Thinking of doing an island hopping tour of islands off the Dutch coast this summer. Hoping to consult the collective mind on 1)Ferries and 2) availability of accommodation.
Ferries:
Den Helder to Texel has a regular ferry service
Texel to Vlieland seems to have a seasonal daily ferry
The Texel to Vlieland ferry only takes bikes if it's a day return trip.
I am not sure about Vlieland to Terschelling and Terschelling to Ameland
There's a ferry from Ameland back to the mainland.
But can one get any further east without returning to the mainland?
Unless it's one of the seasonal boat trip things, I think you're gonna have to return to the mainland, Vlieland and Terschelling main ferries both leave from the same port - Harlingen.
Schiermonnikoog and Ameland both leave from Lauwersoog.
If you can persuade the Texel -> Vlieland ferry to allow you a 1 way ticket with a bike, you could do Texel -> Vlieland -> Harlingen ->Terschelling -> Harlingen -> cycle to Lauwersoog -> Ameland -> Lauwersoog -> Schiermonnikoog -> Lauwersoog.
The route on the mainland is just over 60km, and it's pan flat.
https://www.komoot.com/tour/56319087If you think that taking a folding bike is a good way of getting round the "no bikes" rule on some of the boats, be aware some of them don't accept folding bikes.
Accommodation:
How well are these islands populated with hotels and guest houses?
Thanks for your help.
The primary industry on the islands is tourism. But you may want to book in advance, and you may find the prices very high on public holidays and in most of the summer.
I want to visit the 5 biggest Islands this summer too (hence the research), and found that there were no maps available with just the islands on them, so I went to
https://www.piedaterre.nl/ and they printed me a custom map of the 4 islands that aren't Texel (Texel fits on it's own map). In 1:50k. If you email them or call and ask for Henrik, he saved the map so he can print more. His English is very good.
J