A Zaanse Schans private tour buys three things a shared day cannot: nobody else in the booking, a pickup from your own door, and a route you can bend. What it does not buy is more time at the windmills. Zaanse Schans windmill tours include the shared half-days and the coach tours as well; the three below are the private ones.
Seven hours, hotel pickup, and a windmill entry in the fare. Five stops after the Zaanse Schans: Edam, a cheese farm, Monnickendam harbour and the wooden church at Broek in Waterland. Capped at seven, minimum age seven.
From $355 per person
Four to five hours in a private car or van, split between two stops at the Zaanse Schans and an hour on the Volendam waterfront. Infant seats available, and the guide will extend the day by the hour for €85.
From $312 per person
One fare for the whole party up to four, rather than a price each. Seven hours from the Zaanse Schans to Edam, a cheese farm, Volendam and Marken, with the driver doubling as your guide.
From $823 per group
Zaanse Schans Tours lists the shared and coach days alongside these, and the comparison guide works through which shape of day suits which traveller.
A car or a van, a driver who is also your guide, and four to seven hours that belong to your party. You are collected from your Amsterdam hotel rather than finding a meeting point behind Centraal Station, and the route is a proposal rather than a timetable.
What it is not is privileged access. The village is freely accessible with no gate and no admission fee, so a private guide takes you through exactly the same non-existent door as everybody else. What they buy you is the ordering of the day.
The shared days here cap at 8, 10, 15, 16, 18, 19, 29 and 50 travellers. On a private day the cap is your own party, which on a narrow dike and a steep mill stair is a different experience rather than a nicer one.
All three include hotel pickup in Amsterdam, and one also serves Schiphol. Every shared day here meets at a fixed point on the De Ruijterkade or the Oosterdoksstraat, at a time you have to be there for.
Longer at the mills and shorter at the cheese farm, or the other way round. One listing sells extra hours outright at €85 each, paid to the guide, if the day is going well and you want more of it.
Two of the three are priced per traveller and one quotes a single fare for the whole group up to four people. For a family of four that is comfortably the cheapest private day available, and it is easy to miss on a price-sorted list.
This is the comparison that decides it, and it is closer than the price gap suggests. The shared half-day gives you longer at the windmills than two of the three private days do.
| A private tour | A shared half-day | |
|---|---|---|
| Fare | From $312 a person, or $823 a party of four | From $32 a person |
| Who is with you | Only your party | Up to 16 on a minibus |
| Pickup | Your hotel door | A fixed point behind Centraal Station |
| At the Zaanse Schans | 1h30 to 2h | 2h30 on the longest |
| Other stops | Edam, Volendam, Marken, Monnickendam | None — the village and back |
| Route changes | Yes, and extra hours can be bought | No |
| Windmill entry | Included on one of the three | Included on one |
| Total length | 4 to 7 hours | 3h30 |
Compare the Zaanse Schans tours
If more time at the mills is what you want, a shared half-day gives it to you for a tenth of the money. If a car, a door-to-door pickup and four villages are what you want, a private day is the only thing here that does it.
Fares run from about $312 a person to $823 for a whole party of up to four, and those two numbers are not comparable until you divide the second one.
| Tour | Fare | Length | At the mills | Cap | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amsterdam private tour to windmills, cheese farm and villages | From $355 | 7 hours | 2 hours | Your party | Book |
| Zaanse Schans and Volendam Private Tour – Clogs, Cheese and More | From $312 | 4 to 5 hours | 1 hour 30 minutes | Your party | Book |
| Private Excursion to Zaanse Schans, Edam, Volendam and Marken | From $823 | 7 hours | 1 hour 30 minutes | Your party | Book |
Book a Zaanse Schans private tour
Two things fall out of that table. For a party of four the per-party fare works out around $206 a head, which undercuts both per-person private days. And the longest private day gives two hours at the Zaanse Schans, half an hour less than the longest shared one — you are buying the other four villages, not the windmills.
Book a week ahead in the high season. These are single vehicles with single drivers and they are gone before the coaches fill.