Sail & bike West frisian Tidelands - Mare fan Fryslan

A Sail & Bike tour is like a little bit of adventure: the only thing which is really fixed on this cruise is the departure and arrival harbour Enkhuizen. The sailing routes to be taken depend largely on wind and weather forecast. The skipper will determine from day to day the exact sailing schedule. The skipper and his crew will do everything they can to offer you the program as planned so you can enjoy a fascinating week with a variety of activities, nature and culture, but it is possible that the departure and sailing times and/or the order of the program has to be changed. Enjoy and relax: the elements will lead you! Various parts of the tour will be sailed. The ship of course has a motor as well, so if the winds are unfavorable or even absent, it can still reach the next destination.

Individual arrival and embarkation from 2 pm near the beautiful centre of Enkhuizen and close to the railway station. The skipper will join you for an aperitif and explain many things worth knowing about the journey, the ship and also about safety measures to be taken onboard. In the evening you can stroll through the historical centre of Enkhuizen and spend the night onboard in Enkhuizen.

Today the ship sails from Enkhuizen to Den Oever with its fishing harbour. You can stay on board and sail over the IJsselmeer or you can grab a bike and start your first cycling tour along the IJsselmeer coast through the beautiful polder-landscape to Medemblik. After the bike tour the ship will sail further to Den Oever. Depending on the weather in the evening the ship will sail across the Wadden Sea to the Island of Texel.

The island of Texel has varied scenery and picturesque villages. Explore the largest of the Dutch North Sea islands on a roundtrip cycling tour. Our tip: Use the well signposted Thijsse-route (about 40 km/24 mi) and visit some villages and the seal sanctuary station EcoMare.

Today the ship will sail, when the tide and the weather is good, to the island of Terschelling. You will manoeuvre through the sandbanks of the Wadden Sea and when you are lucky you will see seals lying to rest on a sandbar. In the afternoon the ship will arrive on the island. While sailing you will enjoy an extensive lunch on board. No dinner will be served tonight, to enable you to explore the island, but you can make yourself a picnic meal or why not try one of the nice restaurants at Terschelling (not inclusive)?

Terschelling offers a lot: nature and culture, 70 km cycling tracks and 4 beautiful villages. West-Terschelling is the largest village on the island with nice shops and pubs. The landmark of the island can already be seen well from a distance: the 400 year old lighthouse “Brandaris”. Also worth seeing is the heath land “Boschplaat”. It captivates with its mud, beaches and dunes. You might even spot a number of ducks, black-winged stilts and large colonies of spoonbills and great black-backed gulls. In the late afternoon the ship will cross the Wadden Sea and sail to Harlingen, the most important harbour city of the province of Friesland.

Via Franeker with its popular planetarium from Eise Eisinga, you will cycle through the beautiful and roomy Frisian landscape with its tiny villages to Makkum. If you´re in to take the long trip, you will also visit Bolsward, one of the eleven Frisian towns.

Today you take your bike and ride from Makkum to Stavoren. The short tour passes the old trading town Hindeloopen where the famous painting comes from. Also, there is the first Frisian ice-skate museum. The long tour crosses many Frisian lakes and shows a different scenery. In Stavoren, you take your ship and sail to Enkhuizen.

Disembarkation by 09:30 am. A beautiful journey full of new experiences has come to an end.