How tired is everyone of the Corona pandemic? I know I am. Luckily, everyone I know is healthy. That’s the most important thing right now. I’m sure we’ll get back to travelling once the world has recovered from all of this. I lament the awesome trips I had planned this year. However, the free time has given me the opportunity to work on my website. I’ve been creating a list of all blog posts and I’ve deleted some I thought are irrelevant and out-dated. You’ll notice I’m going to start jumping in time from now on as well. I don’t feel like posting chronologically anymore. Today, I’m going to talk about my first trip of 2020. I was inspired by all travel bloggers who were on a quest to find beautiful tiny houses. Away from the crowds. I stumbled upon a post of Reismeisje.nl who visited a tiny house in Droomparken Otterlo and I decided to book it with my boyfriend for a midweek getaway.

The tiny house is beautifully located on a square facing others. You still have plenty of privacy behind the shrubbery though. If the pandemic wouldn’t have struck, we could’ve enjoyed the hot tub or the fire pit with the other tiny house inhabitants. All houses are differently styled since they are owned by different people. Therefore each tiny house is unique.

Droompark de Zanding

I found Droompark de Zanding to be a beautiful park with plenty of space which is important during these Corona times. In my mind’s eye I pictured a completely crowded and filled bungalow park, instead all the houses and villas are quite far removed from the others. It seems I have a bit of a prejudice when I think about holiday parks in NL. However, I didn’t find what I expected to find in Droompark de Zanding, in a good way.

Unfortunately, the restaurants and swimming pool and lake were closed when we were there in May, but I’m assuming they’re now open. We could easily order and pick up food from the restaurants surrounding the park. Not to mention the delicious breakfast service that is brought right on your doorstep.

Next time, I’ll book a wellness house or villa. I’ve never had a sauna in my home and I think that’s an experience worth trying think it would be a nice experience to have a sauna in your home.

That having been said, I really enjoyed my stay in the tiny house. It’s a great place for couples or solo travellers, because it is what the name suggests; quite small.

The only way to enter the bedroom and bed is on hands & knees.

Otterlo

Otterlo is the village nearest to the holiday park. It’s a 20 minute walk through a forest (or by the side of the road) to reach the town centre. Otherwise, it’s easy to reach by car as there’s plenty of free parking in Otterlo.

The town has some delicious restaurants. I was there for only two nights, so I only had take away dinner from ‘De Waldhoorn’, which I really liked. The fact that it was wrapped in styrofoam did not really alter the flavour of the meal. I can tell it has a nice terrace if the pandemic would permit us to sit outside again that would be a great option.

On the first day we had a craving for pizza. According to Tripadvisor & Google Maps the best pizzeria was in Hoenderloo. It doesn’t look like much but Grillroom-Restaurant Barrera has a killer salami pizza. The way they topped it with an extra layer of cheese was sumptuous. Highly recommended!

There’s a Spar supermarket in Otterlo where you can pick up all essentials and then some if you go on a hike or if you need provisions for in the tiny house.

What to do?

There’s so much to do in the neighbourhood. The most famous national park of The Netherlands, de Hoge Veluwe is quite near. You can visit it by bike or you could plan a hike. There are also options to go on a safari tour here. Two years ago I visited Veluwezoom, which is also in the area. There are some beautiful hiking routes around Otterlo which don’t take you to the national park. We were afraid it would be too busy so we opted for a 15km “clog route” (klompenroute) hike through the Mosselse Zand (a sand dune in the middle of the country). I’ll tell you more about that full day hike in my next post.

The heath is in full bloom from mid-July to mid-September. So that’s a nice time to visit the national parks.

Conclusion

There are so many beautiful destination for short trips in The Netherlands. It’s good that we’re able to venture outdoors in these times and I’m happy I can start planning trips again. Check out my next blog if you’d like to find more about the hiking trail we took when we were there.