Self-guided Tours

Planning a self-guided Mennonite Heritage Tour? Or do you want to extend your stay after a guided Mennonite Heritage Tour? At this page you find some useful links from books to transportation and lodging.

Books:

Dutch anthropologist Arlette Kouwenhoven follows the footsteps of 16th century Old Flemish grain merchant Gijsbert de Veer and his descendants, describing their whereabouts in Amsterdam, Danzig, the Polish Werder, the villages in the Russian steppes and later the Canadian prairie, to finally arrive in the Mexican desert, where they live today in one of the last communities that refrains from the use of electricity and cars. The story of the Fehr family is representative of what happened to tens of thousands of Dutch and Flemish Mennonite families. It is an amazingly rich, yet often tragic history that deserves to be told in detail.

See for more information Arlette's website and the book review of the Mennonite Historical Society of British Columbia.

Transportation by train:

It's wise to book your long-distance train ticket as far in advance as possible as prices go up the closer to your date of travel. You can order your train tickets online with a credit card.

• Germany, Deutsche Bahn: www.bahn.de
• The Netherlands, NS: www.nshispeed.nl
• Switzerland, SBB: www.sbb.ch
• Austria, ?BB: www.oebb.at

Transportation by air:

There are a lot of low-cost airlines offering cheap flights around Europe. Easyjet and Ryan Air are among the most popular ones. Please google the specific airline yourself. Book your ticket as far in advance as possible, prices go up the closer to your date of travel.

• Aer Lingus
• Air Baltic
• Airberlin
• Austrian
• Blue Air
• Brussels Airlines
• Corendon
• Easyjet
• Estonian Air
• Flybe
• Germanwings
• Inter Sky
• Jetairfly
• (KLM)
• (Lufthansa)
• Norwegian
• Rossiya Airlines
• Ryanair
• (SAS)
• Transavia
• TUIfly
• Vueling
• Wizz

International flights - booking websites:

• www.expedia.com
• www.orbitz.com
• www.travelocity.com
• www.travelocity.ca

Hotels in Europe:

Looking for a hotel? Use this booking website to find your place and to make your reservation with your credit card, easy in use and reliable. booking.com

Mennonite Lodgings:

In The Netherlands:

• Dopers Duin Mennonite conference and retreat centre in Schoorl. Beautifully located near the dunes and the North-sea.
• Fredeshiem Mennonite conference and retreat centre in Steenwijk.
• Mennorode Mennonite conference and retreat centre in Elspeet.
• And here you find the website of the combined Dutch Mennonite Guesthouses.

In Germany:

• Thomashof Mennonite conference and retreat centre near Karlsruhe.
• Menno-heim in Berlin. A self-catering hostel of the Berlin Mennonite Congregation inside their Church building. Two double rooms and two bunk bedrooms, shared bathrooms.
• Mennotel in Niederg?rsdorf, halfway between Berlin and Wittenberg. Seven comfortable double rooms of the local Mennonite Congregation.

In Switzerland:

• The Bienenberg, Mennonite conference and retreat centre and bible school near Basel.

Mennonite Conferences:

• Dutch Mennonite Conference (Algemene Doopsgezinde Societeit)
• Vereinigung der Deutschen Mennonitengemeinden (VDM) German Mennonite Conference (mainly North Germany) 
• Arbeitsgemeinschaft Mennonitischer Gemeinden in Deutschland (AMG) German Mennonite Conference (mainly South Germany)
• Mennonites in Austria
• Mennonites in England/ London Mennonite Centre
• Mennonites in France

Mennonite Historical Societies and Foundations:

• Dutch Mennonite Historical Society (Doopsgezinde Historische Kring).
• German Mennonite Historical Society (Mennonitische Geschichtsverein).
• Swiss Mennonite Historical Society (Schweizerischer Verein f?r T?ufergeschichte/
  Soci?t? Suisse d'Histoire Mennonite) Unfortunately a not very up-to-date website.
• Dutch Mennonite Foundation for Mennonite Monuments in Friesland (Stichting Doopsgezinde Monumenten in Friesland). This Foundation preserves the Mennonite conventicle in Pingjum (Pingjum is Menno's place of birth) and the Menno Simons monument in Witmarsum (here he decided to leave the Catholic Church and to follow his own way to find Jesus).
• Dutch International Menno Simons Center. This (web) Centre aims to preserve the Mennonite Identity for future generations. The must-have Mennonite Timeline II is on sale in their web shop.
• Dutch Mennonite Foundation The Netherlands-Poland (Doopsgezinde Stichting Nederland-Polen) A basic website, but this Foundation has done a lot of good work to preserve the Mennonite cemeteries and heritage in the Vistula Delta in Poland from the 1990's up to now. Without their effort, dedication, persistence, and hard physical labor (working holidays) a lot of the Mennonite Heritage in the Vistula Delta would have been disappeared or very neglected by now.