Road trips are a great way to see those less visited places across Europe and the wider world, but with climate change becoming an increasing concern, is it possible to balance that with wanderlust? The travel gurus at Lonely Planet published a new guide, Electric Vehicle Road Trips Europe
, that suggests it’s possible to strike a balance, so, with a copy as inspiration, we jumped into our fully charged pure electric Volkswagen ID Buzz and headed for the channel.
The route that we decided to follow took us to France via a DFDS ferry from Dover to Dunkirk — where we relaxed in the Premium Lounge with a glass or two of Prosecco, of course — then on towards Rotterdam, IJburg, Terschelling and finally Groningen. This was my first trip to the Netherlands, and if I’m really honest, Amsterdam was the only city that I really knew anything about, so it was going to be a learning experience for me and, hopefully, a lot of fun.
As we rolled the fully-charged (we topped up the electrons near Dover) ID Buzz out of Dunkirk, accompanied by nothing but a faint electric hum and some banging 90s tunes on the stereo, we headed towards Delft. Home of the famous blue and white pottery, its classic European architecture and beautiful market square made for a stunning place to spend a couple of hours and soak up what little sunshine remains. Just half an hour away from Rotterdam, it was a welcome pit stop before we headed into the hustle and bustle of the city.
Rotterdam
We arrived in Rotterdam and made our way to the car park at the delightful The James Hotel, where we were spending a couple of nights. For most, that would be uneventful, but we chose to arrive in what is fundamentally a posh van that, at 1.98m high, ended up being 3cm too tall to squeeze in. We headed off to find an alternative, which gave us an impromptu tour of the city.
Once the ID Buzz was safely tucked away in an underground car park, we headed into the daylight to see what the city had to offer. With our Rotterdam Welcome Card, which secures discounts and line-skipping benefits at attractions, venues, bars and restaurants across the city, and unlimited travel on the metro, tram and bus network, we started exploring.
What struck us immediately was the amount of art there is to see. Around every corner, you’ll find artworks of one kind or another, from colourful street art on the sides of buildings, walls and shipping containers to beautifully created sculptures and memorials. There’s a BMW dangling over a wall, neon signs draped across streets, and statues everywhere.
Several self-guided walking tours will direct you around the city from artwork to artwork. We opted to use an app-based walk from Rotterdam Routes, which, while the content was great, was frustrating to use. No matter how you do it, take a few hours to seek out the art and murals, as there are so many amazing works to see. You’ll find plenty along Witte de Withstraat, just 10 minutes from the city centre, where there are also plenty of lively bars and restaurants.
We dined at Bertman’s, a restaurant near the hotel with delicious vegan and vegetarian options, which suited our environmentally sympathetic road trip. Vegan dumplings sounded challenging but were glorious. If you’re not a fan of plant-based dining, there were plenty of meat-based dishes, but be brave and try something new.
On our second day in the city, we headed to The Depot Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, which is the first publicly accessible art storage depot in the world. It’s chock full of different types of artwork, from Monet paintings to modern art pieces. As you wander around the building, exploring the seven floors by way of the open staircases or the glass-sided lifts, you’ll experience an eclectic collection of art in this unique setting. There are also four restoration and conservation rooms, where you can get a behind-the-scenes look — albeit at a distance, as it is a working environment — as the experts work their magic. It is an utterly fascinating experience and well worth a visit.
There’s more than just art in Rotterdam. It’s known as a commercial city, and that’s reinforced by a port that’s more than 20 miles long. With as much cargo as the next three largest ports combined going through its cranes, it’s a logistical marvel, and a tour of the site is available for those who enjoy the more technical side of things.
Sticking with boats, the SS Rotterdam is moored in the city. The steamship, built in 1959, was once the flagship of the Holland-America Line, and touring the ship now reveals what luxury used to be like. It’s now home to a hotel and entertainment and dining venues, so you can spend the whole night onboard.
You can also sleep at the top of the Euromast, a 100-metre-high concrete tower built in 1960 to mark a gardening festival. A rotating lift will take you to the observation platform and restaurant at the top, but a couple of bijou rooms are also available to spend the night in.
More glamorous architecture can be found at the Markthal. This glorified apartment block is a masterpiece of glass and metal, but it’s built in a horseshoe shape that bridges a food market, shops and restaurants over four floors.
We visited Restaurant Rotonde on our second night. It’s a bit outside the city centre, but Rotterdam’s quick and reliable tram system took us virtually to the door in no time. The restaurant serves a seasonal, locally sourced menu of small plates in a tasting menu style — complemented by wonderful homemade pita bread. The team are passionate about what they do, and it shows, as the food was excellent. It’s not cheap, but the venue was full of customers on a Tuesday evening, which shows that locals recognise the skill and enthusiasm.
