EuroVelo route 12 between Calais and Hoek van Holland

[ANTONISH]

Thank you, everybody. This is all really helpful. The tram! I'd forgotten about that (doh). Good point.

How is it heading out of Calais towards Belgium?

Edit: anybody have a sense of the prevailing winds on that coast? And whether it'd be a terrible idea to do it in January?!

When coming out of the port by bicycle you will obviously not pick up the motorway ring road.
You should encounter a small roundabout which should be signed for "Centre Ville" (second exit )
Riding along this road you should cross a railway line (first left) carry on to the second left which should be D119 Route de Gravelines which you can follow to Gravelines which is near to the Dunkerque ferry terminal exit.
There should be signs for the airfield at Marck which you pass. I've ridden and driven this road a few times and it's ok for cycling being mainly 50 and 30 kph speed limited.
At Gravelines you can pick up the road into Dunkerque which others have described.
TBH I've found the Dunkerque ferry terminal better for a cyclist. There is a Cafe and rest area upstairs in the terminal and you can see when your Ferry is coming in - at Calais there are more quays and you can find yourself standing outside in the rain ( in January?)
The wind can be strong - I can remember riding into Calais some years ago and with the headwind we were reduced to walking pace.

[LucyEliz]

Walcheren is very pleasant. Loads of cycle paths as usual in that part of the world. Vlissingen, Middelburg, Veere are all have interesting things to see. The Schelde estuary view and WW2 Atlantic Wall stuff along the coast from Westkapelle to Domburg too. If you head north the Oosterschelde barrier is impressive. Enjoy.

Sounds great. Thank you!

[LucyEliz]

Thank you, everybody. This is all really helpful. The tram! I'd forgotten about that (doh). Good point.

How is it heading out of Calais towards Belgium?

Edit: anybody have a sense of the prevailing winds on that coast? And whether it'd be a terrible idea to do it in January?!

When coming out of the port by bicycle you will obviously not pick up the motorway ring road.
You should encounter a small roundabout which should be signed for "Centre Ville" (second exit )
Riding along this road you should cross a railway line (first left) carry on to the second left which should be D119 Route de Gravelines which you can follow to Gravelines which is near to the Dunkerque ferry terminal exit.
There should be signs for the airfield at Marck which you pass. I've ridden and driven this road a few times and it's ok for cycling being mainly 50 and 30 kph speed limited.
At Gravelines you can pick up the road into Dunkerque which others have described.
TBH I've found the Dunkerque ferry terminal better for a cyclist. There is a Cafe and rest area upstairs in the terminal and you can see when your Ferry is coming in - at Calais there are more quays and you can find yourself standing outside in the rain ( in January?)
The wind can be strong - I can remember riding into Calais some years ago and with the headwind we were reduced to walking pace.

That's really useful. Thank you - you've made a good case for going to Dunkerque instead, so I'll look into that when I plan this.

[pal]

I'd second the Dunkirk advice. It's a slightly longer ferry ride, but the ferry is often much less busy/more chilled than Dover-Calais (not that January is very likely to be peak season!), and there's an easier run into or out of the port (Dunkirk, unlike Calais or Dover, has even clocked that cyclists might find a bike rack useful, when waiting for a boat...). The only slight thing to be aware of is that there isn't much lighting on the small roads/cycle paths from the port towards Dunkirk town: it's worth factoring that in if your ferry will be coming in towards the end of the afternoon.

If you go that way, and need a warming meal near the port, then the 'Restaurant Loon Garden' is very much better than it looks from the outside: I had a memorable Tartiflette in there. (But if you aren't hungry/don't have time to kill, it's also possible to skip that bit of slightly busy road by turning onto small roads almost as soon as you leave the port area.)

[LucyEliz]

That’s really useful. Not least the tartiflette info. Thanks.

[Slowroad]

Thanks - I'm planning this too, and you've answered some of my questions.
I'm going to do it in May/June, if all works out. You are hardier than me if you do it in January! It could be fine, or it could be impossible weather. I was really cold in Brugge in February one year...

