Drentsche Aa National Park is not an area with one entrance or one fixed route. It is a landscape of stream valleys, heathland, forests, esdorp villages, dolmens, and stories. Visitors enter in different places and head out in different ways.

A strong map is especially helpful in a landscape like this. Not just to show where you are, but also to discover what there is to experience nearby.

From a separate website map to one central map

Drentsche Aa National Park was already working with a digital map, but it was limited. The map could be shown on the website, yet there was little else they could do with it. Even small changes, such as renaming a category, had to be handled externally and came with extra costs.

When plans for the new visitor center in Deurze became more concrete, the team wanted a map that could be used more broadly. Not only as part of the website, but also as a central tool inside the visitor center and out in the landscape.

With Wolf Maps, the team now has a map they can manage themselves. André and Timanca can update places, routes, categories, and information whenever needed. That saves time, and for a small team that matters a lot.

Getting oriented in the visitor center

Inside the visitor center, the map has a central place on a touchscreen kiosk. Visitors can take their time to explore which places, routes, and stories fit their visit. Then they scan the QR code on the screen and open that same map on their phone.

That makes the experience flow naturally: first get oriented in the visitor center, then head into the national park with the map in your pocket.

André Brasse - Drentsche Aa National Park

Wolf Maps works as one connected whole. Visitors discover the national park on the screen in the visitor center, use the same map on the website, and take it with them as a guide along the way. And we manage everything from one place.

The map also plays a role beyond the visitor center. At physical starting points in parking areas, visitors find basic information and are referred to the digital map. On the website, the map also runs on its own domain, so visitors stay within the familiar environment of Drentsche Aa National Park.

A map for a layered landscape

Drentsche Aa is often seen as the best-preserved brook valley and esdorp landscape in Western Europe. Villages, nature, agriculture, cultural history, and recreation all sit close together here. That makes the area special, but also rich in information.

The map helps bring those layers together in a clear way. Visitors can see where they are, which routes are available, and which places are worth discovering. Not as a loose collection of points, but as a visitor map that invites people to explore the area more deeply.

The map is already being used well. In the past twelve months, it has been visited more than 40,000 times.

Drenthe’s national parks work together

Drentsche Aa National Park is not the only one. Dwingelderveld National Park and Drents-Friese Wold National Park also use Wolf Maps.

For visitors, that creates a recognizable way to explore nature areas across Drenthe. For the parks themselves, it makes information easier to manage and helps them align better with how people move through an area: at home, on site, and on the go.

One map that moves with the visitor

What started as the wish for a better map has grown into a central map for the full visitor journey at Drentsche Aa National Park.

The map lives on the website, helps visitors in the visitor center, guides people onward from starting points, and then continues with them on their phone. In a landscape with so many places, routes, and stories, that is exactly what a map should do: create overview, spark curiosity, and help people head out with confidence.