Although we felt we’d only scratched the surface of what Rotterdam had to offer, it was time to move on. We woke the ID Buzz from its underground slumber and headed toward the suburbs of Amsterdam.
IJburg
Amsterdam has been a victim of its own success, and the majority of tourists that visit the Netherlands each year head straight for the capital without giving other locations a second thought. We didn’t want to fall into the same tourist rut, so we headed to the man-made, environmentally conscious island of IJburg for our next night, where we stayed at the Four Elements Hotel Amsterdam
. Like much of IJburg, sustainability is at the heart of the hotel, with wonderfully innovative features, such as a natural air conditioning system that somehow harnesses the wind to keep the rooms cool. I’m not going to pretend I understand how it works, but I can tell you that it works well, and our room was kept at a solid 20°C as the mercury climbed unseasonably high outside.
Leaving the temperate hotel behind, we headed out with our local guide, Sabine, who gave us a whistle-stop tour of IJburg — her home town. As the project started in the 1990s, IJburg has grown into an impressively well-thought-out neighbourhood, with modern and wide streets home to family residences, social housing, and large, expensive properties sitting cheek by jowl. A new apartment complex, Jonas’, accommodates 273 properties, from medium-priced rentals to owner-occupied houses, in a building that looks something like a cruise ship. It majors on environmentally friendly design, though, with wood and glass, and even water flowing over the top of the enclosed atrium, giving it a natural feel.
The concept behind IJburg is to have everybody living together as one intertwined community, not an economically divided one. Having said that, there is an area known as Millionaires Island, so I guess an economic divide will always persist for some. Still, there are parks and large open green spaces for everyone to enjoy, and waterfront areas with neighbourhood cafes and high-end bars, which are well-used by the community.
IJburg is just a 20-minute tram ride into Amsterdam, so residents get the best of both worlds — a largely eco-friendly town with everything you need and a city that’s within easy reach, all without needing a car. We hopped onto the tram with a quick swipe of our I Amsterdam City Cards — a great idea if you’re in or around the city for a few days — and were soon on the outskirts of the city, admiring the unique architecture and absorbing the history and surroundings of the Eastern Docklands area.
After such a fabulous delve into the areas around Amsterdam, we headed back to our hotel for a relaxing cocktail or two — I recommend the whisky-based Northern Skies or the rum-based Light Me On Fire — in the rooftop bar and enjoyed the spectacular sunset over the waters of IJmeer Lake before retiring to our perfectly conditioned room for a well-earned rest — we’d covered almost 30,000 steps as we explored every inch of IJburg and beyond.
The next morning, we hit the well-stocked breakfast buffet, loaded our cases back into the ID Buzz, and set off towards our next destination — the island of Terschelling. As we headed north, we crossed the Afsluitdijk — a 20-mile-long man-made dam and causeway which bridges part of the Wadden Sea. The building of the dam has created a substantial inland lake, the IJsselmeer, which is home to the world’s largest wind farm in an inland body of water. Fryslan wind farm produces around 1.5 terawatt hours of green electricity annually from the 89 wind turbines. Sadly for us, though, we had to wait until we’d crossed the dam to be able to plug in the ID Buzz for a top-up.
After a quick stop, we headed further north to Harlingen, where we had to abandon the ID Buzz before hopping onto a ferry to make the two-hour crossing of the Wadden Sea — a UNESCO World Heritage Site — to the island of Terschelling.
Terschelling
Terschelling is a stunning island that is home to approximately 5,000 people. It might be less than 20 miles long and three miles wide, but there is a lot to discover in that relatively small area. Around every corner is a different landscape, from vast, golden sandy beaches to hills and forests. The island really does have something for everyone.
Terschelling has a rich and fascinating history — beachcombing and shipwrecks play a big part in the island’s story, along with its occupation by the Nazis during World War II — but it is the abundance and diversity of the wildlife that attracts thousands of visitors every year.
Only privately owned areas of the island are off-limits. Everything else is open to visitors — as long as you respect the landscape and the wildlife, you can immerse yourself in it. The best way to make the most of it is, of course, with the help of either a guide or a mapped route. VVV Terschelling (the local tourist information office) has lots of resources available to help you make the most of your stay.
We stayed in Midsland, which has several buzzing bars and restaurants along the lively main street. We ate at Pura Vida Foodbar, which offers a great selection of meat, vegan and vegetarian dishes. The restaurant had a vibrant atmosphere and wonderfully helpful and attentive staff, making it a great place to sit and enjoy a meal. The food was fresh, well presented and very tasty too.
