Krimpen aan de Lek – Nature, Trails and Cultural Heritage

Krimpen aan de Lek offers a range of ways to spend your stay: trails through the countryside, recreational activities by the water and reminders of the town’s history. When planning your trip, you can consider whether you’d rather spend most of your time outdoors or explore historic buildings and monuments. The places you visit and activities you choose will each give your hotel stay a different focus.

Nature trails and recreation in Krimpenerhout

The Natuurroute Krimpenerhout passes ponds and meadows where cows graze, runs through woodland and skirts fields of orchids. Along the same route, open pastureland alternates with wooded sections and distinctive landscape features. In Koeienbos, visitors can walk among black-and-white cows.

The Krimpen a/d Lek–Lekkerkerk circular route begins in the centre of Krimpen aan de Lek and leads through Krimpenerhout. Along the way, it passes the small Bakkerswaal nature area, with its duck decoy. The route thus connects a starting point in the town centre with a stretch through the recreation area and a nature area along the way. If you’re planning time outdoors, these stops can give you a concrete idea of the landscapes you can expect along the route.

Krimpenerhout lies on the edge of Krimpen aan de Lek. The recreation area includes a surfing lake, a beach with a sunbathing lawn and a separate dog beach. On Speeleiland Krimpenerhout, visitors can take a raft across to the other side. There is also a rope climbing course that takes you from island to island. These offer different ways to enjoy the area: by the water, on a sunbathing lawn or taking part in an activity on Speeleiland.

Panoramic views and routes beyond the town

De Zaag covers 37 hectares. Its name comes from a former sawmill that once stood on the island. The 14-metre-high Beverbrug offers views over the area, Rotterdam, the port and the river. De Zaag’s size and the range of views make it an interesting stop for travellers who want to take in the landscape from above, as well as along a trail.

The long-distance Grote Rivierenpad passes through Krimpen aan de Lek and Schoonhoven. From Leerdam, it runs through the Betuwe towards Tiel. For a regional stage, you can place the route within its wider course without having to consider the entire trail. The Lek en IJssel-route also uses the car ferry at Krimpen aan de Lek to cross to Kinderdijk. If you’re planning to take this route, check the ferry timetable in advance.

Water tower, cemetery and local history

The water tower in Krimpen aan de Lek was built in 1910 and is 47.2 metres high. Its cultural and architectural significance lies in the fact that it bears witness to a stage in the development of drinking water provision in the Netherlands, particularly in the Krimpenerwaard. So it’s not just the tower’s height that matters: it also reflects the region’s history of water supply.

The General Cemetery on Molenweg, dating from 1882, contains four monumental neoclassical tomb vaults. Its hall also houses gravestones transferred here after the church on Dorpsstraat was demolished in 1939. They commemorate the whaler Michiel Occerszoon Hoogerzeyl († 1779) and the shipowner and Hoogheemraad Gerret van Holst Krynszoon († 1790). Another funerary monument, shaped like a bedstead, is one of only seven surviving examples of its kind in the Netherlands.

Local memorials also include a plaque to Cornelis van den Berg, made of dark natural stone and bearing an inscription, and a monument to six young people: Hessel van Deursen, Jan van der Graaf, Hendrik Hekking, Johannes van der Horst, Ernst Steenbergen and Nanne Adrianus Sterrenburg. The different monuments and graves make the cemetery a place where visitors can explore different forms of remembrance.

The history of transport here goes back a long way too: in 1358, the historic Crimpensche ferry right formed part of a major north–south route. It connected Brussels with Amsterdam via Breda, Dordrecht, Krimpen aan de Lek and Gouda. For tips in and around Krimpen aan de Lek and the Krimpenerwaard, TIP Krimpen a/d Lek provides a digital information board.

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