v      Official Club Name:  The Friendship Force of Friesland

v      Closest MajorAirport: Schiphol Amsterdam at about 1 1/2 hours drive from Leeuwarden. 

v      Cost of transportation between the airport and the city (based on 20 people): from the airport to Leeuwarden is at about ? 500, -- by bus. Number of passengers is not important. Going by train is not an option, because you always have to change trains halfway, and with a group of people and luggage that is not so good.

v      Maximum number of ambassadors the club can host: 15

v      About the club: Our club was founded in 1985. We have 24 addresses, including families and single people. At least 10 of those addresses never have guests, because they are too old, or there house is not big enough, we call them "sleeping addresses ". And when there is an exchange, not everyone can have guests at that time. We like to have one incoming Exchange every year. Outgoing is always a problem. We try to make an outgoing Exchange in Europe. As the name of the club implies, we cover the Province of Friesland. Most club members live in or in the neighbourhood of the capital Leeuwarden. About the houses, we mostly have houses with bedrooms upstairs. So the guests have to walk stairs.

v      About the region: Friesland is mainly an agriculture province and is famous for its cattle. Frisian cows and Frisian horses are exported all over the world. The latter are used for breeding trotters. The province is also of tourist importance because of his lakes for water sports and its islands for seaside holidays. On some of this islands motor vehicles are forbidden and the only means of transportation is the bicycle. The climate is a sea-climate, which means that there are no extremes in temperature. We have four seasons that do not differ very much, although in winter temperature could drop to at about -10 o C. We have a lot of rainfall so an umbrella and a warm sweater are needed. Friesland has a large number of small villages, eleven cities dating from the middle ages of earlier. Many of them have buildings dating from 1650. Other places of interesting are wooden-shoe factories, milk powder and cheese factories, harbours for pleasure boats, a port for seagoing vessels, sluices, dykes, regained land etc. In spring and summer, it is possible to make a boat trip across the former Zuiderzee, (sea) now called IJsselmeer, (lake) to a place called Enkhuizen where there is a museum showing replicas of Dutch Zuiderzee houses and the way people used to live in the old days. In the capital city of Leeuwarden there are a number of interesting museum. For example, there is a silver museum, a ceramic museum and others. In Makkum you will find one of the finest potteries in the world. 

v      About the exchange:  The easiest way going from Schiphol to Leeuwarden, is by chartered bus, costs are for the Ambassadors. By train is not an opportunity. Ambassadors have to be told that the bedrooms are upstairs. They have to say when they are not able to walk stairs. Our primary emphasis is for the host family to make friends with Ambassadors, but we do at least one group function in addition to a farewell party. Most hosts will show Ambassadors our beautiful province by car. Our E.D. plans the week creatively balancing the budget. Should Ambassador groups request a special activity not planned by the E.D. this could be arranged in advance and at an extra cost for the ambassadors.