Zaanse Schans Map and Layout

Hours, prices and access verified by the Zaanse Schans Tours team — last checked 2026-09-05

The Zaanse Schans is a grid of five named lanes along six hundred metres of dike. The three ways in land you at three different ends of it. That matters more than it sounds, because the guided days give you anywhere between forty-five minutes and two and a half hours on the ground.

Five lanes, and what is on each

Everything at the Zaanse Schans has a street address, and knowing which lane a thing is on is most of the navigation. There is no signage problem here — there is a “which of these is the paint mill” problem.

The Zaanse Schans, lane by lane

Lane	What stands on it
Kalverringdijk	the dike along the Zaan: De Huisman at 23, De Kat at 29, De Zoeker at 31, Het Jonge Schaap at 31a and De Bonte Hen at 39, plus the Windmill Museum at 30, Museum Zaanse Tijd at 3, Blik op Cacao at 25, the Albert Heijn Museum Shop at 5 and the Noorderhuis at 17
Zeilenmakerspad	the Catharina Hoeve cheese farm at 5, the Weaver’s House at 8 and the Bakery Museum at 4
Kraaienest	the clog workshop at 4 and the liqueur distillery de Tweekoppige Phoenix at 3
De Kwakels	Tiemstra’s Coopery at 2
Schansend	the car park, the information desk, the bus stop and the Zaans Museum, all at number 7

The windmills page takes the mills one at a time and the attractions page does the same for everything else.

Where each arrival drops you

Three entrances, three different first views, and no gate on any of them.

Bus 800 and the car park both put you at Schansend, at the south end, beside the Zaans Museum and the information desk. You walk in past the museum and the mill row builds in front of you.
The train leaves you at Zaandijk – Zaanse Schans, about 15 minutes away on the far side of the river. You cross the Julianabrug and arrive at the north end of the Kalverringdijk, with the whole panorama laid out to your right. It is the better arrival for photographs.
A guided day parks its coach or minibus at Schansend and walks you in from the same place as the bus.

Getting there has the times and fares for all of them.

The walk from end to end

Schansend to the last mill on the Kalverringdijk is about six hundred metres of flat, mostly gravel path, and about ten minutes at a steady walk without stopping. Nobody walks it without stopping.

The route that works goes like this. In past the Zaans Museum, then left along Zeilenmakerspad for the cheese farm and the bakery. Out onto the Kalverringdijk. Then north along the dike with the water on your left, past De Kat, De Zoeker, Het Jonge Schaap and De Bonte Hen. The clog workshop sits back on the Kraaienest, a minute inland.

Walk it in that order and you get the two free things early. That matters when your time is short, and you finish at the far end where the crowd thins. Walk it in reverse from the station and you meet the mills first. Better for photographs, worse for timing: the cheese farm and the clog workshop are then between you and the bus.

The surfaces are flat throughout, mostly gravel or brick, with wooden footbridges over two of the ditches. The one climb on the whole site is the stair inside a mill. It is steep, narrow and closer to a ladder than a staircase, and there is no lift in any of them. Nothing else here needs a hill.

Two things sit outside the six hundred metres and are worth the extra walk. The polder path carries on past the last mill into open fields. That is where the coach parties stop and the view opens out, over water and grass with the whole row behind you. And directly across the Zaan — by the pedestrian ferry or the Julianabrug — is Zaandijk, a real Zaan village of the same green houses with nobody photographing them.

What forty-five minutes buys

The stop that most of the four-village coach days give you. It is enough for one thing properly and a walk, and not enough for two.

Walk the Kalverringdijk as far as De Kat and back — that is the photograph.
The Catharina Hoeve cheese demonstration, which is free and runs continuously.
Nothing indoors beyond that. Do not start a mill.

What ninety minutes buys

Comfortably the whole outside of the village, and one interior.

The dike end to end, past all five mills that stand on it.
The cheese demonstration and the clog workshop, both free, twenty minutes each.
One windmill — De Kat at €7.50, which takes about twenty-five minutes including the climb.
Time for the bakery or the shops on the way back.

What two hours and more buys

The point at which the museums become possible, and the reason the long-stop tours cost what they do.

Everything in the ninety-minute list, unhurried.
One museum: the Zaans Museum takes an hour, the Windmill Museum about forty-five minutes, Museum Zaanse Tijd about the same.
Or a second mill instead — Het Jonge Schaap, the sawmill, is the one to pick.
At two and a half hours you can also walk out along the polder path beyond the last mill, which is where the crowds stop and the view opens.

Which day gives you which of these?

Every card states the time it gives you at the Zaanse Schans, because it is the number that decides what you can actually do here. It runs from forty-five minutes to two and a half hours.

See the Zaanse Schans tours Compare Zaanse Schans tours

Toilets, food and the information desk

Toilets at the De Bezem building by the main entrance, on the Schipperplein and on the Kalverringdijk. €1 a visit, card only.
The information desk is in the Zaans Museum at Schansend 7, open 09:00 to 17:00. It sells the Ticket Zaanse Schans and holds lost property.
Food is the pancake restaurant De Kraai, the bakery museum on the Zeilenmakerspad, and the cafe at the Zaans Museum. Almost no guided day includes lunch.
Step-free routes and accessible toilets are at De Bezem and the Zaans Museum. Of the mills only Het Jonge Schaap is wheelchair accessible and De Bonte Hen is accessible on its ground floor. The foundation publishes the detail.

Zaanse Schans windmill tours all arrive at the same end of the village. Any of them puts you a five-minute walk from the whole of the above, and Zaanse Schans Tours sets out how long each one gives you to use it.

Frequently asked questions

How long should you spend at the windmill village?

Ninety minutes covers the dike, the mill panorama, the cheese farm and the clog workshop at a walk. Two to three hours lets you go inside a windmill and a museum without hurrying. A whole day only makes sense if you are pairing it with Zaandam, or with a boat trip on the Zaan.

How long do the tours spend at the windmills?

Between 45 minutes and 2 hours 30, depending which one you book, and the difference is bigger than it sounds. The short stops belong to full-day tours of four North Holland villages, where the Zaanse Schans is the first of several. The long ones belong to tours whose whole subject is the village, and every card here states its own figure.

Are there toilets, and do they really cost money?

There are, and they do: €1 a visit, payable by card only, with no cash accepted. They are at the main entrance in the De Bezem building, on the Schipperplein, and on the Kalverringdijk. The takings go into the same pot as the parking, which maintains the buildings and the bridges.

Can I bring a dog?

Yes, on a lead. Whether a dog can come inside varies by building, and the museums do not allow them at all. The lanes, the dike and the meadows are no problem at all.

Can you go inside the houses?

Only the ones that are open as museums. Most of the timber houses at the Zaanse Schans are lived in, and the foundation asks visitors not to enter houses or gardens. The Noorderhuis, the Albert Heijn shop and the Weaver’s House are the ones you can walk into when they are open.

Can you take a boat trip at the Zaanse Schans?

You can. The foundation runs its own trips on the Zaan in season, and there is a small pedestrian ferry across to Zaandijk. None of the tours listed here sells a boat trip at the Zaanse Schans itself, though four of them include an hour on the water — at Giethoorn, two hours away.