Giethoorn - Beutiful village in the Netherlands

 Giethoorn village, is the most beautiful and fairytale village in the Netherlands. The Dutch village where the inhabitants can only sail around, walk or cycle to transport themselves. Every year, 1 million people visit Giethoorn. The village is too quiet, too serene and remote. It is so calm that its nickname of the “Dutch Venice” may give a false impression of size and crowds and commercialism.

The loudest sound you can normally hear in Giethoorn village are the quacking of a duck or the noise made by other birds. It is located in the province of Overijssel in the east of the Netherlands, a green and still area.

Giethoorn is at the centre of Overijssel’s canal system. Indeed, the little village is so dependent on its waterways, many of the houses cannot be reached by road. When the postman delivers the mail he travels by punt. Boating has been a popular tourist attraction here for years, with 90km of canoe trails and scores of motorboats to rent, but now, instead of conventional outboard motors, the hire shops stock so-called ‘whisper boats’ – dinghies driven by electric motor.

Giethoorn’s name originates from the first inhabitants’ discovery of hundreds of goat horns (gietehorens) in the marshland, remnants of a 10th-century flood. Today no goat horns will be found here, but the vegetation is quite distinct still. Here you will find yourself on the edge of vast series of lakes and canals, ideal for boaties, angling and paddle-cycling.

Giethoorn  is one of the cutest villages in the Netherlands. This village in the Netherlands has no roads, only footpaths and canals, which means that you can float through the streets. The village was always quiet until it was featured in a Dutch movie and became famous on the global stage, especially in China. Now, over 800,000 people visit this picturesque Dutch village each year. Although I was concerned that the crowds would take away from it, it quiets down towards the end of the day and you can finally breathe.

One of my favorite parts of visiting this village was renting a boat to float along the canals past the adorable houses, pastures full of sheep, and around the lake behind the village. While boating around the village, you can stop your boat to stop into any of the canal-side businesses for a beer or frites (we did!). Although over-tourism is an issue in Giethoorn, I would still recommend it to tourists who are looking for an adorable Dutch villages. It’s not so easy to get here from Amsterdam by train as it’s in involved travel route, but I’d still recommend it for anyone who has a car.