Giethoorn Village in Netherlands | Fairytale Village

 

Giethoorn Village in Netherlands | Fairytale Village also dubbed "Venice of the North"

Giethoorn is a mostly car-free village in the northeastern Dutch province of Overijssel. It’s known for its boat-filled waterways, footpaths, bicycle trails, and centuries-old thatched-roof houses. It borders a section of the Weerribben-Wieden National Park, a marshy area once popular for peat and reed harvesting. Next to the park, Museum Giethoorn ‘t Olde Maat Uus is a farm museum illustrating the region’s history.

If you ever wanted to live your own fairy-tale, you may want to consider moving to the village Giethoorn. Also known as “Venice of the Netherlands”, this magical village founded around 1230 is the kind most people could only dream of… It has no roads or any modern transportation at all, only canals. Well, and 176 bridges too. Tourists have to leave their cars outside of the village and travel here by foot or boat by (usually by “whisper boats”, which have noiseless engines). So you can probably imagine how peaceful it is here (well, when it isn’t flooded with tourists, of course)… Even the village’s website says that “the loudest sound you can normally hear is the quacking of a duck or the noise made by other birds”.

In a land far far away, it is so peaceful, so different and has such simple beauty that it hardly seems real. The remote village Giethoorn, in the Netherlands, also dubbed "Venice of the North", has no roads, only canals.

You won't find any cars or buses. In fact, The islands are connected with more than 150 bridges.

Giethoorn's name originates from the first inhabitants' discovery of hundreds of goat horns (gietehorens) in the marshland.

The village has become a popular Dutch tourist attraction.

Local skippers will guide you through the town and you can dine at canal-side restaurants.