Two seasons, five-star almost every trip.

Web developer for over a decade. One year in Budapest, one in Berlin, one in Athens, then ten years in Amsterdam from 2016, plus project trips to London and a few others over the years. Solid client list, smart people, predictable rhythm. Good work that paid the bills, and not much more.

Five years ago, almost by accident, I started picking up countryside bike tours on weekends for another operator. I told myself it was exercise. A way to get outside, see the polders, ride for money instead of through them on Sundays. The first season was timid, every itinerary copied from the company playbook. By the second, the playbook was already mine. Within a year it had stopped being a side job.

Four seasons across multiple operators followed. Hundreds of guests, countless five-star reviews under their brand names, every kind of group from school trips to corporate offsites to honeymooners. Bike days, walking days, day-trip days. Real road-tested experience, paid for by other people's clients. By 2024 the only thing left was to do it right, on my own terms.

EcoEcho launched in 2025. My own company, built around a bet that visitors to the Netherlands would pay for depth over volume, every time. I bring a developer's discipline to a guide's craft. Every itinerary planned to the half-hour, then deliberately under-scheduled so the day breathes. Every stop justified, if it does not pull its weight, it gets cut. Just me, sometimes one trusted co-guide, my own energy, the country I know best. Eight people max. Walking tours on foot through the city, bike for the countryside routes, comfortable transportation for the longer day trips, a car for slower private days. The bigger setups (a coach for a corporate day, a larger setup for a wedding party, a private boat) arranged and led but never personally driven.

Two seasons in under my own name, the rating barely moves. 5★ across Google, GetYourGuide, Viator & TripAdvisor. Small groups that turn into friendships by sundown. Private days shaped exactly to the people on them. Routes covering tulip fields in spring, windmills year-round, cheese markets on Friday, beer breweries on Saturday, Christmas markets across the border in Brussels, the medieval streets of Bruges and Ghent, the hills of Luxembourg.

Antonis Iliadis, founder & guide