Zaanse Schans Windmills, Marken and Volendam Half-Day Trip from Amsterdam

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Leave Amsterdam behind for a few hours and discover the typical Dutch countryside outside the capital. You'll drive through a picture-perfect landscape crisscrossed with canals, see authentic wooden houses, windmills and fishing villages, and witness traditional crafts from days gone by. The picturesque village of Zaanse Schans is famous for its original buildings, vividly capturing Dutch life in the 17th and 18th centuries. You'll see the historic shipyard and windmills, and pay a visit to a shoemaker who works with wood to watch his clog-making techniques first-hand!

Next, you'll travel to the world-famous fishing villages of Volendam and Marken, on the coast of the former Zuiderzee (now called Ijselmeer). The old wooden houses here are built on stilts and locals still wear their colorful traditional dresses. Then, take a 20-minute boat trip from Volendam to Marken, with approximately 45 minutes at each stop (summer only). The cruise is optional but is included in the cost of the tour.

During the day you'll also stop at one of the few farms where cheese is still made in the traditional way.

6-Hour tour departing at 12:30pm
This option was created based on customer feedback to offer an alternative itinerary and longer tour duration. The afternoon tour at 12:30pm is 6 hours in duration. It visits the windmill village of "Zaanse Schans" and the towns of Marken and Volendam. However, this tour gives you more time at all 3 locations.

USD $45.81

Traveler Reviews

Review by: Joanne A	April 2012
This is a great tour! Definitely worth the money.

Review by: Elizabeth T	April 2012
Tour guide was fantastic! She had a lot of knowledge and found the time to talk with everyone on the tour. She was great! Tour bus was extremely warm, especially upstairs.

Review by: DCocking	April 2012
Good trip except more organistion around entrance to the cheese demonstration would have improved this part of the trip immensely. Because we were held up trying to get through we had little time to explore others areas around the village.

Review by: elizabeth G	April 2012
Great day out with lots to see. The guide was fantastic and everything was as I hoped for.

Review by: Michael R	April 2012
Well planned and executed. Tour guide was personable and knowledgeable. The boat trip was an unexpected bonus._br/_ Will recommend to friends.

Review by: rrripp	April 2012
There were too many people on this tour for one guide. It was a double decker bus that was full. Most of the time we could not hear her at stops and on some stops we couldn't get close to what she was describing. The stops would have been excellent and enjoyable with fewer people. The bus was on time but we felt rushed at each stop. We returned an hour earlier than we were scheduled to return.

Review by: Rukshna K	April 2012
Very pretty and worth visiting.

Review by: Raushan R	April 2012
The highlights: trip to picturesque village of Maarken. Very knowledgable and friendly tour guide. trip to wind mill village of zaans schans. Shoemaking and cheese factory. Lowlights: Only 45 mins at Zaans Schaans which was very disappointing. We could not at all enjoy our trip to this beautiful place. Dont know why we went to Volendam. Absolutely nothing to see.

Review by: Wesley G	April 2012
beautiful country side.....the windmills were awesome and the cheese was to die for, especially the smoked cheese......excelllent guide.....Viator is an excellent group to book with

Review by: ROSLI M	April 2012
Worth every Euro spent! Best way to see Holland other than Amsterdam for a short trip to the country.

Review by: Bruce G	March 2012
Unfortunately, not what I expected at all. This ended up being a huge group multiple bus tour, extremely formulaic, not personalized whatsoever, and we often walked to areas and by buildings with no information or history or talk presented at all. The destinations, while pretty, were touristy beyond belief. In spite of taking the extended time tour, things were rushed and we were often herded along as well. Not something I would recommend at all, but the saving grace was the last stop at the Zaanse Schans Windmills...a beautiful quaint picturesque village with good views of the windmills and cottages there. Again, we were rushed through and did not have enough time to stop in the shops or grab a beverage, as they were all closing by the time our group finished our walk at the windmills. Overall, this tour was a huge disappointment.

Review by: Susan J	March 2012
One of our favourite days on our European tour. So many great photo opps and time to explore in the villages. Take this tour!!!

