Giethoorn · Things to do
Checked 1 September 2026 · 3 official sources
THINGS TO DO
The things worth doing in Giethoorn, from the obvious landmarks to the ones locals actually rate.
Dwarsgracht and Jonen
Two smaller water hamlets a few kilometres out, on the same canal system and with almost no visitors at all. Hire a bike in the village and go.
📍 Map & photos · $
Canoe or kayak
Quieter than a motor and allowed into narrow channels the hire boats cannot reach. Half a day gets you well inside the national park.
📍 Map & photos · $$
Bovenwijde
The lake at the end of the village. Boats spread out across it, and it is the one place here where you can be genuinely alone on the water.
Reed and thatch
About a thousand hectares of the park are still cut for thatching reed. Watch it being harvested in winter and every roof in the village makes sense.
Fanfare country
Bert Haanstra shot his comedy Fanfare here in 1958, and it is what made the village famous in the Netherlands decades before the international coaches found it.