Site 4 of 20: Heumans Bos, the Netherlands

The Meek Family
The Meek Family Forum Participant Posts: 336
edited August 2016 in Your stories #1
Site three of our 20 sites as we travel through five countries in five weeks was Heumans Bos, in eastern Holland near the border with Germany. It is a site listed on the Caravan Club website.

Our knowledge of Dutch is very limited although we are making efforts to learn a few words and phrases. We managed to work out that 'Bos' means woods though, since the site is located near the village of Heumans and is surrounded by woodland. It is a large site and has over 800 pitches for tents, caravans and motorhomes. There are also bunglows to rent. The pitches are grouped in small cul-de-sacs on grassy areas, surrounded by hedges. The designated motorhome area provides each pitch with an electrical hook up, waste water vent and water tap. We pitched up next to the dish-washing facilities, overlooked by a traditional Dutch windmill and weren't far from one of the two toilet blocks on the site. Toilet blocks have a bright airy feel to them. Each contain male and females toilets, showers and dish-washing facilities as well as the usual chemical waste disposal. Showers cost €0.50 and last approximately 6 minutes. You need the exact coin and it can be an inconvenience when the coin isn't accepted and you are stood standing naked with a towel around you...not that this happened to us ;-) !

There are playgrounds located around the site but one large one is at the main reception area and has slides, swings, see-saws and a zip wire. This is also where there is an outdoor swimming pool, tennis courts, table tennis tables, a cafe / restaurant, launderette and small supermarket selling a very limited amount of food. It would be advisable to buy food before coming to the site or purchase meals at the restaurant. We stayed at this site at the weekend, arriving on a Saturday. In the evening the main reception area came to life as a DJ played music into the night and Frozen songs were played to attract any children staying on the site.

At reception you can hire bikes for €7.50 a day and this allows you to explore the surrounding area. Unfortunately all the bikes were taken when we wanted to go out so we set off on foot instead. It is a surprisingly rare sight to see people walking in the Netherlands since everyone cycles everywhere. There are fantastic cycle paths through the countryside connecting towns and villages. We followed the paths and had to be wary of the passing bikes and mopeds. We wandered into Heumans and down the canal before returning back to the site for a refreshing swim in the pool.