Oostvaardersplassen in Lelystad

One of the Netherlands few bigger stretches of nature. My first time there and I must say it is really well maintained. The walking routes are easily recognized and the binoculars in the viewpoints are free! So you have a bigger chance of seeing the big wildlife like deer and konik horses. The center point is modern and a good start and ending point for your walks where you can get a nice drink.

There is a nice cycle ride around the perimeter, 34km. You can stop at the two visitor centres for toilets and refreshments. Plenty of free parking at the centre on Leystad side. We saw some cows nearby and some deer in the distance.

Nice, not impressive

Lovely place, unfortunately no English info but worth a visit

Beautiful ❤️🥰

The diversity and abundance of wildlife

Wonderful. One of my favourite places and so lucky to be living close by.

Stunning, beautiful vast

There is little in terms of flora in the Oostvaardersplassen - mostly nettles, thistles and reed. Larger trees, such as willows, are rotting away.There are lits of birds, of course, but mostly very far off. Birdwatchers should bring binoculars and their 600mm lenses.The highlight for me were the Konik horses, which can already be seen along the road leading to the visitors centre and in various other places.

Transfixed by the strangeness of this place as I passed through on the train from Amsterdam to Assen

Most of the paths are concrete, which I find unpleasant for hiking. Some of the photos are taken with a telelens.

I was expecting to watch only birds... but if you are lucky, you will find much more! I could see horses, fish, one snake and a fox (which was like 2 or 3 meter far from me)!Bring good clothes for windy weather 😉

Beautiful! Perfect for a bit of skating 😉

Very nice place to walk around. We couldnt get into certain areas where there are animals because of our pet. So had to walk around the park where pets are allowed. Signs are available indicating where the pets are allowed. Nearby the Hollandse hout is located. You can also freely walk there.

Great place for bird watching

The maintenance needs a lot of work.

Very beautiful area with incredible horses

this park is an utter disgrace, seeing starving and dying animals, where is your human compassion Holland, you should be ashamed of your self

A laudable attempt to return the land to something like its natural state in an area that is almost entirely agricultural monocultures in the vicinity. Even so, the park has enough infrastructure to allow easy access. The birding is excellent, and the opportunity to see large animals living wild in central Europe is unique.

Despite the scandals that this place has caused in the past, it is still a beautiful example of much-needed nature in the middle of a highly agricultural landscape, and the rangers are doing their best to preserve the place.

Really great example of rewilding, well worth a visit to see the wide range of wildlife that is thriving in the area. The whole environment felt really unique and a pleasant place to get lost in.

A big natural park where flora and fauna blend perfectly! You can cross konik horses, and birds, also watch them in the shelters all around this enormous polder!

Beautiful area. Great birding

Had a nice walk

A great park for having long walk!

Great hiking area

Sent for 2 hour trip in eckochuck wonderfull experience

Beautiful!!!, but a lot of bugs in summer so not optimal for riding your motorcycle ;)

Nothing compared to the big nature parks in larger countries, but for the Netherlands a nice, very accessible area where you can be surprised, like when we saw this fox hauling around a goose of its own body weight...

A fantastic place for a wander around. The fox we saw at midday wasnt bothered by us at all.

This is a beautiful park. Amazing to think this is a former seabed. There is a lot of wildlife. Geese, ducks, cormorants, several species of bird of prey and we saw a fox walk by (as if he owned the place).The informationcenter offers coffee, snacks and sandwiches.And special for us excitement. (An alarm went off).A beautiful place seriously worth exploring.

Nice to walk in the wild nature.

One of the few park where nature is left alone. Youll find many different kind of wild animals here. Like, wild horses, foxes, pigs and many interesting birds. Dont forget your binoculars!

Gorgeous wildlife park/reserve. Beautiful nature and lots of birds. Very quiet during weekdays and a great place for a long or short walk.

Great place to cycle and walk. Recommend taking your bike with you.

Do not let the low rating fool you. Do not listen to the people that want to turn this into a petting zoo. This is nature !Furthermore, they already have caved under the few but very loud people that complain about animals drying, and they are adapting their feeding strategy.Many birds, flowers, butterflies, horses, deer and small animals.

