Hello Fodorites!

We are two active seniors that are planning a day trip from Haarlem to the Kinderdijk windmills in mid April.
Our Rome2Rio app doesn’t seem to be too helpful. We are looking for specific information on what trains or busses to catch from Haarlem to the Kinderdijk windmills and if there are any other worthwhile stops along the route. Delft?

Thanks in advance for any information.

Using the public transport planner covering Holland https://9292.nl/ This route is not very easy.

Take a train to Rotterdam from Harlem. Then, when you get off, you will take a tram to the riverfront. Tram7 maybe? The locals told us which one. At the river get on one of the boats to Kinderdijk. We loved our day there! There are 19 windmills in their original locations, a highlight of our trip. It was fairly easy to get there and back. On your way back on the train, you could get off in Delft which is charming and not large. Then back on the train to Harlem. The trains came by frequently.
We were staying in Leiden which is another beautiful , canal laced town.

Tram 7, 23 and 25 will work (Stop "Leuvehaven")
or the Metro to Slinge, (Stop "Leuvehaven")

From there get to the Waterbus stop next to Erasmus Bridge (Willemskade) and take the Waterbus to Ridderkerk De Schans. The tiny triangle ferry that takes you across to Kinderdijk is waiting for you to change to. From the Kinderdijk landing you have straight access to the visitor centre and the windmill array. Don't walk on the cycle path! If you have a CC with chip/pin and can pay contactless, you can buy tickets on board, both on Waterbus and on the Driehoeksveer to Kinderdijk.

https://www.waterbus.nl/

You might want to combine this with a visit to Dordrecht, in that case, track back to Ridderkerk De Schans and change to the Waterbus direction Dordrecht. The train journey from Dordrecht to Haarlem adds about 20 minutes to the journey back,because Dordt and Rotterdam are on the same trainline.

amen, don't walk on the cycle path

Though you can rent bicycles at the shop just off the ferry, while stopping at pretty places and particular windmills along the way for reflection and photos.

D fourth…this is one thing we want to do…take reflective photos. We assume the bike paths are bumpy with ruts, true?

Menachem…Thank you for the detailed info travel info to Kinderdjik. I was worried the water bus might not be running in mid-April. Dordrecht is off my radar. Please tell me why this city is worth a stop.

no the bike paths are very seldom bumpy with ruts (if ever) in the Netherlands, mainly they are smooth as silk tarmc, sometimes cobbles and sometimes in between. Also being the Netherlands the routes are very flat and used by everyone to get about and do their business so expect to see business men, housewives, kids etc moving pretty fast on their paths.

The walkway in between the mills is surrounded by tall rushes at about head height and while it starts as a shared use cycle/pedestrian route, it very quickly moves to separate paths, which the Dutch handle perfectly. However, tourists cannot see the difference and blunder about on both types of track. Since this cycle path is also the main route south from the ferry point there are not just tourist cyclists but also longer distance cyclists.

Last year it was a bit worrying as pedestrians, walking around looking at their phones, often with ear buds in and hard to see (NB rushes are tall) kept appearing out of little mill visit points to crash into bikes. In the hour we were present we watched two crashes as tourists, enraptured by the sights just wander in front of bikes.

Think of it as if a pedestrian had wandered onto a freeway

Here's a bike path photo I have from 2016 - - plenty smooth. They don't have extremes of weather or nearby tree root growth to bump it up.


Kinderdijk bike path

That's a bit overkill imo. Only the array is interesting, that's not a very extensive area and Kinderdijk itself is a row of houses and a massive shipyard.

Dordt is one of those Dutch provincial cities with a centre that froze in time when the economic tide turned in the 18th Century. And Dordrecht is the oldest city in the province of South Holland and the city where present day standard Dutch was born, in a way. And it's a gorgeous, gorgeous city. Arriving at the Hoofd, by water gives you a view of the city that hasn't changed much since the 17th century, apart from the heavy barge traffic of course.

They have to redo the path every few years, because the substrate is like a sponge and the whole area is slowly sinking. I wouldn't rent bikes unless you want to bike more in the area, eg cycling along the Graafstroom, which is entirely possible from Kinderdijk. If the OP is keen, I would rent bikes in Rotterdam and take them on the waterbus. You can rent from a place opposite the waterbus stop. e.g. cycle from Kinderdijk to the Alblasserdam waterbus stop and take the waterbus back to Rotterdam. I do that a lot together with my partner, but we bring our own bikes of course. Waterbus is ideal for that kind of excursion.

I cycle there a lot, because the visitor centre is such a good coffeestop and because I can cut short if I want by taking the waterbus from Alblasserdam to Rotterdam. Always such an adrenaline rush, lots of ringing my tiny bell and - yes - shouting.