Parilla and Jikke bring Breda out for a walk.
Back to 2017
“I wanted to set up something different from a classic walking club,” Parilla recalls. “My aim was to let walkers discover something new about Breda with each hike, such as a sight, event, or nice street, starting and finishing at a hospitality venue in the city centre. By walking together, you also immediately get to know other people.”
Walking as a business
In the beginning, Parilla did BredaWandelt alongside her job as a tennis coach, but in 2020 she decided to focus entirely on BredaWandelt. Jikke also joined in the meantime. With the risk that the only topic at the kitchen table would be walking. “BredaWandelt is of course our baby. So we do talk about it a lot,” says Jikke. “But we’re getting better at it and it turns out we’re also very fun colleagues.”
Jikke made the transition from various commercial roles. “I had the passion for walking long before. In fact, I got Parilla into walking,” she laughs.
And then came corona… On one hand, a bad time to start your own company. On the other hand, the popularity of walking increased enormously during that period.
BredaWandelt is our baby.
The three pillars of BredaWandelt
Thus, Parilla and Jikke managed to grow their company into an organisation with three people in the office, a small team of around ten guides, and about forty volunteers who help with the larger events they organise.
BredaTours
In addition to the walking community, which now has around two hundred members, BredaWandelt also focuses on custom walks for corporate, student, or family groups. These groups, led by a guide, go on explorations where they discuss the theme of the tour in advance.
Events
A few times a year, BredaWandelt organises larger events for everyone, such as the Expedition (this year from 26 to 29 June) and the Christmas walks.
For its own members, BredaWandelt organises nine different walks each week, averaging 6.5 km, for which they can register. The focus is really on walking with a bit of information, as opposed to the custom walks, which are more about the information than the distance.
Club feeling
To further enhance the club spirit among the members, the ladies under the banner of BredaWandelt also organise extra activities such as pub crawls or dining out. "It's wonderful to see how true friendships have emerged from this and new groups that eat together or go on trips," Parilla and Jikke share.
Network
BredaWandelt is increasingly collaborating with partners in the city. Organizations or companies that operate from the same vision and with the same values. For instance, Waterschap Brabantse Delta is opening the water treatment facility for participants in the Expedition. This is a great addition to the walking event and increases awareness of the work of the water authority.
In this way, the network continues to expand, and BredaWandelt can keep offering its walkers new things to discover in and around Breda.
Future dreams
When you see how BredaWandelt has developed over the past years, the question of what the future will look like quickly arises. The ladies have clearly thought about this.
Parilla: “We want to make even more impact in Breda, among other things by engaging more partners. And for our tenth anniversary, we would very much like to organise a members' trip with an overnight stay.
A real dream is to eventually roll out our concept in other cities as well. I can already envision a nice cross-pollination, where members of TilburgWandelt come to discover Breda and vice versa.”
