Now that an extra long weekend has started, furniture stores, garden centers and hardware stores are preparing for busy days. Extra staff is sometimes scheduled for this, among other things to manage the crowds in the parking lot. Nevertheless, according to some shopkeepers, the sunny weather can ensure that extreme crowds do not occur.
It is busier at Intratuin garden centers than on other weekends, says a spokesperson. This has not yet resulted in extreme situations, partly thanks to the extra deployment of staff. “Around holidays such as Easter we have extra people to ensure that people can park properly. And there is also maximum staff available in the store.”
Hardware store chain Hornbach also deploys people ‘her and there’ in parking lots. There is also more staff in the stores themselves. According to a spokesperson, that was also necessary, because many people came to get supplies for typical outdoor jobs, such as outdoor painting or gardening. Intergamma, the company behind the Gamma and Karwei chains, has announced that the entire spring is the peak season.
Always busy at home improvement stores
At the branches of homewares chain Ikea, the number of visitors is not that bad, apart from the more crowded location in Groningen. “Probably that too to do with the weather, which means that people are probably outside a lot anyway,” a spokesperson said. Traditionally, it is always busy at home furnishings stores at Easter, although a visit to Ikea was hardly possible last year due to corona measures. “After two years of pandemic, we are very much looking forward to being able to receive people again on Easter Monday.”
Jolanda Verschoor, who runs a family business on the Woonboulevard Sliedrecht, also takes into account that a visit to the shop will have competition from a trip to the campsite or the terrace. Easter falls late in the year this time, which means that the temperatures are already a bit higher. Maarten Kop, center manager and chairman of residential shopping center Woon Leiderdorp, states that after all the lockdowns last year, visitors and sales figures of home furnishings shops are going well anyway. “From January, that has improved enormously.”
In border regions, large shopping centers can also count on more Germans. Since Friday, Roermond has been controlling the influx via the N280 by leaving the traffic lights at the A73 on red for longer, in order to prevent traffic jams in front of the popular Designer Outlet. A spokesman for that outlet center indicates that it will be “very tenable” on Saturday and no traffic jams have been reported.
A lot of sun and pleasant temperatures during Easter weekend
It will be a sunny Easter weekend. It will probably remain dry everywhere and there will be a lot of sun. The temperatures are also pleasant. The afternoon temperature is between 15 and 19 degrees today and tomorrow and there is a moderate wind blowing. “In the backyard full of sun, the temperature will undoubtedly indicate somewhat higher values”, meteorologist Raymond Klaassen of Weerplaza suspects.
What the weather would do on Easter Monday was still a bit uncertain earlier this week. There seemed to be a slight chance of a shower. That uncertainty has now disappeared and we can enjoy a beautiful sunny day†
‘Business for the Easter weekend’
Yesterday, on Good Friday, it was very busy on the Dutch roads and on the ferry directions to the Wadden Islands. Just before 12:00, Rijkswaterstaat counted almost 100 kilometers of traffic jams on the highways, an hour later that length had already increased to more than double. The ANWB also saw ‘crowds for the Easter weekend’ from the German border. Around 3 p.m. a procession of vehicles with a length of more than 350 kilometers was on the roads in the Netherlands.
Not in the Randstad, but especially beyond around the Veluwe, towards the Zeeland coast and in North Brabant, the ANWB sees full roads. On the A12 from Germany to Arnhem, there has been a “traditional Easter traffic jam” all day since 8 a.m., according to an ANWB spokesperson. This is caused by “German families who visit our country to spend Easter here”. The length of the traffic jam varies continuously because smaller traffic jams come and go, a so-called “accordion file”, explains the spokesperson. The delay varies between a quarter of an hour and an hour.
‘Easter as usual’
It is also busy at the ferry services towards the Wadden Islands. “It’s an Easter as usual, similar to before corona. And it seems to be even busier, probably due to the predicted beautiful weather,” said a spokesman for Rederij Doeksen, which sails on Terschelling and Vlieland. “We go back and forth with full boats.”
It is also nice and busy on the boat to Texel ‘as every year’, according to a spokesperson for shipping company Teso. That was also the case during Easter last year despite corona, but this year the German tourists can also come again and the ferry service notices that. The sailing between Den Helder and Texel does not need to be booked in advance, so travelers may have to wait one departure on arrival to get to the other side. “We sail every half hour and the ships are relatively large,” said the spokesman. As a result, she says it goes through there without any problems.
Additional trains
Due to the Easter weekend and the predicted nice weather, extra trains will run to Zandvoort for the first time this season all weekend. This is because the NS expects more travelers who want to visit the beach.
Dutch holiday parks almost full during Easter
Dutch holiday parks are busy during the long Easter weekend, partly due to many last-minute bookings. This is evident from a tour of major providers such as EuroParcs, Landal GreenParks, Center Parcs and Roompot. Many Dutch people choose to stay in their own country, but Germans and Belgians also know where to find Dutch parks.
Foreign guests have stayed away more often in recent years because of the corona pandemic. For example, the number of Germans who booked early for an Easter weekend at a holiday park in the Netherlands was even lower due to the corona measures that were still in force at the beginning of this year. The Germans are now frequently booking for the coming summer, that’s how it sounds with almost all providers.
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