LOTUS EATERS TRAVEL

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WALKING THE PIETERPAD: WHAT WE LIKED + DIDN’T LIKE QUITE SO MUCH.

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The Pieterpad is a 500km walking route which takes keen walkers from the very North of The Netherlands, to the South. This walk has been on our radar for some time, as one of the best long-distance walks in Europe, and we finally got the chance to tackle in the summer of 2024.

This blog post sets out what we liked and didn’t like about The Pieterpad, based on our experience. We hope that it may help you to decide whether or not to walk this route and to prepare for it.

It’s fair to say, we really loved The Pieterpad. Walking in the summer was idyllic. As we navigated farm land, wild national parks and stunning flower fields. We felt a total sense of freedom and not a drop of summertime sadness.

You can find more of our Pieterpad content here.

Walking The Pieterpad: What we liked

There’s so much to love about The Pieterpad. Here’s everything that we enjoyed about the route.

NATIONAL PARKS

The best days of walking on The Pieterpad involve jaunts through National Parks. We were totally wowed by the beauty and scenery of park land on route. Whilst there are no mountains or hills to speak of, the parks are captivating. From heath land, to forests and lakes.

TRAIL WALKING

The Pieterpad is a long-distance walk of approximately 500kms, which includes walking on a mix of surfaces. Although there is some walking on pavement and road, the vast majority of The Pieterpad involves walking on trail, either through field or woodland areas.

WELL SIGN-POSTED

Absolute care has been taken to ensure that the route is well sign-posted. Only once or twice on the entire route were we a little unsure and defaulted to check our All Trails map. There’s something so relaxing about not having to navigate and simply following trail markings.

FRIENDLY LOCALS

From the start of the trail to the very end, one thing we will remember is the friendliness of locals. Barely 20 minutes could go by, without someone on a bike calling out “Goedemorgen” with a smile on their faces. We got asked regularly throughout the day if we were walking The Pieterpad.

If we stopped for a break, we would be asked if anyone could help us with anything. And, when we sat down for lunch at least 3 people would shout out a rousing “smarklijk.”

And this doesn’t even mention how lovely the campsite owners and managers were when we arrived to pitch our tents.

EASY ACCESS TO REFRESHMENTS

The supermarket became our best friend on The Pieterpad. In our experience, it was very easy to find grocery stores without deviating much from the route. I can’t underestimate how this makes things easier for walkers, especially on long-distance routes.

Invariably, we were normally able to find a bakery with coffee for breakfast within 10km of starting our day too. There is little else that delights me more than caffeine and pastry in the morning.

There are one or two days where planning ahead is required as you may not see a supermarket until the end of the stage – more about that can be found in our daily stages guide.

PLENTIFUL ACCOMMODATION

The Pieterpad is one of the most flexible routes that we have ever walked when it comes to daily stages. This is because accommodation is available at regular intervals. From B&Bs, to hotels and campsites – there’s something to suit most budgets. Of course, many villages may only have one accommodation option – so it’s best to book ahead.

OPTION TO CAMP

We set out with the intention of camping for most nights on the Pieterpad and did just that. In fact, with the exception of three nights in hotels in cities, we pitched our tent every evening.

I can’t think of a better route that we have experienced, where camping is so easy and sites are a breeze to find. There is a real sense of freedom in knowing that you can set out for a day of walking, turn up to a campsite at 16:00 and spend the night there, without any forward planning.

You can find out more about camping on The Pieterpad in our guide here.

LOTS OF PEOPLE OUT WALKING + CYCLING

One thing that struck us when walking The Pieterpad, was just how much of an outdoor culture there is in The Netherlands. Sure, we knew that Dutch people love to use their bicycles, but come rain or shine it seemed that everyone was out and about.

This meant that we had more chances to chat to locals, like two ladies we met who go cycling together every Monday (whatever the weather.) But, it also made us feel really safe on the walking trail. For solo walkers, I imagine this would be very comforting.

BUT NOT TOO MANY WALKERS ON THE PIETERPAD

Over the course of walking The Pieterpad, we met no more than 10 people walking and a handful of people cycling the same route as us. Personally, we liked the option for a chat, but no pressure to socialize on route. Depending on what you are looking for when you walk a long-distance trail – this may not suit you.

It’s worth mentioning that every person we met on The Pieterpad was Dutch. In all honesty, we really liked this as it felt that we were walking a route that not many “foreigners” get to see. Like being in an exclusive club.

DUTCH CULTURE

Walks which attract international crowds can be fun, but sometimes you can lose a sense of the country you are in. In contrast, on The Pieterpad, because we only encountered Dutch people on the route, we felt totally immersed in the culture.

