Windmills, tulips and Dutch villages. Netherlands.
Are you ready to embark on a charming journey through picturesque Dutch villages? Today we present an itinerary that will take you to discover the magic of Volendam, Zaanse Schans, Marken, Edam and the impressive Keukenhof park.
Many of these tours are included in the excursion to Volendam, Marken, Edam and Zaanse Schans with an English-speaking guide, which can be an excellent option from Amsterdam.
Indice:
Keukenhof Park
We arrive at the impressive Keukenhof Park, known as the Garden of Europe. With more than 7 million flower bulbs planted each year, this park is a true floral paradise.
We were amazed by the explosion of colours of the tulips, daffodils, hyacinths and other flowers that adorn its extensive gardens.
Without a doubt, a place where spring comes to life in the most spectacular way.
As we said, this visit can only be made during the tulip season, we planned this trip with that in mind. The park will open in 2025 on March 20th until May 11th.
You can visit it with transport + entrance to Keukenhof from Amsterdam or on an excursion from Amsterdam to Keukenhof with an English-speaking guide.
It is about 40 kilometers from Amsterdam, you can spend the whole day here since it is quite large, although it is estimated that it will take an average of 3 hours, but I can tell you that once inside the time will fly by, especially if you are a flower lover, so this can be an excellent option to do from Ámsterdam.
We did the whole tour by car, but you can also go on your own by bus from Amsterdam, also with the bus + ticket package or on a tour for a more relaxed experience.
We now continue our journey along these tulip-filled roads. As we said, we planned our visit to the Netherlands to coincide with the tulip season. This depends a lot on the weather conditions, but approximately from the end of March to mid-May. We chose April.
We will now head towards a place with windmills, Zaanse Schans, but first we will pass through a city, Haarlem, 20 kilometres from the park.
Haarlem
Haarlem, a city full of charm and culture, is our next destination. You can enjoy its beautiful canals, its impressive historical buildings and its vibrant atmosphere. But being a city we have to dedicate more time than just a few hours. You can take the train, it is 30 kilometers from Amsterdam.
Zaanse Schans
Our next destination is Zaanse Schans, a place where time seems to have stopped. Here you can admire the famous Dutch windmills and immerse yourself in the history and culture of this beautiful country.
You have an excursion to Zaanse Schans where you can discover this wonderful place.
Zaanse Schans is an open-air museum of the Netherlands’ pre-industrial past and has a collection of historic mills, most more than 200 years old that are still in use. We will find here, as in all the Netherlands, many cheese factories, I advise you to enter, the Dutch cheeses are delicious, you will find a great variety and all the houses have tasting.
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You can also visit a mill inside to see how it worked. It is true that there are many tourists, it receives almost a million a year but this does not take away from the charm of this area.
There is no cost to access the entire mill area, if you want to visit one inside, the price is €6.
You can get to this area on your own by bus from Amsterdam Central, or if you want to go more relaxed take an excursion as we said or you also have the option of going by boat from Amsterdam to the mills of Zaanse Schans.
Volendam
The hours told us that it was time to stop and continue the journey the next day. So we headed towards Volendam, about 25 kilometres away. As you can see, all the journeys are very short, but with a magnificent charm.
We begin our tour in Volendam, a charming fishing village known for its colorful houses and traditional atmosphere.
Don’t miss the opportunity to explore its picturesque streets, it’s a beautiful town!
Without many directions to give, just walk along the seafront and you will quickly notice that words are superfluous. You can get here from Amsterdam by bus on your own, or as I told you in the previous section, book a tour.
As you can see, we were really enjoying this tour, and this time, unlike the previous one, we chose to stay in Volendam to rest and continue the next day with two more towns, which are very close.
We chose the Hotel Spaander it was a very good option, highly recommended. And in the evening we had dinner a short walk away at T HavenGat, it was super good too.
Marken
A new day and we would visit Marken. Here we had two options: going by car or by ferry, although the latter was the most tempting of the two. It was early and there was still quite a bit of time before the first one left, so it was better to go by car and wait for them in Marken.
But I still think that doing it by ferry from Voldendam must be spectacular, the price of the same round trip is € 16 or € 10 one way.
We then continue our journey to Marken, about 15 kilometers, formerly an island and with a unique charm.
The place was once an island but was linked to the mainland by a fixed dike. Since the Middle Ages, Marken has lost about a third of its total area.
We were captivated by the wooden houses and the peaceful atmosphere. We arrived and they were decorating everything with great joy. The King’s birthday was just two days away and the whole of the Netherlands was preparing for the occasion.
If there is one thing you cannot forget, it is to travel with travel insurance. We are never free from something happening to us on our trip, from losing our luggage to a health problem, for all this we must be proactive and take out insurance that covers any setback.
It’s a great place to try delicious local cheese and enjoy the stunning coastal views!
The arrival of the ferry from Volendam makes us marvel at the image.
Time flew by in Marken, which is combined with Volendam and our next destination for a visit and once you arrive you immediately understand why. We had already been to all these places but they surprised us again.
Monnikendam
In all these short journeys you will discover more villages, sometimes not so named, such as this one, Monickendamm, which we would leave in passing, and continue towards Edam.
Edam
In Edam, you will discover the beauty of a town with a rich historical heritage. Walking through its cobbled streets, visiting the famous church of St. Nicholas and tasting the famous Edam cheese was an experience we did not want to miss!
The tour was beautiful, and getting lost walking is always the best plan.
The cheese market was held in Edam. During those years, local farmers would transport the cheese on board small boats and when the cheese was unloaded from the boat, the cheese carriers would take it to the market.
Since 1989, the cheese market has been revived as a tradition and a place of stalls for tourists. It is held during the months of July and August, on Wednesdays, a nice option if you are in Edam around that time.
Walking through its streets will take us, as we said, to the square where the cheese market is held, or to the town hall, or to its church. As you will have seen, all the places we visit are different, and all with characteristics that give them a very special charm. Adding them to a tour from Amsterdam is, I think, a must if you visit this area.
During the tour you will pass by some tulip fields, we only stopped at a few, but there are also places where you can visit.
The round trip if we had returned to Amsterdam would have been approximately 160 kilometers.
You can do all this by car as we did, it is a very good plan since you will organize your schedules. We rent by car at Discovercars.
Or you can also go on an excursion from Amsterdam with an English-speaking guide, you will be more relaxed. And I think that visiting some of the villages is a must from Amsterdam.
Have you seen our previous visit to these villages?
In our case we did not return to Amsterdam but continued our journey to Giethoorn, the so-called most beautiful village in the Netherlands, do you follow us on the tour?
Route map and video
NOTE: The information in this article is based on our own experience, being totally objective. This article contains affiliate links.
