Dutch Centerparcs Holiday Planned

[sparksfly]

Hi everyone,

I am planning to spend the second week of December with my family at De Kempervennen near Valkenswaard in the Netherlands. For those of us in the UK I think the Dutch Centerparcs represent superior value to the UK ones and we have had a winter holiday there for the last three years. This, incidentally, is the closest my wife will sanction to winter camping.

On previous visits we have had a fairly tight itinerary including a day to drive over to visit the Christmas markets in Cologne. This time I want to take the pace more slowly and include time out to walk in the woodlands in the area surrounding Valkenswaard.

Do any of our Duch friends have any advice for us about exploring this area?
Where are there good woods to walk in? How could I get maps of the area? (are any available online?) What wildlife should be try to spot? Is there anywhere in particular we should make a special effort to visit?

Many thanks in advance for all and any advice.

Malcolm

 

[squantrill]

Hi everyone,

I am planning to spend the second week of December with my family at De Kempervennen near Valkenswaard in the Netherlands. For those of us in the UK I think the Dutch Centerparcs represent superior value to the UK ones and we have had a winter holiday there for the last three years. This, incidentally, is the closest my wife will sanction to winter camping.

On previous visits we have had a fairly tight itinerary including a day to drive over to visit the Christmas markets in Cologne. This time I want to take the pace more slowly and include time out to walk in the woodlands in the area surrounding Valkenswaard.

Do any of our Duch friends have any advice for us about exploring this area?
Where are there good woods to walk in? How could I get maps of the area? (are any available online?) What wildlife should be try to spot? Is there anywhere in particular we should make a special effort to visit?

Many thanks in advance for all and any advice.

Malcolm

Check out the post 26-28 Bushcraft weeeknd that was actually in valkensward.. Im not local to that area but you can ask neils he found this camp site for us maybe he has more information..
Simon

 

[Galemys]

What wildlife should be try to spot?

Hi Malcolm,

I know there's some good heathland and pine woods nearby Valkenswaard that should make a good walk.

Here's a link to wildlife spotted nearby Valkenswaard (I hope it works):

http://waarneming.nl/gebied/view/23...z=1&u=0&g=0&z=1&from=2008-01-01&to=2008-10-01

It is from waarneming.nl, a website where people can input their observations of any wildlife (plants, birds, mammals, fungi etc.) in Holland. All these observations together make it a pretty foolproof database. The link should give you a list with observations 15 km around Valkenswaard (in Dutch but the scientific names are given as well) and if you play with some parameters you can get different listings for birds, mammals etc. It should give you an indication of what has been spotted in the neighbourhood of Valkenswaard. If you click on the information icon to the left of the listed observation you can get more detailed information with a map of the exact location. One particular bird for you to see is the black woodpecker which doesn't live in the British isles.

Hope this helps, cheers,

Tom

 

[Nelis]

Hi Sparksfly,

I cannot find it right now, but I will try to find some more info on the Malpie. This is a natural area near valkenswaard (we went there only this weekend).

Unfortunatly the info I have so far is in dutch. But I will try to find some in english. And maybe the adress of the tourist agency in valkenswaard. I'll get back to this in a few days.

 

[sparksfly]

Hi Sparksfly,

I cannot find it right now, but I will try to find some more info on the Malpie. This is a natural area near valkenswaard (we went there only this weekend).

Unfortunatly the info I have so far is in dutch. But I will try to find some in english. And maybe the adress of the tourist agency in valkenswaard. I'll get back to this in a few days.

Cheers mate. No hurry, all info gratefully received.

 

[Nelis]

Hi Sparksfly,

This is some info I turned up so far:

First some tourist information wich is mostly of the area you will be in, assuming you have a car most of the sites are reachable within the hour:

http://www.zobrabant.nl/go/regio_zuidoost-brabant

Near valkenswaard (around the villages of Borkel and Schaft) there is a nature reserve called the malpie. Some pics here:

http://www.skunknet.org/~tolr/Photography/20060129MALPIE/index.htm

http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/553731232RrIKgj

Will try to find out more.....

 

[Nelis]

Here some more info that might be usefull:

http://travelingluck.com/Europe/Netherlands/Noord-Brabant/_2758436_Braambosch.html#local_map

This is about all I can find in englisch so far... If I find some more I'll post it here.

 

[VicDelmonte]

Hi Sparksfly,

This is some info I turned up so far:

First some tourist information wich is mostly of the area you will be in, assuming you have a car most of the sites are reachable within the hour:

http://www.zobrabant.nl/go/Las Vegas Coupons

Near valkenswaard (around the villages of Borkel and Schaft) there is a nature reserve called the malpie. Some pics here:

http://www.skunknet.org/~tolr/Photography/20060129MALPIE/index.htm

http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/553731232RrIKgj

Will try to find out more.....

Know I'm a bit late to the party, but thanks a lot - very helpful