Detached house located on the water with a beautiful garden in a small village with natural surroudings in the middle of the Netherlands, not too far from Utrecht, Amsterdam and Rotterdam
House • Meerkerk Netherlands
2 Guests
4 Bedrooms
5 Beds
1.5 Bathrooms
1 Car space
1 Car available
Primary home
Exchange types accepted
Simultaneous
Non-Simultaneous
Non-Reciprocal & Globe
Hospitality
Statistics
Listed March 2021
Views 3385
General overview
Beautiful, spacious house with a beautiful conservatory overlooking the water and spacious terrace.
With our e-bikes you can explore the beautiful surroundings and during your stay you can meet very helpful neighbors.
The space
In the house is a very large livingroom, a kitchen with all the necessary equipmentare, 4 bedrooms, a study and a toilet
You will find on the second floor a large bathroom with a shower, a bath, and the second toilet.
Guest access
Access through the front door, the sliding doors in the garden and the garage.
Notes
In addition to all the amenities to do the daily shopping within walking distance in the large supermarket, you can also eat delicious food in our village. A medical center is also not missing and as I mentioned earlier for questions you can always contact the neighbors.
Features
Washer
Dishwasher
Clothes dryer
Oven
Microwave
Coffee machine
Fridge
Iron
Hair dryer
Heating
Air conditioning
TV
WiFi
High Speed Internet
Bathtub
First aid kit
Wheelchair accessible
Smoke alarms
Fire extinguisher
Bed sheets
Towels
Workspace
Fireplace
Home cinema
Toys
Gym
Sauna
BBQ
Pool
Hot tub
Balcony
Garden / yard
Deck / patio / courtyard / terrace
Covered porch / verandah
Kosher home
Meat-free kitchen
Gated community
EV Home Charger
Bikes
Camping gear
Kayak
Tennis court
Standup paddleboard
Travel Styles
Long term
Romantic
Sport and leisure
Foodie
Relaxing
Luxury
Village
Water
Remote
Culture
Hiking
Cycling
Good public transport
Golf
Accessibility
Easy entrance
Accessible windows
Accessible toilet
Accessible shower
Shower stool
Handheld shower
Accessible kitchen access
Accessible benchtops (counters)
Accessible laundry access
Accessible parking space
House rules
Unsuitable for infants under 2
Unsuitable for children ages 2-12
Pets not allowed
No smoking
Allergens
Cat free
Dog free
Carpet free
Smoke free
Fragrance free
Low allergen
Hypoallergenic
Dates of Availability
Click on availability periods to see exchange types and descriptions.
Available
Neighbourhood
Beautiful cycling routes that you can undertake from home, where a trip along the river Linge is a must.
But also walking in the typical Dutch landscape within walking distance of our house along the river Zederik is recommended.
If necessary, visit by bike the historic settlement cities that have often suffered on the river
Getting to my home
From Schiphol there is a train connection to Utrecht and then change to the bus to Meerkerk. We can possibly appeal to our children or our neighbors
Nearest airport
Schiphol 40 km, Rotterdam, 40 km, Eindhoven 50km
Getting around
There is a 10 minute walk from our house to the bus stop that transports you in all directions.
We had a wonderful 2 week stay in September 2024 at Meerkerk in Hans and Josien’s house with our adult son. It is such a special place and Hans and Josien are lovely hosts.
The house itself was great and we felt at home from the start of the exchange. We particularly loved the garden where we spent many hours in the late afternoon sun drinking wine and talking through the events of the day.
While Meerkerk is quite small the local shops had everything we needed and there is a good bus service through to Utrecht and other larger cities.
We also had the opportunity to ride Hans and Josien electric bikes which enabled us to get out and about to surrounding areas and local attractions. We love riding so this was a special treat and we headed off almost every second day exploring. Hans and Josien provided many great riding suggestions which we followed and their local knowledge and hints made these rides really enjoyable.
We also used their car to travel further afield and access places where the trip would have been much more difficult on public transport.
This home exchange was all we could have hoped for. It was great to stay in a semi rural area and get a feel for living like a local. Good access to public transport and the use of their car also meant that we could go further afield and see key attractions like Amsterdam, Rotterdam Utrecht, Dordrecht and Kinderdijk. If you are ever given the opportunity to stay at Hans and Josien’s please don’t hesitate. They are a lovely couple and it is an ideal place to explore the southern part of the Netherlands.
