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Since I was visiting Amsterdam on my own, I’d been able to hit just about every tourism site that I was interested in with minimal fuss. Having ended up with a free day, I decided to take a tour out of the city to explore the area in more detail.
I had originally wanted to take a day trip to Bruges, but the tour wasn’t available when I was looking to travel. Don’t worry- I made it to Bruges on a separate trip few years later.
Instead, I ended up on a tour of the Dutch countryside and visited Zaanse Schans, Edam, and Volendam.
The tour started off bright and early with a departure point in central Amsterdam. As per usual, I fell asleep the second the bus started to move and woke up confused and disoriented in the beautiful town of Volendam- a cute little place on the edge of a lake so massive it looked like the sea. We had a short guided tour here, and then some free time to explore some of the narrow streets, or to pick up a snack at one of the lakefront shops.
Our next stop was a similarly beautiful town called Edam, which featured canals rather than a lake. Edam is famous for its cheese and although its famous market was not open on our visit, we did stop by the square where it takes place. Since there wasn’t much going on in Edam during our winter visit, this was only a quick stop before heading over to a cheese farm.
Our stop at Henri Willig’s Alida Hoeve shop included an interesting tour through the farm before a cheese making demonstration. We were treated to some cheese samples at the end of our visit and I took my life into my hands by devouring all the provided options rather than politely declining due to my lactose intolerance. It was worth it! Visitors are, of course, welcome to purchase any cheese that they wanted to take home with them.
The last stop on our tour took us to Zaanse Schans. This neighborhood is best known for its collection of windmills and relocated wooden houses. Although people do live here, the bus-loads of tourists and the 18th and 19th century-style houses did have the area feeling a bit like an interactive museum.
Still, there was plenty to do during my visit. We stopped into a massive souvenir shop to watch a clog making demonstration. It took the master about five minutes flat to carve out the clog- talk about a professional! Apparently wooden clogs are still regularly used on farms, but I have a hard time believing that shoes made out of wood could be comfortable!
After the demonstration, I browsed through the rest of the souvenirs before popping into the Bakery Museum to pick up a pastry to snack on- my favorite of Zaanse Schans’ seven museums.
I spent most of my time in town taking pictures of the pretty windmills- of the four in town, two of them are original to Zaanse Schans. I just thought they were so neat! One of the windmills hosted a shop and therefore allowed free entry to see the inner workings of the windmill. It was cool to see the “mill” part up close!
Once this visit was completed, we were all gathered up and brought back to the bus to head back to Amsterdam.
At just under 7 hours, this trip is a lot shorter than my typical day trips- I count myself lucky if my day trips end up shorter than ten hours at this point! It was nice to still have time to run around the city after my tour, but keep in mind that with the short run time and the number of stops, the tour is pretty fast paced. It was also a little touristy, but hey- I’m a tourist.
I did feel like there was a good mix of guided tours and free time- I was able to get a feel for the area on my own, while still learning about the history and the culture of the area from my guide.
I particularly liked the stops in Volendam and Edam- places I never would have visited on my own, but that I found so cute!
If you’re looking for a nice day out of Amsterdam, I recommend giving this tour a look:
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