One of the main reasons for our visit was Terschelling’s reputation as having some of the darkest night skies in Europe. There were some thin, patchy clouds during our visit, but the island didn’t disappoint. We took a guided walk with a ranger into Boschplaat Dark Sky Park, where we spent a couple of hours exploring the vast expanse of space. Without the bleed of artificial light sources impacting the skies — bar a lighthouse that occasionally reflected in our direction — we were treated to breathtaking night sky views, seeing more stars than we could possibly have imagined. It was a magnificent, almost emotional experience that we can’t recommend highly enough.
After our star-studded evening, we returned to our lodgings at ‘t Wapen van Terschelling, which is a somewhat rustic but quaint boutique hotel. The hotel has single, double and triple rooms available, although not all have ensuite facilities — if this is an important factor, then be sure to check which room you are booking. The hotel has a lively bar and restaurant area, but after a night of walking through chilly moorland, we were ready to hit the hay, so we opted not to join in the revelry.
The following day, after a stay on the island that really was far too short, we headed back to the port to catch our ferry, this time a faster catamaran ship, back to the mainland. As we headed towards our final stop in Groningen, we promised that we’d return to Terschelling to explore it fully.
Groningen
Groningen is an academic city with two major universities within its boundaries, so it comes as no surprise to learn that, with 25% of the population being students, it is demographically the youngest city in the Netherlands. And you can tell that from the feel of the place.
As well as preserving and celebrating its past, Groningen has one eye firmly on the future. The Forum is the heart of the city — this modern building, built in 2019, is nestled next to the historic market square and forms a focal point for many of the city’s inhabitants. It houses libraries, a cinema, coffee shops, bookshops, exhibitions, and study spaces, as well as a rooftop bar and restaurant on the tenth floor. As we meandered through the building, it was busy with people from all sectors of the community, which was a fabulous thing to see.
We met our city guide, Titus Akkermans, at the Forum. He escorted us around the city, talking us through some of its fascinating history and pointing out things that we would very easily have missed without his help — we would never have seen the oasis of calm that is the Sint Anthony Gasthuis, hidden behind an old wooden gate. His abundant knowledge of the city was a joy to listen to, as he filled the time we spent with him with fun and humour while still giving us a flavour of the city’s past and present.
We parted ways with Titus at our last tourist stop of the day, the Groninger Museum. It’s a unique and striking building, with colours and angles galore, which is fitting, as it houses art, design, photography and related exhibitions.
Once inside, we took the mosaic-lined spiral staircase downwards and explored the fabulous exhibition, The Rolling Stones — Unzipped. With 400 original items from the band’s personal archives on display, from costumes to personal diaries, this is an exhibition not to be missed if you’re a Stones fan. Previously, the museum has dedicated space to David Bowie — an exhibition organised by Michel Aaldering, Terschelling’s director of tourism that we coincidentally spent the previous day with — and Jaime Hayon, amongst others.
Having immersed ourselves in the exhibition until they announced the imminent closure of the museum, we headed back into the city streets to find somewhere a little different for dinner.
De Groene Stoel is a restaurant specialising in locally sourced and organic dishes. The menu isn’t extensive, with the entire thing only consisting of five dishes — one starter, three main courses and two dessert options — the food selection doesn’t take long. The only real choice is whether you want a vegan, vegetarian or meat-based main.
The dishes on the menu are inspired by different cultures and countries, with Lebanese and Middle Eastern influences throughout. Everything was fresh and well prepared, but while I generally enjoy vegan dishes, the vegan tuna — savoury marinated watermelon — was just a step too far for my imagination and my palate. Everything else went down well, though, with a glass of chilled white wine to celebrate our last evening in the Netherlands.
Our bed for the night was at the Asgard Hotel, just a few minutes walk from the centre of Groningen. Housed in a 1930s building, the styling has an industrial chic feel, created using sustainable materials, such as mud walls and plywood ceilings. The room was spacious and comfortable, and even with a stripped-back approach to decor, it still felt warm and inviting.
While there’s no proper bar, you can purchase a limited range of spirits and drinks via the reception desk, which made the perfect nightcap to take back to our room as we headed for bed.
Our Netherlands adventure was coming to an end — all that was left was to pack up and head back towards home. We’d need to make a stop on the way back to charge up the ID Buzz one last time, so we paused in Sint-Niklaas, just over the Belgium border, before making for Dunkirk (avoiding the crowded and chaotic Calais port) and the DFDS ferry back across the channel — after picking up some duty-free, of course.
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