New Land Experience Oostvaardersplassen - Lelystad

Join the Nieuw Land Experience and discover the Oostvaardersplassen and National Park Nieuw Land on land, by sea and virtually by air. The guide on the bus will tell you about the reclamation of Flevoland and then take you on a walk through the Oostvaardersplassen. The walk ends at the Knarsluis lock where we then board the boat for the final part.

You will be picked up at restaurant Taveerne de Batavia at the shipyard of Museum Batavialand. From here, the Nieuw Land bus departs over the Oostvaardersdijk to the historic working island of Lelystad. You will pass pumping station Wortman and the Noordersluis and hear more about the working island houses on the working island. The guide in the bus takes you through the reclamation of Flevoland: New Land on the seabed. In a surprising VR film, you fly virtually over the Oostvaardersplassen.

The bus will take you further to the Oostvaardersplassen visitor centre. After a short sanitary stop at the visitor centre, where there is time to shop and enjoy the view of the Oostvaardersplassen, you will be met by the guide from the Forestry Commission. The guide will take you for a walk (about 1.5-2 hours) through the Oostvaardersplassen (Oostvaardersveld). The walk ends at the Knarsluis, where ms Nieuw Land is moored. On board, there is an opportunity to eat and drink something. Along the way, the education guide tells the story of Nieuw Land on the seabed and in the captains' room, the exhibition on the subject can be visited free of charge. Historical books and documents about the reclamation of the Zuiderzee are available for perusal here.

The cruise culminates spectacularly with the locking through the Noordersluis with as much as a 6-metre drop. Ms Nieuw Land moors at the jetty of VOC ship De Batavia at Batavialand in the Bataviakwartier.