Castles Route: Hamtoren, De Haar and Slot Zuylen - Utrecht

🚴 Route by Bike | Castles Route: Hamtoren, De Haar and Slot Zuylen – Utrecht

The Netherlands isn’t only water canals, sand dunes, windmills…. This country hides a beautiful secret: its castles. Do you know that there are more than 100 castles in The Netherlands? Don’t worry, this route doesn’t go across all of them but along 3 nice castles surrounding Utrecht: Hamtoren, De Haar and Zuylen Castle. It is possible to visit the last two.

The most famous, luxurious and biggest is De Haar Castle. You will fall in love with it and will feel that you’re in a fairy tale. If you don’t believe me, look at this picture:

Before getting there, on the way, it is the Den Ham Castle, locally known as Kasteel Den Ham or Hamtoren. Hamtoren evolved from a tower house to a square castle, and now it’s a private place, so it can’t be visited.

The last one is Slot Zuylen, this is like a mixture of medieval castle and a country mansion. It’s totally different to the others. In fact, the three are different and special in their own way so don’t miss any of them!

Another nice part of the route is the Máxima Park (after the queen’s name). It’s a large green area with a playground, boat renting, bike paths and some animals (rabbits, ducks and other birds).

📕 Information:
✦ Hamtoren: There’s not too much information about this castle, but you can read about its history on these websites:
Den Ham Castle – Castles.nl

✦ Kasteel De Haar. You can visit more than 20 rooms on your own, with room guides in almost every room. The castle opens daily from 11:00 to 17:00, last entry at 16:15. The gardens open from 9:00 to 17:30. Castle and gardens cost 21.50 euro for adults and 13.50 euro for children aged 4 to 12. Under 4 and Museumkaart holders enter free. Book a time slot online in advance, tickets often sell out! You can bring a sandwich to eat in the picnic meadow. You need about two hours to see all the complex.

✦ Slot Zuylen. You can visit the castle and garden on your own. Open 11:00 to 17:00, Wednesday to Sunday from April to October, Friday to Sunday from November to March. Last entry is at 16:30. Tickets cost 16 euro for adults, 8 euro for children aged 4 to 15. Under 4 and Museumkaart holders enter free. Booking online is recommended but not required. The official website is only in Dutch. You can only pay by card. Leave your bike at the entrance, bikes are not allowed inside the grounds.

📕 More Information: Are you curious about the castles? Do you want to know where are all of them? You can check these websites:
List of castles in the Netherlands – Wikipedia
Castles in the Netherlands – Castles.nl

The route starts at Utrecht Central Station. It is easy to get there by train 😊. Google maps can provide you with timetables or you can check also the local public transport site.

➤ How to do the route?

On the next map, you can observe the complete route and all the waypoints. Take a look at the map to know where each place is. The route starts at the Utrecht Central Station and goes in a clockwise direction.
There is a point called Beach (the route doesn’t go that way, but it is nearby). The Beach is next to a lake and a restaurant, so if the weather is good maybe you can cool off 😊 or make a break there while drinking or having lunch.

Show interactive map

Click on the next link to download the route we did, this includes the mentioned points. Keep in mind that on the map you see different colors and icons but on your phone app these characteristics are unavailable. In your phone, points only have one color and one icon.
Route GPX: Castles Route Hamtoren, De Haar and Slot Zuylen – Utrecht.

How do you use the GPX on your mobile phone?
First, you need an offline map app which allows the GPX format. I use OsmAnd. The app hasn’t maps so you should download the map of The Netherlands following its options. Next, you open the file with the app (you can send it by email and when you open it, the app will appear). You should check that you can see the route with your device. Now, you’re ready to use the phone as GPS (and with no Internet)!

Now, the last important thing: the bike. We took our bike from home but, if you want to rent, there are two options:

1. Renting an OV-fiets at Utrecht Centraal. It costs 4.80 euro per 24 hours. You need a Dutch personal OV-chipkaart with the free OV-fiets subscription or NS Flex. If you don’t have one, don’t worry, the next option is valid in your case.

2. Renting a regular bike at Laag Catharijne, only at Catharijnesingel 28. A city bike costs 8.50 euro per day. Open Monday to Friday from 9:00 to 18:00 and Saturday from 10:00 to 18:00. Closed Sunday. Ask about the deposit. I left my ID as a deposit the one time I rented a bike there.

➤ My Experience

I had already been at De Haar Castle but I wanted to see it again and use the opportunity to visit other castles nearby. The beginning of the path goes through a nice neighborhood, beautiful canals, houses and a windmill! After crossing the Maxima park and a short stop to see the Hamtoren, we went to the most famous castle.

There was a queue when we arrived at the Haar Castle (we went in August, the high season), but we didn’t wait too much (10 minutes). It was my second visit and it was different. I visited several rooms on the first and second floor, but not the same as the last time! After the guided tour we saw the rest of the castle: the ground floor and the gardens.

As you can see in the pictures, we did the route on a sunny day. A perfect day to go by bike but we started late, around 11 am. Therefore, we couldn’t visit the inside of the Slot Zuylen because of the time (we arrived just 10 minutes after the last tour guide) and also because It was necessary to book in advance! On the English web version didn’t say it (now the web says it). They told us at the ticket office…too late ☹️. We were only able to visit the garden and see the castle from outside. So I’ve added it to my bucket list.

From my experience, I suggest you to start the route before 11 am, maybe 10 am is enough. For Slot Zuylen, booking online is recommended but not required. Remember, last entry is at 16:30 and it is closed on Monday and Tuesday.

➽ More activities in the Netherlands on Extra Netherlands.

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