Through small interactions with fellow campers, walkers or shop assistants, we loved learning little things about The Netherlands along the way. We particularly love that The Pieterpad took us into quiet corners of The Netherlands that otherwise we might not have visited.

EASY COMMUNICATION

You’d be hard pressed to find a Dutch person who doesn’t speak a good amount of English. Whilst of course it should be down to the traveller (or walker) to try to speak the local language, it made things much easier to know that we could easily communicate with anyone we needed to on route.

WALKING WEATHER

The summer months are an ideal time to walk The Pieterpad. We walked in July and found temperatures of around 20 to 23 degrees centigrade during the day, with cooler conditions at night. We had one or two days of rain, but aside from this we could not have asked for better weather.

It is rare in The Netherlands for temperatures to get into the high 20s or 30s, so you can pretty much rely on the milder climate for weather.

ANIMALS, BUT NOT SCARY ONES

The Pieterpad is full of animal friends. From happy dogs on walks, to pigs and chickens on farms. Each day we seemed to see a different animal, even alpacas. It is always a delight, especially knowing that there were no scary predators on route!

AMAZING TOWNS + CITIES

The route is book-ended by two wonderful examples of Dutch cities – Groningen and Maastricht. John and I studied in these university cities, many moons ago, and it was an absolute treat to walk from one to the other and visit the cities along the way.

In addition to these larger cities, you’ll find many smaller ones on or near the route – this includes historic Valkenburg and charming Venlo. But there are also plenty of quirky Dutch towns to explore too.

Walking The Pieterpad: What we didn’t like so much

There’s very little not to like about The Pieterpad, but here are a few things that made the route a little more challenging.

WIGGLY ROUTE

There were a number of times during The Pieterpad, when we looked at the map and wondered why on earth the trail was taking us on such an indirect route. Sometimes, there were good reasons for this – for example, to get to a better path. But at other times, we really couldn’t decipher why we were being directed a certain way, other than to add kms onto the trail.

This felt difficult, because we started to doubt whether it was best to follow the trail or take a different path – effectively breaking our trust in the route.

MISSING TOWNS + CITIES

The Pieterpad route goes through a number of towns and cities, of which many were highlights. We loved walking through the charming city of Venlo for example. But, we also noticed that the route skirted around a few towns that we would have liked to visit. For example, towards the end the route runs past Valkenburg rather than into the town.

That said, this isn’t a significant problem, with a bit of planning you can ensure you don’t miss anything.

FLAT ROUTE

The Pieterpad is not completely flat – there’s actually around 4,000 ft of elevation across the route. But there are some days that have literally no elevation. This can be a good thing – it means you can walk quite fast and cover a lot of distances each day. But there are negative aspects of walking such a flat route.

For the first week or so of walking, we both noticed that our feet and knees were suffering more than normal. I think this was from walking on such flat surfaces, using the same muscles in the same way repetitively.

Of course, the other downside of a flat trail, is that you don’t get many opportunities for view points. That said, when you do get them on The Pieterpad, they feel very special.

BITING INSECTS

One final con of walking The Pieterpad, is the vast amount of biting insects. In summer, mosquitoes and midges are found in their droves in forested areas. Despite using bug spray, we both ended up with some giant bites that looked like they were from horse flies. As quite a few of The Piterpad trails take you through woodland, the insects can be a real pain.

Walking The Pieterpad: Our Review

So, after all that, what’s our verdict on The Pieterpad?

TRAIL MARKINGS + NAVIGATION: 9/10 – trail markings on the route were near on perfect.

DIFFICULTY: 6/10 – with little elevation to speak of, the trail is not as challenging as other long-distance trails we’ve walked. That said, walking consistently on flat surfaces can be hard on the body.

ACCOMMODATION + AMENITIES: 10/10 – with so many campsites, B&Bs and hotels on route, you’ll never be left without accommodation. Supermarkets are also frequent on route.

VARIETY + LANDSCAPE: 7/10 – the route has good variety, with trails and national parks on route.

PLEASURE + LEISURE: 7/10 – there are interesting towns and cities on route, plenty of restaurants and cafes too.

Written by Emma

Wine Lover. Yogi. Hiker. Writer.

British travel writer and long-distance hiker, native to Kent. Emma has walked the Camino de Santiago more than ten times, completed trails across Europe from the Corfu Trail to the Fisherman’s Trail, and covered thousands of kilometres on foot. She always writes from first-hand experience. Her goal? Inspire just one person to go on their first long-distance hike.

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