Hey! Last week I was lucky enough to explore the island Texel in my home country The Netherlands and I can’t wait to tell and show you all about it in this post!
Since most borders are closed at this time I thought it would be fun to do some exploring close to home. One of the places on the list this summer was Texel, an island in the north/west of the Netherlands. I had been here once before when I was 13 and I knew the island’s nature was stunning. I stayed for a week in an apartment right by the ocean and boy was it nice!!
Where I stayed
I stayed with Texel Vakanties |gifted stay| in the Princes Juliana apartments in the village De Koog. Texel Vakanties have lots of apartments and also villa’s and bungalows on the island that you can rent. The apartment I stayed at (nr. 116) has an ocean view with balcony and the ocean is only a couple of minutes walk away. The whole interior is by Rivièra Maison and it looks so nice! Also the bathroom has a sunshower which is amazing to use after a long walk on the beach or bike ride. The infrared feels so good on the muscles! Click here to see the apartment I stayed at.
Places to visit and activities
The beach
The reason I wanted to visit this island was mainly for the beach. I just really craved some Dutch ocean time with its awesome dunes, going for endless walks on the beach with the wind blowing around me. I actually had a couple of warm and sunny days so I could lay on the beach and have a little swim. Something I haven’t done in the Dutch ocean since I moved away from the coast when I was nine! Also, the sunsets here are amazing and one of the best I’ve ever seen! There was one sunset that was so special with so many colors in the sky, no wind and there was an older couple holding each other while enjoying natures magic a couple of meters away from me. They looked at me and smiled as we were sharing this awesome moment…
Where to go
There are a couple of places I went to while on the island. The first was the lighthouse in De Cocksdorp. It was such a moody day that day which made it look really impressive. This place is on the most northern bit of the island and you can see one of the other islands, Vlieland, from here. As the island is not really big it was about a 15 minute drive by car from where I was staying.
The other place I went to was Oudeschild. This is the fishing harbour of Texel. I loved walking around this town with its many sea food places, the old houses and fishing boats. I would definitely recommend visiting this place if you’re on the island to get that ultimate Dutch feeling!
Biking and hiking
One of the things that attracted me so much about the island is it’s diverse nature! You can have a walk in the woods, through the dunes where wild horses and cows are grassing or have an endless long walk along the beach. I rented a bike to get me around the island as there are lots of bike paths. Every now and then I would come across a hiking route so I would park my bike, walk the beautiful route before returning to my bike looking for a different place to explore. One of my favorite places were the Bleekersvallei and the Bollekamer where I found wild horses.
How to get to the island
Last but not least you might want to know how to get to the island. There’s a ferry that you can take with your car departing from Den Helder. It goes every hour (sometimes every 30 min) and it only takes 20 minutes to get to Texel. A return tickets costs 37 euros and you can buy them here: teso.nl
I hope you enjoyed learning more about this beautiful island. Thank you Texel Vakanties for having me. I had the best time exploring my own country!
