Discovering Den Haag

 Getting a bike 1: Renting a bike

Bikes rule in the Netherlands. In Den Haag, bikes are a wonderful way of mobilizing, exploring the city, and doing some exercise. So what happens if you are a newcomer and you want a bike but you do not to want buy one? One option is renting a bike. I am gonna tell here my experience with one of the bike-renting companies here in Den Haag: Swapfiets. Swapfiets offers 3 options to rent a bike: original, deluxe 7, and power 7. Power 7 is an electric bike, very smooth and low effort, original in turn only has coaster brake, that is, braking is applied by rotating the pedals in reverse until the brake engages. 

Given these two extremes, I went for the deluxe 7, with hand breaks. You can ask the bike online, through the app or go to the Swapfiets store Johanna Westerdijkplein 68, 2521 EN. I arrange everything only and they bring the bike to my place, so little to no effort. Nice thing about Swapfiets: if you have a problem with your bike, like a flat tire or something broken, you can call them and they will try to fix it (for free!) or they will give you another bike (also for free!), so there is no need to worry about bike problems with Swapfiets. If your rented bike is stolen, but you have the key of the lock (which means that you were careful enough to lock the bike), then you do not have to reimburse the cost of the bike. So far, very nice!

If you are interested in renting a bike from Swapfiets, drop a comment in this entry to let me know, as I have a discount code with which you will price a lower price, that I will be happy to share to the newcomers to the Netherlands! 😎