bike nodes. With the bike nodes system you can easily follow the track of the Eleven Cities Tour
Friesland Travel Atlas (in four languages, 260 pages)
Roadmaps
Stampcard
Certificate
Luggage transport labels (1 label per person)
Booking conditions

About the history of the Elfstedentocht and contemporary tours

.
Once in your life, you must have ridden or sailed the 250 km Elfsteden route. Otherwise you will miss out on the experience of a good part of the Netherlands’ rich history. Nowhere will you find such a varied route as the Elfsteden route, world-renowned Frisian heritage, especially since the last Elfstedentocht on skates in January 1997.

Arrangements

The travel organisation of Fryslân’s tourism office, Friesland Holland Travel Service, offers a choice of 3- to 8-day Eleven Cities packages with SGR guarantee on its websites. These all include luggage transport and the fastest breakdown assistance: a top-notch replacement bike immediately!

Exclusive bikes

You can do the Eleven Cities Tour on your own bike or on a luxury touring bike or e-bike from Rent a Topbike, Friesland Holland’s bike rental company. The tour operator has its own electric bikes and touring bikes, all top brands, all Elfsteden-proof and equipped with two nice and handy panniers as standard. So no typical rental bikes, but luxury two-wheelers with many gears and manually adjustable handlebars and seat post, such as e-bikes from the Alba Unique series. These are exclusive electric bicycles, co-developed by Friesland Holland and entirely based on Shimano technology. The drive technology is also from this top Japanese brand.

Every stage, every day thrill

Every stage by bike, car, motorbike, sloop, sailboat or cabin motor yacht is a unique experience. For example, you climb terps – five-thousand-year-old residential mounds along UNESCO World Heritage Site Wadden Sea – ten metres high and cycle through the forests and over the cliffs of Gaasterland on the IJsselmeer. The pinnacle of enjoyment is sitting on the terraces in the centuries-old romantic towns or on the shores of one of the many Frisian lakes. And be sure to take a day out for Leeuwarden, the European Capital of Culture in 2018 for good reason!

Theatre on the water

There is theatre on the water every hour of the day all over Friesland: modern yachts, sloops and large traditional sailing ships passing locks and bridges and mooring at the city’s old defensive ramparts. Friesland is Europe’s largest and most versatile water park with facilities for every type of boat, up to the multi-million dollar yachts of the richest of the rich.

Already 400 years of Elfstedentocht

It is not exactly known when the Elfstedentocht was first skated.But people probably skated to the 11 Frisian cities on a single day as early as the 16th century.The official 200 km Elfstedentocht on skates has existed for over a hundred years.The first organised skating tour took place on 2 January 1909; the last on 4 January 1997. Then almost 17,000 people completed the 200 km route within the set time: arrival before midnight. Competition skaters take less than seven hours in favourable weather conditions; recreational skaters have 18 hours.Whether the Elfstedentocht can ever be skated again depends on climatic developments.

Tourist Elfstedentocht

Thanks to the tourism agency Friesland Holland, one does not have to wait for three weeks of hard frost to taste the atmosphere of yesteryear: it organises Elfstedentocht tours every day every year. The start and finish of the skating tour are always in Leeuwarden, but for practical reasons (parking etc.) tourist tours usually start and end in southern Friesland.

Elfstedenkruisje

To participate in the Elfstedentocht on skates, one must be a member of the Royal Association De Friesche Elf Steden and have a starting card.Every participant, who completes the race or tour within the allotted time and collects all stamps, receives an eleven-city cross.Only race riders with a maximum excess of 20% of the winner’s or winner’s riding time are eligible for an eleven-city cross.Tour riders must arrive in Leeuwarden before 00.00 (midnight) in order to go home with the coveted cross.The medal was designed in 1909.It has the shape of a Maltese cross with a circle in the middle.This circle contains, in enamel, the coat of arms of Friesland. The inscription reads ‘De Friesche Elf Steden’. In 2009, the association received the designation ‘royal’ and the cross was modified so that the royal crown is also visible.These royal crosses are only awarded after the next tour. The image of the Elfsteden Cross, the logo, the flag and the name, Royal Association De Friesche Elf Steden, are protected and may not be used or exploited by third parties without the association’s permission. From the year 1909 to the present, a total of 56,314 silver Elfsteden crosses have been awarded.This medal can only be obtained by skating the entire Elfstedentocht within the set time limit.Those who completed the tour by bicycle, car, motorbike, moped, on foot, by boat or otherwise as part of an Elfsteden package from Fryslân’s tourism office, Friesland Holland, will receive a named certificate upon presentation of a full stamp card and payment of €10.

4-Day Bike Tour through Friesland – Explore the Southern Cities

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Description

About the history of the Elfstedentocht and contemporary tours

Arrangements

Exclusive bikes

Every stage, every day thrill

Theatre on the water

Already 400 years of Elfstedentocht

Tourist Elfstedentocht

Elfstedenkruisje

3-day bike tour: Southern Cities

7-day cycling holiday: Experience the entire Eleven Cities Tour!

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4-Day Bike Tour through Friesland – Explore the Southern Cities

Participants

Using breakdown assistance with mobility guarantee?

Total

Description

About the history of the Elfstedentocht and contemporary tours

Arrangements

Exclusive bikes

Every stage, every day thrill

Theatre on the water

Already 400 years of Elfstedentocht

Tourist Elfstedentocht

Elfstedenkruisje

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