Texel – Forests – Loslopen.net

For a general overview of Texel and how to get there you can go here. This post is only covering the beach areas, if you want to know more about the beach areas, then check out the page on Texel – Beaches.

Once you are in the forest, either follow any of the marked routes, or just follow your nose and work your way through the maze of footpaths down south towards the viewing towers and the nature preservation areas where the leash free area ends. You can easily walk a couple of hours around the forest without re-walking the same pathways.

The dunes between the forest and the beach are restricted for off leash dogs to off season only (September to March), but you will find plenty of other areas to run around in, but once they are open for off leash running, you can extend your walk by another hour if you want to! Just note, depending on your route, at some point you will probably need to walk through a camp site to get to the paths that go over the dune areas. It is a public pathway but you do need to leash your pup when you go through this. Only for a few minutes until you are back outside the camp grounds.

This is one of the few areas where I have seen a “Ruiter-Menpad”, differently to whatever Google translate may tell you, this is not a horse and person pathway, it is a horse and cart pathway, don’t walk down it!

The forest areas have little in the way of water. There are some drainage trenches at the side of the pathways which can dry out in summer, in winter I daresay any water there will be standing and not very pleasant. The only water body we came across was actually in a bird protected area so we unfortunately had to skip it. There is plenty of shade though so if you just bring a small bottle for your pup then you should be OK on a hot day under the trees.

There are a few cycle paths running through the forest that you need to look out for and some paths run fairly close to the road or cycle paths, just make sure you have your pup under control in these parts.

There are some areas with grazing animals (i.e. cows) in one or two fields. You need to walk through a gate to get to them but you can take a detour and walk around this field and avoid them if you don’t feel comfortable. Also keep watch for electric fences around these areas, these have bright yellow tabs on them to make them easy to spot.

We usually park on the car park just off the Ruislaan, close to the Ecomare. Opposite this car park is the Natuurpad Alloo, and in summer this is a leash only area until you get into the forest itself, but it becomes a leash free zone after 1 September the whole way. After September, you can use this path to get into the dune areas next to the forest as well. Alternatively, in summer season, you can turn right along the road and walk along the side of the road towards the forest areas. They are all clearly marked, you will spot the leash free zones after about a 5 minute walk along the roadside.

Of course you can avoid the roadside walk and park in spaces further into the forest and already in the leash free zones, like the one on Monnikenweg but the spaces are limited here to about 10 cars. If you want to be sure of a spot, then go for a larger car park.

Interestingly, even in high summer there are very few people wandering along these paths, you can expect a lovely relaxed walk on a busy, highly touristy island.

Check this out for an overview of the dog areas on Texel. Dark green areas are leash free all year round and the pink area next to the beach is the dune area that is leash free from 1 September to 1 March. The light green areas are nature reserves and dogs must be leashed here.