[Thehairs1970]

We cycled a fair bit of this last spring - from Sluis to Hoek. Due to time constraints we headed straight through Middelburg rather than do the coast. Beware Middelburg - I had my Brooks saddle and seatpost nicked there. Someone knew what they were looking at. The whole bridge/dam/dyke system on the coast is amazing and the beaches are pretty good too. The weather over the first few days was bitter -in April- so be prepared. We were camping and campsites were either closed or only just open for the majority.

Enjoy!

[Slowroad]

We cycled a fair bit of this last spring - from Sluis to Hoek. Due to time constraints we headed straight through Middelburg rather than do the coast. Beware Middelburg - I had my Brooks saddle and seatpost nicked there. Someone knew what they were looking at. The whole bridge/dam/dyke system on the coast is amazing and the beaches are pretty good too. The weather over the first few days was bitter -in April- so be prepared. We were camping and campsites were either closed or only just open for the majority.

Thanks! I may be doing this in late May.

[LucyEliz]

Increasingly thinking that my idea of doing it in January is indeed a bit mad. Might leave it til later in the year.

Alarmed to read of Brooks theft in Middelburg!

Slowroad, I really like the ibraries/bikes quotation in your signature.

[LucyEliz]

I'm finally getting around to planning this with a friend, for May. Hopefully also going to go up north (by train) to Groningen to do more cycling around there.

One thing we're wondering about is potentially getting trains back from south NL to Dunkerque or Ostend at the end of our tour. But every search I did online using NS international, bahn.de, and Rail Europe app gave me results that were very expensive (often involving Eurostar trains) and involving several changes. Does anybody know better?!

[simonhill]

If getting the train to Groningen have you thought about the ferry from Harwich to Den Haag (Hook of Holland).

[Psamathe]

Minor camping specific: If camping, site at Groede (southern NL, short distance from Breskens on the coast) is "un-reliable". I telephoned the day before and was told, fine, got space, no problem but when I arrived was told "no space". Eventually they said they had a small tent field (the tiny camping area does not warrant the name "field") and they said if I could find space and squeeze-in I could stay. Just managed to squeeze-in so OK for one night but very expensive (both pitch, shop, restaurant, everything).

Reason for the problems is that it's really a "resort" right by the dunes/beach for chalets, CampingCars, caravans, etc. where people go for their 2 week summer holiday - so 1 night cyclists is not really of interest to them

That is the only nearby costal site I have experience of (I headed inland after that) but I would wonder if a lot of the costal campsites are similar (targeting longer stay families on their holidays by the beach).

Ian

[LucyEliz]

If getting the train to Groningen have you thought about the ferry from Harwich to Den Haag (Hook of Holland).

We have, but we want to ride up the Belgian coast from Dunkerque through to Zeeland first. We might well end up going home from Hook of Holland. The reason we're looking into trains back to Dunkerque is that the ferry crossing Dunkerque-Dover is so much cheaper than Hoek-Harwich (£25 each versus £125 each). Plus we live in Kent. But if it's going to be so pricey and difficult to get trains from the south of the NL back to Pas-de-Calais in order to get a Dover ferry, then that affects our calculations!

[mjr]

But every search I did online using NS international, bahn.de, and Rail Europe app gave me results that were very expensive (often involving Eurostar trains) and involving several changes. Does anybody know better?!

Using bahn.de, deselect ICE trains to search for regular IC ones only, which are cheaper with fewer bike restrictions.

For Dunkerque port, consider trains to De Panne which is the last SNCB station before a disused cross border line, 20 ish miles to the port and ten to the city centre, mostly cycleways.

Ostend doesn't have passenger ferries now, does it?

[LucyEliz]

Using bahn.de, deselect ICE trains to search for regular IC ones only, which are cheaper with fewer bike restrictions.

For Dunkerque port, consider trains to De Panne which is the last SNCB station before a disused cross border line, 20 ish miles to the port and ten to the city centre, mostly cycleways.

Ostend doesn't have passenger ferries now, does it?

Perfect - will try that. Thanks for tips.

Ostend - was just thinking that'd be easy enough to cycle to Dunkerque from. De Panne even easier.