WEB CHUTNEY

This village of Giethoorn in the Netherlands with no roads looks like it came straight out of the pages of your favourite fairytale.

But it’s actually a real place that exists.

The only access across the village is by water over the many beautiful canals or on foot over its wooden arch bridges. The locals use punters to get around and cars have to remain outside the village.

The most common mode of transportation is by “whisper boats”, which have noiseless engines.

It’s a popular destination in the summer for obvious reasons, but it’s also popular in the winter, when you can go ice skating both on the canals and on the nearby lakes.

According to Giethoorn’s website ‘the loudest sound you can normally hear is the quacking of a duck or the noise made by other birds’.