Three Days on the Veluwe Zoom: The Quietest Forest in the Netherlands
- Route
- Apeldoorn to Arnhem, about 47 km over three days. Both ends have a train station, so no car needed — you walk a little further to Arnhem station at the finish.
- Where I stayed
- Two nights out: Camping de Wapenberg near Ugchelen, then Zegenoord nature campsite near Loenen.
- Distances
- Days of 16.5, 16.5 and 14 km — comfortably under the ~22 km where it starts to turn into a slog for me.
- When to go
- Mid-May the forest is fully green and it is wonderfully quiet — go here if you want to barely meet anyone. One catch: check for a village festival in Loenen before you count on a silent night at Zegenoord.
- Gear that mattered
- First trip out with a Nortent Varde 1, carried in an Osprey Atmos LT 65, with a Soto WindMaster stove and a Garmin inReach Mini 2 for staying in touch.
I walked this one in the gap between two jobs. I'd just finished at one employer and would start at the next the following week, and that empty space turned out to be the perfect excuse: three days on the Veluwe with nothing to carry in my head. I could empty it out completely and just be there, in the trees.
Why the Veluwe Zoom
For me it's one of the most beautiful places in the Netherlands if you love forest. It's dense — a really full forest, all trees and undergrowth — and it's quiet. If you want to hike in this country and barely see another person, this is where you go. I planned it point to point, Apeldoorn to Arnhem, both ends on a train line so I didn't need a car.
Into the green
Mid-May, and the forest was completely leafed out — that deep, full green that makes the Veluwe feel almost overgrown in the best way. I set off from Apeldoorn station on the Wednesday, light in the head, and walked 16.5 km to a small campsite at Ugchelen, Camping de Wapenberg. It was the first trip out with my new tent, a Nortent Varde 1, and I'd been curious how it would do. It did exactly what I wanted — quick to pitch, solid, a proper little home for the night.
Honestly, none of it was hard. I know myself by now: up to about 18 km is pure fun, 20 is still fine, and somewhere past 22 it starts to turn into a bit of a slog. These days stayed comfortably under that, so there was no suffering to report — just walking, trees, and quiet. It's more about the distance than the climbs; the Veluwe has hills, but nothing that breaks you.
The one night that wasn't quiet
The second day took me on to Loenen, to a place I love: Zegenoord, a nature campsite that's normally completely dead — pitches tens of meters apart, total silence.
Not this time. A village festival with a funfair had just started in Loenen, and you could hear it across the heath all day and late into the evening. Worse, half the village had decided the nature campsite was a cheap place to crash, so it filled right up — people rolling back half-drunk at night, and someone pitched a tent about a meter and a half from mine. On a site where I'm used to having a whole clearing to myself, that one stung.
Normally you've got the whole clearing to yourself. That night I had a neighbour at arm's length.
Cannon fire and a map check
One moment still makes me laugh. Somewhere along the route I started hearing gunfire — rifle shots, then what sounded like actual cannons. For a second: what on earth is that? Then I checked my map and saw I was walking right past Schietterrein Harskamp, the military shooting range. Mystery solved. I just walked on.
How it felt at the end
The last day was 14 km down toward Arnhem, and my wife and kids picked me up by car at the end — a good way to close it off. No drama, no real low point, nothing that hurt. Just three days of exactly what I came for.
What's stayed with me since — now that I'm settled into the new job — is the quiet. That, and the forest itself. If you want to walk in the Netherlands and hardly meet a soul, go to the Veluwe Zoom. It's still one of the most beautiful forests we've got.
From my own photos
