Sunny Scheveningen

Over the summer, I returned to the Netherlands for a few days holiday with some of my family. On one of the days, we jumped on the train from Rotterdam to Den Haag and then took a tram hop to the resort of Scheveningen.

It's not the first time I've visited, but last time I cycled here, it really was a flying visit as part of longer cycle ride and you can see a quick run of the route from Den Haag to the coast in this video. This time, we were aiming to spend the whole day and although we took advantage of the cooler morning, the afternoon was roasting.

One of the things I adore about the seafront is the group of sculptures which depict fairy tales, and as such, there is always a hint of unease and sometimes menace with them. The 12 metre tall "Herring Eater" is my favourite and provides quite the land mark (above).

This trip wasn't based around the cycle, but while #TheDoodle was digging on the beach under the eye of Mrs RH, I grabbed a little time to jump on a bike for a spin. To my delight (above), dockless hire firm Donkey Republic operates in Scheveningen and so I was able to add another place to my list of hires which includes places in Sweden, Denmark and Germany.

As well as the tram, residents of Den Haag also have an easy to cycle to Scheveningen (which is a district within the wider city) with high quality cycle tracks reaching the beach, but that's not the whole experience. If you want to avoid the beach and head north to the open spaces and dunes, you have to use the painted door zone lanes of Gevers Deynootweg (above). 

This street really is car-park central and at the height of summer, the queues of people trying to find somewhere to park made it quite unpleasant. As well as the 686 space Boulevard car parking garage which costs €2.70 per 30 minutes (or €2.30 with a PCard+), there is the Noord Boulevard cycle parking garage (above) which is free, although I can't quite work out who runs it.

While I was at the northern end, I took a little spin around the neighbourhood to the west and of course, the streets were pretty quiet. The housing mix is quite diverse, but on Hoornse Hop (above), the houses are quite large.

Back on Gevers Deynootweg and heading south again, the painted cycle lanes give way to cycle tracks which are perhaps showing their age with their block paved surfacing, but are much better than being with traffic (above).

Further south still and the cycle track becomes smooth red asphalt; and in fact, this is only a few years old (above).

I then turned off and headed to the beach front on the wonderful Strandweg cycle track (above) where there was lots of cycle parking available.

This whole area was redeveloped a few years ago and it's an amazing place to cycle, although at the southern end, it's only serving the beach and marina; to get to Hoek van Holland, one needs to turn off and head inland a little.

So there you have it, a quick spin around the resort of Scheveningen, definitely a place I would recommend visiting, although seeing the traffic queues for the car parking, maybe stick to public transport or a cycle!