I spent the month of April 2024 in Hans and Josien’s beautiful home in Meerkerk. We spent six months prior to the exchange in contact with news and photos and getting to know one another and then I personally met them to hand them the house key. What a lovely easy to get along with couple. I loved my exchange in Meerkerk and they have the most amazing helpful neighbours. The home was comfortable, the transport was nearby and the community friendly. I thoroughly enjoyed my stay . Thank you Hans and Josien
We had a lovely time in Hans and Josien's beautiful home. We enjoy eating in their gorgeous & green backyard. They put together a welcome snack basket and flowers for us. They also let us borrow their electric bikes to go around the area. Since I (Efti) is much shorter than Josien, they arranged with their neighbor to let me borrow her bike instead. How thoughtful! The house was nice and clean with a great coffee/capuccino machine.
And that was two! Yes, we had a house exchange with Josien and Hans for the second time and again we enjoyed it. A short exchange from Monday to Friday, everyone's own bedding saves a lot of work for both sides! We are not very active due to physical condition and therefore enjoy small trips in the immediate beautiful surroundings and of course enjoy hours in the beautiful garden. The weather was again very good to us. As already discussed together, we will do this again!! Kind regards, Debby and Lu
We enjoyed our six-week exchange stay in Meerkerk. As others have mentioned, the large sunroom and the beautiful outdoor gardens are highlights of Hans and Josien's home. The central location is wonderful for exploring The Netherlands. It is simple to see the country, and in addition to visiting all the major cities - more than once - we made day trips to the northeast, Parnassia aan Zee, where we walked on a beautiful beach, and to Ootmarsum, almost to the border with Germany, where we enjoyed the old town and art galleries in the company of some fellow PLU members who live nearby. Hans & Josien's home is located in a place with quick access to the highway, but without any residual noise or traffic from it. They are also in a great place for cycling to nearby villages AND walking to Meerkerk's lovely polders, restaurants, bakery, grocery, produce market, and shops. We want to also mention the wonderful neighbors we met. It was truly a lovely way to LIVE in The Netherlands. We really feel as if it became our home. At the end of our visit we met Hans & Josien in person. What a treat that was! We will treasure ALL of these memories. Hans & Josien, we can only add, dank je wel!
We stayed in Josien and Hans home during Spring 2022. We had a very pleasant and easy communication via WhatsApp before and during the exchange.
Hans was waiting for us in Meerkerk to show us their house and he did everything to ensure our stay was comfortable and enjoyable. It was great to have the opportunity to meet him and have an aperitif in their garden before his trip to Barcelona.
The house is big , full of light and very comfortable and the garden with a small canal next to it, is gorgeous.
Meerkerk has easy access to the highway and is very convenient to visit big cities ; Rotterdam, Den Haag, Utrecht as well as other places that we loved and we didn't know yet :Dordrecht, Heusden, Woudrichem...
We highly recommend a stay at Josien and Hans beautiful home.
We were the first home exchangers for Josien and Hans and arrived at their home and had coffee in their lovely garden. Next to their house and garden is a beautiful river, absolutely beautiful. Moren than enough places to sit is this well kept garden with sunscreens.. The house is big with a really big and living room. Bedrooms and bathrooms upstairs and with a big comfortable bed. Standing in the kitchen looking out the window, we could see the street, very special!
For this short exchange we both took our own duvet and pillows with bedlinen, so easy and no work.
We are sure that we will exchange!
We had excellent communication with Hans and Josien. We emailed each other regularly both before and during the exchange. We also had a couple of video calls while they were staying in our house.
There were a number of minor hiccups including the door code which were easy to resolve by email and WhatsApp.
They really enjoyed their visit to Perth and left our house immaculate at the end of the exchange. They were excellent house guests.
It was a delight to have Hans and Josien stay in my home for the past month. They are welcome to stay at any given time. I loved having them
Hans and Josien were great guests. They took care of our house well. We came back to a very clean house
Exchanged with Josien and Hans for the second time and this time too our house was left behind neatly. How nice if you can trade with good faith.
Josien and Hans were lovely guests at both our home and our cabin. They went above and beyond in tidying before they left. We exchanged cars with them, and that went well, too. When we finally returned to the cabin we even found a meal in the freezer & bottle of wine on the counter. These were accompanied by a lovely note that we will treasure as a reminder of our new friends.
It's been a great pleasure for us to host Josie, Leny and Hans during spring 2022. It was very easy to communicate with them and they arrived and left as planned. They looked after the flat during their stay and left the apartment tidy and clean.
Excellent guests.
