Cycling route Noordoostpolder and Kuinderbos
Cycle through a striking young landscape with wide-open views to the horizon, clean polder lines, green meadows, colorful fields, and unexpectedly quiet forests.
The Landscape
The Noordoostpolder is not yet a century old, yet its clear structure makes it instantly recognizable. After the former Zuiderzee was reclaimed, the new land was carefully designed: straight ditches, perfectly straight roads, and Emmeloord as the central hub, surrounded by villages with their own function and character. This layout gave the polder its rhythm, with open space, long sightlines, and a landscape that changes color with the seasons.
Amid all this farmland and wide-open space lies a green counterworld: the Kuinderbos, the largest and oldest forest in the Noordoostpolder. On the former seabed near Kuinre, a varied mosaic of deciduous and coniferous woodland, flower-rich grasslands, reed beds, and water features has developed. The area is rich in birdlife and wildlife, with a chance of spotting roe deer and, if you are lucky, a badger. Old dikes, ditches, and subtle relief features recall the time of water and shipping, so you are not only cycling through nature but also past tangible traces of the former Zuiderzee landscape.
What You’ll Discover Along the Way
Around Emmeloord, the route leads through the Kuinderbos, where long forest paths alternate with winding avenues. You cycle past quiet waterways and sheltered clearings, with woodpeckers, songbirds, and regularly wildlife venturing to the forest edge along the way.
Outside the forest, the Noordoostpolder opens up into orderly blocks of fields and meadows. Straight polder roads, broad drainage canals, and farmsteads lined with trees create a grand setting in which space is the dominant experience. During the growing season, flowering fields and a variety of crops add extra color and variety to the route.
Along the lower-lying areas, reed beds, and wet nature zones, you experience the quiet water landscape of the polder. Reed fringes, pools, and ditch edges attract many water birds, and in the morning a calm, almost hushed atmosphere often hangs over the damp margins between forest and open land.
Along the way, waterways repeatedly cross your path, from the meandering Linde to the straight canals that neatly divide the young landscape. Crossing small bridges and riding along grassy dikes, you follow the gentle rhythm of the water, which gives the polder its calm, open character.
Ride along with us on this virtual bike tour
Virtual cycling through the Noordoostpolder lets you experience a structured polder landscape at home on your indoor trainer, with straight roads, broad canals, and wide views across fields and meadows. In every season, the scenery changes through varying crops, flower-rich edges, and long sightlines.
You then ride virtually into the Kuinderbos, the largest and oldest forest in the Noordoostpolder, with long forest paths, winding avenues, and quiet water features. The contrast between the open polder and this sheltered nature area adds extra variety, with plenty of birdlife and occasional wildlife along the forest edge. An ideal virtual cycling route for relaxed training at home with a true outdoor feel.
Want to learn more about virtual cycling? THIS IS HOW VIRTUAL CYCLING WORKS
Route map and cycling junctions
Start and finish at cycling junction 88 on the Hopweg in Luttelgeest. Because this is a circular route, you can also start at one of the other cycling junctions along the route.
Distance: 54 km
Estimated riding time: 3 hours 38 minutes
Elevation gain: 59 m
Paved roads: 100%
Ideal for: e-bikes and city bikes
Along the way: several options for a coffee break or lunch.