Review by: Stephen N	March 2012
The tour provides a great overview of the history of this part of Holland, the guides are knowledgable and friendly, and is very affordable. Highly recommend, especially if you haven't seen Holland outside of Amsterdam.

Review by: Spencer	March 2012
We enjoyed this excursion. It was worth the cost and gave a great snapshot of what you'd expect traditional Amsterdam to be. Young teenagers actually felt the same and they also enjoyed it. Great variety of activity/sites and the day flowed nicely. Bus was comfortable, guide spoke 5 languages, friendly and accomodating staff. One thing, be aware that when you purchase tickets to access inside of windmills they are all individual. We were under impression that when we purchased our tickets, it would give access to all but they're all sold separately. Still recommend seeing the inside of the seed oil windmill. Very interesting. All in all, recommend the excursion.

Review by: Patrick P	March 2012
Very nice and Very informative. I highly recommend this tour!

Review by: Jason L	March 2012
Nothing

Review by: Raja J	March 2012
Very good trip. A lot seen in half a day. Cheese factory, Clog factory and windmills. A wonderful guide was the icing on the cake. Definitely recommended.

Review by: Mei Yee C	March 2012
A different kind of experience from the urban environment.

Review by: mnagy	February 2012
that trip was the best part of my vacation in Amsterdam

Review by: Deedee	February 2012
The weather was not great but the tour was still wonderful.

Review by: jennifer m	February 2012
It was okay, convenient. Since we didn't rent car, tour filled gap. Would have liked more 'free' time in Volendam. Bus clean, staff friendly and engaging. Orderly. Zaanse Schans Windmills and cheese farm were nice. Marken was the clog factory, neat demonstration of clog making.

Review by: Lim J	February 2012
At the 1st stop at windmills, bus did'nt come back in time. We stand at carpark and the weather was so cold. However, the guide explained to us the reason why he is came later. For the snack at Volendam, the shop was not able to serve so many people and put my order at the last. Anyway, overall it is a nice half day trip.

Review by: PAULO M	January 2012
The Dutch countryside is beautiful and the trip is a pleasure. The organization and timing is almost perfect, it would be better to have more time to walk around.

Review by: Ivana B	January 2012
Good value for the money.

Review by: Aman G	January 2012
Was a great trip. Time allotted for each place was enough to be able to catch all the sites. One issue was primarily with seating on the bus. The bus was at full capacity and there was a group of adults who held up leaving because they all wanted to sit together, even though the distances between each place were not long. Assigning seat numbers or making it clear in the beginning to sit in the seat you started the trip in for the entirety of the journey could avoid such issues in the future.

Review by: Marjorie E	January 2012
Good half day tour! Got to see 3 lovely Holland countryside, the audiotour is good, very informative, aside from one occasion when it repeated a description of a place that we've already been to. Other than that, the driver corrects it sometimes. Tour bus is comfortable.

Review by: Lucas R	January 2012
I L.O.V.E.D this tour. It's worth A LOT... I didn't like amsterdam so this tour made me love Netherlands.

Review by: DR AINOL	December 2011
Good tour, guide knowledgable but unaware or did not inform us there was an old windmill operating in the Zaanse Schans area at 3 euros for adults and 1.50 euros for kids. A must see experience in amsterdam.

Review by: RAYMOND	December 2011
Great deal.

Review by: masterjee	December 2011
Short and sweet. Everything went smoothly. We enjoyed the stops although weather conditions were not conducive for leisurely walks.

Review by: john z	December 2011
We arrived at the office 25 minutes before departure and asked the lady in the office where do we go to pick up the caoch. They seemed rather pre-occupied and finally said it is the red coach outside. i said there are two red coaches waiting outside. Which one I asked is it. Bothe ladies did not know; so I asked the rather well built man who was in the shop with a mobile phone, the same question. he was rude and waved his hand saying the first one the first one.