We always have contact with the exchangers through whats app and as this exchange was the first one for them we were happy to hear that they had a good time, loved being near the city center, our apartment with nice balcony as we saw on some photo’s. They knew our area already and loved biking again in the surroundings. They left our home clean, we can honestly recommend a home exchange with them!
And, they will become members too, a little admin mistake had to be
fixed.
Dear people like us,
We enjoyed our house exchange in Perth with Kath and Neil (20245)
We had extensive contact and exchanged information in the period before and experienced that as very pleasant, because it allowed us to prepare ourselves well. Our journey went via Bali, where we stayed for a week, to then cross over to Perth and there our house and car were ready for us. And that is always exciting and certainly surprising. But we were rightly enthusiastic.
Every morning we had a lovely breakfast in the garden and really enjoyed all the facilities that were present in the house. We made a trip every day, with Kath providing us with the ideas. We walked a lot around the lake and along the beautiful beaches, visited vineyards and breweries and of course the beautiful Rotnes Island where we cycled for a day in the middle of the beautiful nature. The culture was not forgotten either, because we visited a beautiful candlelight concert in the concert hall of the university with the well-known songs of Queen. We really appreciated that we kept in touch during our stay and are grateful for the tips we received and the nice contacts we have and had with Kath and Neil. Thanks
Hans and Josien
Through our contacts during the exchange we understood that Kath, Neil and Matt had found their way in Meerkerk. When we returned we found the house in excellent condition, so we can only be satisfied
Hans and Josien
We spent the month of April at Ereca's house in Fish Hook, South Africa.
We had a very pleasant contact with each other beforehand, we exchanged tips and during our stay we enthusiastically told each other about our experiences in Meerkerk and Fish Hook.
Ereca has a cozy house from which the most beautiful places, such as Builders Beach, Cape Town, Cape of Good Hope, beautiful beaches, vineyards and authentic fish restaurants can be reached within a maximum of an hour by car. We enjoyed this beautiful country and the nice contact we had with Ereca.
We where delighted on our return that the house and garden looked fine and appriciate the beautifull plant that she put on our table.
Thanks for everything Ereca
Our trip started in Lisbon, where we booked a hotel and visited the beautiful upper city.Then we drove to Coimbra by car, where you are curious about what the apartment where you will spend the next 3 weeks looks like. Well it was located in a beautiful place with a beautiful view of the historic city of Coimbra, which was located near the Mondego River.We had already had an extensive communication and video call with Rustum and Efti in advance and we both knew what to expect.Coimbra exceeded our expectations. We visited some beautiful richly decorated churches. a beautiful authentic cafe where fado could regularly be heard. The beautiful botanical garden. We visited several restaurants daily and enjoyed the food and hospitality.At breakfast at the Pasteleria we always ended with a truly delicious Portuguese Pasteis de Nata. Josien obviously took the recipe home with her, so that promises something. The only disadvantage was that the scale showed a slightly higher weight when we got home. Had a wonderful time cycling, mostly along the river, visiting the Palheiros e Zorro fluvial a few times where you could swim in the river and have something to eat and drink on the terrace. It is fair to say that during our trips we stopped at several beautifully situated terraces.In between, we spent a few days in the beautiful city of Porto, spent 2 days in Guimares and visited the beautiful castle, the wine cellars in Porto and part of the Douro Valley.We also visited Alveiro, a bit of the Venice of Portugal.In many places we visited we were surprised by the enthusiasm of the locals who surprised us with their local music.Back in Lisbon we visited the Undercity via ferry from our hostel south of the Tagus. The next day we returned the car - which fortunately remained intact - and flew back to the Netherlands. A special trip in a house that was fully equipped and a warm contact, before and certainly during our stay with Rustam and Efti.Thanks again Efti and RustamHans and Josien
The almost daily contacts that Josien and Efti had showed that Rustam and Efti were having a great time in Meerkerk. They visited their family in the Netherlands several times, paddled through historic Utrecht, cycled with the e-bikes to Leerdam where they were surprised by the party, where all museums could be visited for free. In addition, they visited other interesting places in the area and enjoyed, especially because of the nice weather in our garden. Efti also carried out garden maintenance by mowing the grass. They left the house in excellent condition
We spent another wonderful midweek in Lu and Debby's house. If you live in a village in the River Landscape, it is always nice to be in a place where there is more excitement. Walking into the center of Hengelo within a few minutes from their beautiful apartment and grabbing a terrace, without all kinds of parking problems, is quite enjoyable, especially when the weather is nice. It was not our first exchange with Debby and Lu, so we knew the area and used our bikes optimally again. We cycled along the Dinkel to Denekamp and then to Nordhorn, always a favorite place for us to visit, and crossed the beautiful nature reserve De Lutte. We also visited Bad Bentheim and Enschede by bike. Delicious dinner on the terrace in the evening. In short, it was very nice to meet Lu and Debby again and to conclude that we had another very successful exchange. As far as we are concerned, this was not the last time.
