Tag: Weekend getaway

Weekend getaways in The Netherlands and Belgium

Are you looking for a perfect weekend getaway in The Netherlands or Belgium? In this post I will share some of my personal favorites with you.

The Forest, Belgium

On a private domain in Belgium, you will find this tiny house, the Forest. Where you can take a bath within the forest. The tiny house has room for two people and the cabin is heated by a cosy fire place.

In summer time there is a BBQ you can use, or you can cook on open fire and roast some marshmallows.

There is a large pond next to the cabin and you can take the canoe out for a spin.

Cabin the Forest


Buitenplaats Beekhuizen

In the middle of the forest at the Veluwezoom, you will find pods and glamping tents from Buitenplaats Beekhuizen. It is the perfect place to go when you love to go hiking in the forest.

I love the fact that you are surrounded by the forest, wherever you look. At night it is still completely dark here and you will need a lantern to go outside. It is the perfect place to enjoy a campfire and watch the stars.

Pod Buitenplaats Beekhuizen


Bed and breakfast Zuidoord

This beautiful bed and breakfast is located on the island of Voorne Putten, only a short ride away from the city of Rotterdam, but still in the middle of nature. Surrounded by the countryside of The Netherlands, you will have a beautiful view for miles right from the garden of the bed and breakfast. The perfect place to relax and recharge.

Close to the city of Hellevoetsluis and surrounded by beautiful beaches and nature. You can rent a bike and go for a bike ride along Voorne Putten. Or you can put on your hiking boots and take a long walk along the beach of Rockanje or Voorne Putten.

Bed and Breakfast Zuidoord


Hotel de Sterrenberg

Right outside of national park the Veluwe you will find Hotel Sterrenberg, an adults only hotel, with an amazing restaurant. If you want a little bit more luxury this is the place to go. You can start your visit to the national park right from the doorstep of the hotel or you can stay at the hotel and enjoy a relaxing day at their spa and afterwards an amazing dinner at their restaurant, Woods.

Camping de Blauwe Haan

If you are looking for something different, right in the middle of nature, camping the Blauwe Haan is the place to go. It is a beautiful campsite situated in the beautiful province of Drenthe, The Netherlands. You will find this campsite right at the entry of the forest, so you can hike straight from your tent or rental property. We stayed in one of the domes, which houses up to 4 guests. With a fully furnished kitchen and a toilet. The only thing you will need to leave the dome for is a shower. It is close to the beautiful nature reserve of Dwingeloo, where you can take beautiful hikes.

Weekend getaways

A night at the Forest, Belgium

I am always looking for unique places to stay close to home. I have been following The Forest for a while now on Instagram and this winter I could snatch up a last minute night at this beautiful cabin.

A private domain

The cabin is situated on a private domain, which is completely fenced off. You arrive along a beautiful tree lane from which you can already spot the cabin. The cabin is next to a small pond, where a kingfisher has taken up his residence. While we were staying at the cabin, we watched him fly his rounds along the pond from the bed in the morning. A beautiful sight.

A forest getaway
Since the cabin is situated on a private domain, it feels like you are in the middle of the forest. On the other side of the main road you can hike in the Troostembergbos. Which makes this cabin the ideal getaway for forest lovers like me.

The cabin
The cabin is equipped for two people. Keep in mind though that there isn’t a shower in the cabin, only a bath tub.

You do have the possibility of using their barbecue or grill on an open fire in the fire pits that are provided at the cabin.

One of the things I loved the most about this cabin is the canoe that is available for your use the entire stay. Even though it was freezing when we stayed there, I took the canoe out for a little tour of the pond.

Afterwards I could warm up next to the cozy fire place, which heats up the cabin in winter. The owners will start the fire place before your arrival, so the cabin is nice and toasty when you get there.

Buitenplaats Beekhuizen, a weekend getaway in The Netherlands

Those days between Christmas and New Year’s are always the kind of days that seem to go by without a thought. So this year I decided to change things up and book a weekend getaway with Valerie. A special one for that matter. I decided to head back to the Veluwe, one of the most beautiful parts of The Netherlands.

The Pod at Buitenplaats Beekhuizen

I booked a pod nestled in the middle of the national park of Veluwezoom. A pod is a little wooden cabin. At Buitenplaats Beekhuizen you will find the pods and tents surrounded by the forests. I booked a stay from Friday until Monday. Upon my arrival it was already clear that this isn’t to long to stay here. There are countless hiking trails around and activities. You will have a hard time deciding what to do first.

The pods are small, but they are equipped with all the conveniences you will need. You won’t have a fully equipped kitchen though. You do however have a water heater, a coffee maker, a microwave and a fridge. If you do want to make homemade meals you can also book a cooking pod, but their is also a restaurant on side. As was as a breakfast service. The pods also have their own bathrooms. And my pod could even house up as many as four people.

Restaurant Woodz

The first thing you will come across when you enter the site is restaurant Woodz. The restaurant is small, but cosy. The inside area is made out of an old shipping container. Outside you will find fire pits and sheepskin blankets to keep you warm, even during the winter months.  And the food is amazing. There are even a couple of options if you are a vegetarian.

Buitenplaats Beekhuizen-4828

Hiking
Buitenplaats Beekhuizen is situated in the middle of National Park Veluwezoom. Which comes with the bonus of trails starting in your backyard. There are hiking trails starting right outside your doorstep, one of which is the Herikhuizen route. Which we hiked the first day while we were there.

