Giethoorn

About this place

Giethoorn is a village in the province of Overijssel in the northeast Netherlands, about 9 km southwest of Steenwijk and 89 km northeast of Amsterdam in a straight line. Nicknamed the «Venice of the Netherlands» for its many canals, it has about 2,800 residents. The lakes around the village were formed by peat digging, and in the old part of the village there were no roads: all transport went by water along the canals, though a cycle path was added later. The village became famous in the Netherlands after 1958, when the filmmaker Bert Haanstra shot his comedy «Fanfare» here. Giethoorn has 176 bridges, and tourism is its main income. Old farmhouses with tall thatched roofs line the narrow canals, set in neat gardens and willows and linked by arched wooden footbridges. Small boats glide quietly along the water, and the canals open out onto wide reed-fringed lakes. Visitors hire quiet electric boats to steer themselves, take a tour boat or walk the path beside the main canal. The village gets crowded on summer days, so arrive early or come in spring or autumn.