It was familiar territory for both of them. We always kept in touch after our first exchange and in both houses there was another surprise on the table. It's nice to know that the house has been treated with respect and that we enjoyed it again.
We've been staying at Barbara and Glenn's homes for the past 6 weeks. We spent 4 weeks in their cabin in Wimberly which is beautifully situated on a hill and which was fully equipped. It was lovely to have breakfast in peace on the veranda with a curious deer watching us. The town of Wimberley with many restaurants and art studios is very nice to visit. A must is San Marcos with a hot spring where you can see people enjoying the water from your terrace. We also enjoyed the pubs with live country music every night. We had a nice communication via WhatsApp before and during the exchange with Barbara and Glenn. But that wasn't all, we also stayed in their beautiful home in Humble for 2 weeks. A totally different experience. In the morning first swim some laps in their pool and then make plans. Great to start the day like this. From Humble we visited Houston with its beautiful art gallery and San Antonio with its river walk and Mexican market is also definitely worth a visit. And Austin couldn't escape a visit either. For 6 weeks the weather was lovely and that invited us to visit parks and walk trails.
Barbara and Glenn really did everything they could to make our stay as comfortable as possible. When we returned to the Netherlands, it was also very nice to meet each other in person and to share our enthusiastic experiences while enjoying a drink.
We highly recommend staying in Barbara and Glenn's beautiful homes.
We had great contacts with Barbara and Glenn. Through a video conference we introduced ourselves and showed each other's houses. We briefly indicated where we had to pay attention and it was nice to see the other in moving images. Because we met at Schiphol after the exchange, we were able to share our experiences live. And it was nice to hear that we had a successful exchange. The house was lived in like a good family man and then it is nice to come home again.
Thank you Barbara and Glenn
After the positive experiences we gained during our first exchange close to home in Hengelo, we decided to look further afield and it became Spain. We chose an apartment in Montgat just outside the hustle and bustle of Barcelona, but at the same time with a good connection to Barcelona. We have experienced the preparation of the exchange and the provision of information about the house and surroundings by Felisa as very positive. During the weeks that Josien and her sister stayed there, there was almost daily contact and experiences, photos and the latest tips were exchanged. The last few days I joined Montgat, which meant that I could receive Felisa and Carlos in Meerkerk and later exchange our experiences in the garden while enjoying a glass of wine. Josien and her sister had already explored Barcelona and the surrounding area extensively and had never been bored for a day. The day usually started with breakfast on the apartment balcony, lunch in Montgat or Badelona and then headed to the train station from where most of the sights could be easily reached. Everything was there in the apartment to enjoy this exchange in a pleasant way.
Thanks again Felisa and Carlos and it's great that we had such a nice contact with each other. We greatly appreciated both the excellent stay in Montgat and the fine communication.
Felisa and Carlos were guests in our house for 2 weeks and I enjoyed getting to know them physically. They have extensively explored the Meerkerk area and it is always nice to hear that they enjoyed it. The house found on return in excellent condition. After this second experience, we became even more enthusiastic about the possibilities that PLU offers
We have experienced our stay with Lu and Debby as very pleasant. We arrived in a beautiful apartment that was fully equipped and were greeted with a delicious bottle of wine. From the spacious balcony we enjoyed a wonderful view over a park. We are cycling enthusiasts and made beautiful trips to Denekamp, Ootmarsum, De Lutte and even across the border to Nordhorn.
We live in a village ourselves, so it was very special to walk from their apartment into the center of Hengelo in a few minutes, and there - as we call it - grab a terrace and have a nice meal outside.
Lu and Debby have made sure that we become enthusiastic home exchangers in the future. It was our first time and Debby prepared us very well. She gave lots of tips to make it as comfortable as possible for the guests who come and we liked to have regular contact beforehand about things that are important when exchanging houses.
When we returned, we found our house clean and that was also a great experience. In short We thank Lu and Debby for their tips, for their involvement and the fact that after this experience we are very positive to discover another part of the world in this way.
Premium
hans en Josien
We are a retired and very active couple with 2 adult children who no longer live at home.
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