Eva has provided a bit of background concerning the area around Zwolle.
Zwolle is a beautiful medieval town (a Hanzestad, one of the merchant cities along the river the Ijssel). Our conference venue in the Studiecentrum of the Open Universiteit is 20 minutes walk from the city center (map).
As a merchant city (one of the Hanze cities along the IJssel river), Zwolle has always been a more cosmopolitan progressive ‘island’, bringing together people from different places. The countryside surrounding Zwolle is part of a traditional and conservative (by Dutch standards) rural region which extends across the entire country from the far southwest to the northeast, called the ‘bible belt’ because of its religious background.
North of Zwolle, you will find Staphorst, which is like the center of the reformed Christian community. Not very open to outsiders, but interesting. 
A bit further north, past Meppel and out of the bible belt, is the province of Drenthe, which is where I live. This is a natural/rural area with many natural parks. I live 40 km from Zwolle, in Uffelte.
East of Zwolle, you will find first a few traditional bible belt places like Dalfsen and Nieuwleusen, and then enter the more natural and beautiful area around Ommen. This area is called Twente.
South of Zwolle, the most beautiful places are along the IJssel river and the natural park ‘The Veluwe’ (Dutch ‘mountains’) on the western side of the river. Mostly rural area and still part of the bible belt, although less conservative than the Staphorst area.
A bit further south, you will find the beautiful, lively and culturally progressive Hanze cities Deventer and Zutphen. Both a bit smaller than Zwolle, and in very good shape. I grew up in Zutphen.
West of Zwolle the bible belt culture is mixed with the history of the reclamation of the Zuiderzee. Cities like Kampen, Genemuiden, and Zwartsluis were coastal towns which became landlocked when the polder was built. These still have the character of fishing towns, pretty traditional and charming in many ways. The polder (Dronten, Lelystad, Zeewolde) is flat emptiness, not very popular.