Review by: Bob P	November 2011
Hi, I took the Zaanse Schans trip and I really enjoyed it. You get earphones to hear tourist commentary. It's nice to get a drive around real Holland. Good windmill pics and enjoyed Marken (island) and fish and chips at Volendam. A half day is long enough. Thanks!

Review by: Matthew L	November 2011
OK tour, but crowded. Double decker bus packed full.

Review by: Kim H	November 2011
Really enjoyed this tour - the only problem was that there were too many people on one bus and this caused problems when it come to seeing the cheese factory and clog factory - as areas not big enough - but loved it overall

Review by: Carmen M	November 2011
what a great afternoon of touring, lots of information on the dutch way of life lots of stops great scenery comfortable bus and a pretty good tour guide. all good and highly recommend this tour

Review by: Frenchy	October 2011
We left Amsterdam in the morning to travel out to the counrtyside which was great to see some other parts of the Netherlands. Very interesting guide with lots of information!!!

Review by: Lynne H	October 2011
We really enjoyed seeing the country side of Amsterdam. Wished we could've spent more time in Marken, but overall we really loved this excursion

Review by: Bruce J	October 2011
Transportation for the tour was on a doubledecker bus. There were head phones with a choice of languages. Zaanse Schans was beautiful and the time to see the cheese making process and windmills was adequate. In Marken we were left to have lunch on our own and walk around the city. We then took a boat to Volendam to the wooden shoe factory. This part of the tour felt rushed as the factory was ready to close....we waited outside 20 minutes for the bus.

Review by: Lilly	October 2011
It was a nice trip to see the Netherlands' countryside. However, we had to listen to the pre-recorded things on the bus, the tour guide didn't say anything. When she took us around the fishing village, she didn't explain anything, we just went around aimlessly by ourselves. In the Zaanse Schans windmills village, we didn't get to see inside the windmills and hands-on explanation on how they work. The last one was just a clog factory, nothing special ('cos we went to 1 b4)

Review by: PG K	October 2011
Very enjoyable and informative. Lady guide was excellent.

Review by: Janet G	September 2011
We really enjoyed driving through the scenic dutch countryside and seeing the windmills at Zaanse Schans. Volendam was a charming seaside town. The boat ride from Volendam to Marken was very nice. In Marken we saw a wooden shoe making demonstration which was a bit touristy. The trip called for 30 minutes in Volendam and 1 hour in Marken. There really was not much to see in Marken. I would suggest spending 1 hour in Volendam and only 30 numutes in Marken.

Review by: Donald T	September 2011
very enjoyable

Review by: Nads	September 2011
It was a lovely trip but somewhat rushed...wished we had a little more time at each location. There was a lovely street fair with vendors and we couldn't stop to look because we had to keep up with the lady with the umbrella (tour leader). It was a good way to see the countryside and I would definitely do it again!!!

Review by: E David E	September 2011
The trip was very informative and the sites visited were excellent unfortunately, the guide left much to be desired.

Review by: Vicki C	September 2011
Excellent side trip from Amsterdam. Really gives you a sense of Old Holland. Cheese and wooden shoe making were so very interesting. Enjoyed it immensely. Guide was excellent!!

Review by: Abhi	September 2011
Great half day trip to see everything Amsterdam has to offer. Highly recommended, we had a great time right from the windmill to the shoe factory.

Review by: Nancy G	September 2011
Windmills were great to see. The sampling of the cheese was the best! Enjoyed the ferry ride. Highly recommend!

Review by: Athanasios G	September 2011
Very short stops ,not enough time, had to rush everything, not suitable for small children. (Small children cant walk fast.)

Review by: Joy O, Australia	August 2010
overall the trip was worthwhile and very informative, although a little rushed to get it all done in the allcoated time. For a quick overview of these places it was very good.

Review by: Judy N, United States of America	June 2010
Enjoyed this trip very much but definitely reccomend the 5.5 hour trip that we took since even then more time in Volendam would have been great. Also would have liked more time in that little shop in Marken but then I'm a dedicated shopper!! Both the cheese farm and shoe factory were very interesting.