Incredible wildlife area. Every birder should visit.

A beautiful nature reserve that is home to many animals from birds to deer, foxes, cows and wild horses but to name a few. There are some stunning wetlands to see as well as forests, and there are walking paths accessible to all. There are beautiful flowers also

Well, lot of not so nice stories about hungry animals...

A beautiful nature reserve and a great place for a long nature hike. Its also a paradise for birthwatchers.

Nice walking on mostly good roads.

DON T GO THERE. ANIMAL MORNING ON LARGE SCALE. YEAR OVER YEAR

Great

It was a horror trip. In the whole area I encountered heavily neglected animals, or animals that were dying and many that had already died. The environment looks shockingly bald and dead. It looks like a forest that needs a bit of time (at least 15 yearsto come back to life. I am in favor of transferring the animals (large grazersfrom the area, and resurrecting them to a piece of bird area. And the story will still end well after all

This deserved no stars! How can a supposed civilized country allow this mass starvation of animals! You should be ashamed,you put these animals in this situation,you need to feed them! Absolutely DISGUSTING

do not understand that they continue to lie to the people that it is so beautiful there is nothing beautiful about only animals that die starving die foals and beasts that are pregnant they shoot dead there it is certainly not a place for tourists with children

Death camp for animals trapped inside without proper food thereby dying in high numbers every year. They are there for grazing grass short to lure goose to this area apparently. Many many animals die from hunger every year or are being shot while dying from hunger, cause the space is too small for all of them, and proper care like life stock care has been forbidden.So if you look for a place where animals are being trapped, fenced, with no care and not enough food, and watch many many die form hunger, this is the place. Animal cruelty every year guaranteed.

As a Lelystad resident, the shameful starvation of the animals inside the OVP takes place almost in my backyard. And as a Dutch citizen, I am fed up with this and have tried to get authorities to stop this.As a singer/ songwriter, I have for years and years tried to get attention and create awareness for this by busking my songs about this on streets, squares, on various manifestations/protests and diverse other stages. Im happy to finally see likeminded souls coming together to stand up for this cause, and giving voice to the voiceless animals that had to suffer too much for much too long already. Thank you all for caring and spreading the awareness that this must be stopped, and hope that this will lead to a corridor for the wildlife to roam as free as they can possibly can. Staatsbosbeheer (stateforrestery-managementhas for years been killing these poor animalsby either stavation or shooting, and for that have very bad aiming, they cant even shoot to kill to end poor and long suffering starvated animals t,hey are so terrible at caring for their lifestock because its nothing more then a closed of park. Staatsbosbeheer, is nothing more then an animal abusive operation, and shouldbe stopped for the atrosities they have caused for over many decades. Dont be fooled by the movie ""the new wilderness"" wich is nothing more then propaganda to make it look good, wich it is NOT! Because for me this is not only about the OVP, we must fight for all wildlife to be able to roam free and fight the barbed wire fences to be taken down globally and stop the managers from their evil agendas, We are all as one, Ubuntu <3

This is an unique place. It embodies one of the greatest examples of how a nature-loving animal-caring country can be completely blind. This park is an abomination in terms of animal welfare and wildlife conservation / management. The park consists of 59 square kilometres fenced terrain. There are no top predators, and due to the fences there is no possibility for the big herds to migrate. Studies have shown this terrain to be capable to sustain a population of some 1500 big hoofed animals like horses, but by lack of controlling elements such as predators, there currently reside over 8500 -!- big hoofed animals.This is a recipe for disaster, and during winter times thousends of animals die from starvation, illness, or general declining health. People are being forbidden to feed the hungry animals behind the fences, and forresters patrol the area to make sure noone does... All in the misconseption that starving a surplus of animals which have been manually introduced in a fenced terrain is a natural process. Unbelievable that such a situation exists in an otherwise sensible nation. Wild management” refers to good managers running a wild park. Not wild managers running an oversized ranch.

Yesterday was the second time we visit the reserve and its just great. Staff are great. Highlight of our visit was a Blue Throat and a distant view of a Sea Eagle.