Herikhuizen trail
The Herikhuizen hiking trail is a a 10k hike crossing the Veluwezoom National Park and it’s diverse landscape. From rolling hills, to heather fields and back into the forest.

The Herikhuizen trail will taking you right along the famous Herikhuizen heather fields, which only bloom in August. As well as the most famous spot to watch the heather fields in the Netherlands, the Posbank.

While on this hike you might also run into some Icelandic horses. You can ad a little extra to this hike by getting of the trail for just a little bit to visit the nature observation point Herikhuizen. Where you might spot some wild boars, or maybe even deer.


Hike Carolinahoeve
The second day we decided to hike the trail to the Carolinahoeve, a pancake restaurant, which is only accessible by foot. If you are lucky you will even come across some of the Scottish highlanders whom roam freely in this area. This is a 5k trail starting from the parking lot “Lappendeken” It is an easy trail, but even though The Netherlands is mostly flat, don’t be fooled by it, because here you will find some rolling hills.


It was the perfect weekend getaway in between Christmas and New Year’s. If you would like to book one of the pods, go over to the website of Buitenplaats Beekhuizen by clicking this link.

Castle Eltz and Geierlay

I can’t believe I haven’t posted anything in so long. We have been extremely busy with work, our home and traveling as much as possible.

So last fall has been all about new adventures. These adventures came in the form of day trips. One of the day trips I took was to Castle Eltz. The castle has been famous due to instagram. I am sure you have seen one of the many pictures of Castle Eltz, while scrolling through your feed.

our neverending wanderlust eltz castle-1So on the last Friday of October I took a daytrip to Castle Eltz with one of my friends. For me it was a very long drive, but it was defenitly worth it. We had planned this trip months in advance, but we were lucky that it wasn’t raining.

So we parked our car at the parking at the top, where you have to pay two euros. Yes, even before opening hours. From there you can either take the pendle bus down or hike down. It is only a short hike, about 1 kilometer. So we hiked down where the pendle bus goes down. Half way down you will find a platform with a birds eye view over Castle Eltz.

our neverending wanderlust eltz castle-5164When you get to the castle it is open for visits. It costs 10 euros for an adult to get in. You will also find a restaurant in Castle Eltz.

We decided to not go in, but we wandered around the castle grounds. All the way down to the river. There are numerous hiking trails passing along the castle and you can even hike from here to Castle Pyrmont.

After wandering around for a while we took the foot path through the forest back to the car. From the footh path you will also find some amazing views over the Castle.

After our visit to Castle Eltz we decided we wanted to see one of the other big tourist attractions around here, which is the bridge at Geierlay. It is one of the longest suspencion bridges in Europe. It is 360 meters long and 100 meters high.

Since it is such a big attraction you will find multiple parking lots in the town of Morsdorf. Don’t forget to bring cash though, cause you can’t pay with a card. It is about a half an hour hike to the bridge depending on where you park your car. We did a circular route which took us about an hour.

When we were there it was quite busy, which meant you had to pass people on the bridge. It was also quite windy, so a lot of movement of the bridge. But here the fall colors were just amazing. It was an amazing experience to see and hike the Geierlay suspension bridge.

Have you ever visited Castle Eltz or the Geierlay bridge?

A two day itinerary to England

This November I took a weekend getaway to England. We drove over to England on Saturday and came back Sunday night. This might seem like a short time, but you can do a lot in this time frame. Let me tell you what our two day itinerary looked like for this trip.

We left early in the morning to catch the 8.49 train from Calais to Folkestone. We arrived early in Calais, so they offered us to take a train earlier free of charge. Since we only had two days we took the train half an hour earlier. So we arrived in England at 7.45 in the morning. At the train station in Calais there is a big parking area with restaurants, where you can wait in case you are to early.

When leaving the train station in England you can get straight on the highway. Just remember to drive on the left side and to take in account that the speed limit is in miles instead of kilometers.

We first drove to Hastings, which is about an hour drive from the train station. Here we spend the morning at the beach and the pier.

After Hastings we drove to Beachy Head near Eastborne. Which is about another hour from Hastings. Here we spend the afternoon on the beach and the cliffs and had tea at the restaurant.

After the sunset at Beachy Head we headed back towards Folkestone. Were we stayed at a hotel in the town of Rye. Which is a beautiful typical English village. I didn´t take any shots here though. Since I didn´t want to bring my camera to dinner. If you stay in Rye on Saturday I would recommend to make dinner reservations though, since we got turned down at two restaurants.

Sunday morning we took breakfast early and left for the White Cliffs of Dover, which is approximately an hour drive from Rye. Here we hiked to the lighthouse.

After Dover we headed to Folkestone, for dinner and the sunset, before taking the train back to France at 17.00. Here you can read all about Folkestone.

We took our time at every single stop and didn´t rush anything. Even though we only had two days we saw a lot. It felt like I had been on vacation for an entire week.

This is what our itinerary looked like:
Saturday morning:                          beach and pier Hastings
Saturday afternoon:                        Beachy Head near Eastbourne
Saturday night:                                dinner and hotel stay in Rye
Sunday morning/afternoon:         white cliffs of Dover
Sunday afternoon:                          Folkestone
Sunday night:                                  train home

What was your last weekend getaway?