Explore castles in Diepenheim: A perfect cycling route with kids

If you’re looking for a scenic and family-friendly cycling adventure, the ‘6 Castles Route’ in Diepenheim offers the perfect opportunity. This cycling route in Diepenheim takes you through the picturesque countryside, where you’ll discover beautiful castles in Diepenheim and enjoy the charm of rural Twente. It’s an ideal route for cycling with children, as it is not too long. Read more about our experiences with this cycling route and how to explore the area and the castles around Diepenheim with kids.

The 6 Castles cycling route Diepenheim

The ‘6 Castles Route’ is a 24-kilometer cycling route around Diepenheim, perfect for cycling with kids. It took us about an hour and a half to complete. We stopped regularly to take photos of the beautiful castles but didn’t stop for food or drinks along the route. If you stop more often or for longer, it will take you longer to complete. There aren’t many places along the route to have lunch or coffee. Most food venues are located around the starting and ending points of the cycling route, in the village of Diepenheim. You can also have a drink and a light snack on the terrace at Kasteel Warmelo.

The ‘6 Castles Route’ is well-marked with blue signs, as long as you’re cycling clockwise. The official start of the route is at the tourist information point in the center of Diepenheim, but you can also start at other points along the route. For example, we started at Kasteel Warmelo, as it was closest to our campsite.

We found the ‘6 Castles Route’ to be a great cycling route for children, as it wasn’t too long but still diverse. You can’t cycle long distances with small children, but 24 kilometers was just right. With the beautiful castles and the rural surroundings of Diepenheim, there was plenty to see. What we also really liked was that the route passed many farms, which is always a hit when cycling with kids. Luca loved seeing all the sheep and cows. A small part of the route even seemed to go across the yard of a farm.

The start of our cycling route with children

The first castle we encountered was Kasteel Warmelo. This castle was once owned by the Dutch royal family. Today, this beautiful castle is no longer owned by the royal family and is open to the public. It is now also the most commercial of the 6 castles in Diepenheim, with a terrace where you can eat or drink something.

Kasteel Warmelo is surrounded by the large Warmelo estate. In this estate, you can enjoy extensive walks through the castle gardens, which are designed in different styles. There are also regular activities for children. We only stopped briefly at this castle, so we didn’t see much of the gardens. However, we did walk over to the white dove coop, which Luca thought was beautiful. He also really enjoyed seeing the turtles in the castle moat.

More castles in Diepenheim

Next, we cycled through a forested area to Huize Westerflier. We only stopped briefly to take a photo. This manor is inhabited (it has some apartments), so we could only view it from the road.

The same applied to the next castle we encountered on the route: Huis Diepenheim. This is the largest castle in Diepenheim. Unfortunately, we couldn’t see much of it because the building is well-enclosed by walls. However, the gate was quite impressive. The estate around this manor is accessible to visitors, containing many walking routes. We didn’t go for a walk but cycled on to the next castle.

Cycling to the nicest castle of Diepenheim with kids

After Huis Diepenheim, you pass through the center of Diepenheim. Here, you can have something to eat or drink. If you started at the official starting point of the ‘6 Castles Route’ in Diepenheim, the route will end here.

Once you’ve passed through Diepenheim, you will come to the impressive long driveway of Kasteel Nijenhuis. This long road, with trees on both sides, signals that you’re about to see something beautiful. And indeed, I found Kasteel Nijenhuis to be one of the most beautiful castles we saw on the cycling route. This castle is also privately owned, so you can only stop to take a photo. The garden and park surrounding the castle are open to the public. So, if you have more time, you can add a walk to your cycling route here as well.

The end of the cycling route with children

For the last part of the route, we cycled through forests and past fields, meadows, and farms. This section of the route offers a beautiful view of the landscape of the Twente region. In this part of the route, you first encounter Kasteel Weldam. This castle is not open to visitors, but you can pay to visit its gardens. The 6th castle, Havezate Wegdam, is located on the estate of Kasteel Weldam.

After Havezate Wegdam, we passed a watermill. This is one of the few remaining working watermills in the Netherlands. For us, the watermill was the final sight of this cycling route around Diepenheim in Twente. It was time to go back to our campsite.

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