Discover the Beauty of Arboretum Poort Bulten

While staying at Hotel Wilmberberg in De Lutte we explored the surrounding villages such as Oldenzaal, Ootmarsum, Denekamp and Bad Bentheim. On our bike ride to Denekamp we passed by estate Singraven and the watermill/restaurant nearby where we stopped for a coffee. In the nature surrounding Denekamp there were many freshly mowed fields which attracted many storks looking for frogs and mice that didn’t survive the mowing. On the way back from one of our bicycle trips we stopped at Arboretum Poort Bulten, maintained by natuurmonumenten. The arboretum contains over 2500 trees spread over 1000 different species. It is quite large and well organized in clear sections. Entrance is free but there were not so many visitors when we were there. We occasionally saw some people but it felt largely deserted. The sun was shining quite hard and the arboretum with the shade provided by its trees was the perfect place to hide. The arboretum is a combination of a tree collection and a landscape of a number of pools. Possibly all the water in the pools help to keep the temperature agreeable as well. As it was already getting late and we needed to get back for dinner we didn’t explore the whole arboretum in detail but still we spent a bit more than an hour perusing the park and its many trees. You can easily spend half a day here if you want to cover every path and if you want to inspect every tree you encounter you should probably reserve a whole day. The combination of trees, water and landscaping make it an ideal place to visit with the family, including small children and people that are per say tree experts. The only thing we missed was the café which was closed on the day we visited but we made it up when we got back to our hotel.