BUSY waterways, beautiful cottages and riverside hotels – this might sound like Venice, but it’s not.
Giethoorn has been compared to the ‘floating’ Italian city but in fact it’s over 800 miles away, and much smaller.
Two hours from Amsterdam in the Netherlands is the village of Giethoorn, a car-free village which has been called a ‘fairytale’ by visitors.
It’s also known as the ‘water village of the Netherlands‘ and has over 55 miles of waterways to explore.
One visitor called it a “beautiful and fairytale village in the Netherlands” and another even said it was “too perfect to be real”.
Another said: “Giethoorn is a dream place that looks like it came straight out of a picture book.”
There are multiple hotels in the village to choose from. One of the most popular is the Giethoorn Old Art Hotel.
With rooms starting from £70, guests can even rent boats to take to the water themselves.
Another is Hotel Giethoorn, where guests can get a very authentically Dutch breakfast with fresh bread and toppings like hagelslag (which are chocolate sprinkles), cheese, or sliced meats.
No cars are allowed in the village, but it can be navigated by foot, or via boats – of which there are many.
These vary from large tour boats which you can hop on, or if you fancy being a captain yourself, self-navigated Whisper Boats can be hired out, as can Sloops, from €17.50 (£15.23) per hour.
Anyone taking the wheel doesn’t need a boating licence, just to be over the age of 16.
There are rules though, and one is that if you’re navigating your own boat and come across a tour boat – you must move out of the way as they have a VIP pass.
Like on the tube, there’s a certain side to stick to, and this is the right.
And anyone on the water cannot be too noisy – there are water police around.
Those wanting to avoid the water, or wanting to see the village at a different angle, can see it by foot.
There are around 180 narrow wooden bridges across the water and from here you can see more of the village’s pretty thatched cottages.
The village is usually quite busy with tourists and is a popular daytrip destination from the city of Amsterdam.
For those who want to stay a little longer without the crowds, the village tends to be quieter after 4pm.
If you fancy a similar experience but with fewer crowds, the nearby village of Dwarsgracht is also navigated via canals but is considered much-less busy than Giethoorn.
To explore both is possible as the villages are just a 10-minute cycle apart.
For more on the Netherlands, here’s the European city that one writer returns to every year and is reachable without having to fly.