Toolenburgergplas, Hoofddoorp

When we decided to check this place out, we originally thought it would be full of kids playing and screaming, and would find itself on our list of places to avoid. We were very pleasantly proven wrong! Toolenburgerplas is a large lake surrounded by park grounds. You can just walk around the lake which is around 3km or so. Or you can extend it a little and weave your way through the neighbouring walking paths, keeping out of the way of cyclists and giving your pup something more interesting to sniff.

The park is very well maintained, most paths are covered in gravel and the leash on/leash off areas are pretty well marked or even fenced off. Over half the lake edge is accessible for dogs.

Even in high summer on school holidays, the kids are only really playing in the enclosures where there are beaches and play areas that are off limits to dogs, but you can just walk past these on the pathways, leaving the dog walking paths surprisingly empty. I tend to walk first on the pathways nearest the road, these are all fenced off from the road and run between the trees, out of the way of kids play areas and the cycle path. In spring time there are some fabulous wild flowers and tall grasses on the banks next to the road. The leash free pathways end at a point near a basketball pitch and here is where I turn back and walk right alongside the water edge back to the parking, so it’s almost a circular route. Well, a banana shaped circular route… 🙂

For some reason there are probably more frogs per square meter than any other place in The Netherlands! They are the small black and green frogs and in the canals towards the road end of the park, they have such a chorus that you can’t hear yourself!

There is a large car park just off the Ijweg, close to the Long Island Restaurant. The leash free pathways can be accessed directly from this car park.

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