The Kennemerduinen national park begins just 10 minutes by bike from Haarlem, a vast area of coastal dunes, slack wetlands, and pine forest between the city and the North Sea. It is one of the few places in the Netherlands where you can walk for an hour without seeing a building. Red deer graze at dawn and dusk in the clearings near the Zeeweg road.
Enter from the Zeeweg (the road towards Zandvoort), where the park gates open into a landscape of rolling dunes and birch woodland. The park connects to the beach at Bloemendaal aan Zee and Zandvoort, making it possible to cycle from the centre of Haarlem to the North Sea coast in under 30 minutes. Trail maps are available at the park entrance.