Giethoorn Village, Netherlands, A Car-Free Village

Known for its boat-filled waterways, Giethoorn Village, Netherlands is perhaps the most car-free village in the world.  "Dutch Venice," "Venice of the North" or "Venice of the Netherlands," are the names given by those who have at least once visited a small village called Giethoorn in the Netherlands. However, why is this place compared to Venice?

In the village of Giethoorn or, more correctly, in its old part, there are water canals instead of roads covered with asphalt, therefore, it is hard to drive through the village's streets by a conventional car, which is why people living there are used to water transport, and therefore, the village is called by the names above.

Tourists and the locals move from one street to another solely by boats. There are numerous intersecting canals in this village, the total length of which is 7.5 km. These canals are, in fact, the streets of Giethoorn.

Unlike Venice, the village's houses are small and are located on separate small Islands connected with each other by various bridges, the total number of which is over 176.

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Some bridges of Giethoorn are part of this or that street, while others serve as the entrance to the yards of the locals' houses. Near some of them, there are even small gates, to make it clear that beyond them are the private territories.

Looking at pictures of the village, it may seem that it has no roads, but it is not so, there are no roads only in the old part of Giethoorn; therefore, the village can be visited by a regular vehicle.

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For a boat trip in Giethoorn, you can rent a variety of boats ranging from canoes to boats with electric motors. Any boat can be rented with or without a driver. What is interesting is that these water canals have road signs and traffic lights, the same as you can see on conventional streets.

Now, Giethoorn Village, Netherlands is home to more than 2500 people. The locals consider not only water canals as the main attraction but also their fabulous, nice houses, which have virtually not changed over the years of existence. What especially attracts attention is that the Giethoorn houses' roofs are made of reed, which is grown around the town. You can even see how it is harvested when being in the village.

What is also interesting is the story of the village of Giethoorn. It was founded after the arrival of refugees from the South of the country in 1230. They found a variety of goat horns on the site of the village who died during the flood of 1170 by the Zuiderzee Bay. Hence the name of the village "Giethoorn" (eng. Goat horns).

The refugees also discovered that this place has a lot of peat deposits, mining was not long in coming. Thus, the locals established there the first so-called "peat settlement" in the Netherlands.

As time was passing by, many pits were formed on the sites of the mining, which is why many of them have subsequently transformed into lakes. A similar story has happened with canals, they were dug for transporting peat. The depths of these canals is about 1 meter.

With each passing year, Giethoorn Village, Netherlands attracts more and more tourists from around the world and is now included in many tourist routes. The community also hosted a comedy named  "Fanfare" in 1958. The film, in turn, has brought tremendous popularity to the village.

Although Giethoorn has not the same popularity and renown as Venice has, its atmosphere deserves special attention and creates the desire to visit it again and again.

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Location: Netherlands, Province Overijssel, Municipality Steenwijkerland