Day Trip to Zaanse Schans, Edam, Volendam and Marken from Amsterdam
The classic North Holland day, and by a wide margin the most-booked one here. Six and a half hours from behind Centraal Station. The Zaanse Schans windmills, the cheese town of Edam, a working cheese farm, the harbour at Volendam and the former island of Marken. The tastings are in the fare.
Four villages, six and a half hours, one coach
Four villages on one ticket
The Zaanse Schans, Edam, Volendam and Marken, plus a cheese farm at Katwoude in between.
Cheese and local tastings included
Cheese, cookies, fruit and wine are in the fare rather than sold to you at each stop.
An optional canal cruise at the end
Add an hour on the Amsterdam canals with an audio guide when you book, finishing at Centraal Station.
Forty-five minutes at the windmills
Stated plainly, because it is the trade-off: this is a tour of the region with the mills as its first stop.
The lowest full-day fare here
Six and a half hours, four villages and a guide, for less than most half-day minibuses cost.
What a four-village day is really for
This is not a windmill tour, and reading it as one is how people end up disappointed. It is a tour of rural North Holland: the polder, the dikes, the fishing villages and the cheese trade. It opens at the Zaanse Schans because that is the best-known face of all of it.
Understood that way it is an unusually good day. You cross the Waterland polders. You walk a cheese town that has made Edam since the Middle Ages. You get an hour on a working harbour front, then the causeway onto Marken, an island until 1957. Book it for the region and you will enjoy it. Book it for the windmills and forty-five minutes will not be enough. The reviews page carries both views.
The forty-five minutes, and how to spend them
Forty-five minutes at the Zaanse Schans is enough for one thing done well and not two. The sensible plan: walk the Kalverringdijk as far as the paint mill De Kat for the photograph, then the Catharina Hoeve cheese demonstration, which is free and runs continuously.
Do not start a windmill. The climb, the look round and the way down is twenty-five minutes, and you will spend the rest of the stop watching the clock. The map page has a route built for this length of stop.
The day, stop by stop
- Board the coach behind Amsterdam Centraal.
- Forty-five minutes at the Zaanse Schans.
- Cheese town of Edam.
- Tasting at the Simonehoeve cheese farm.
- An hour in the harbour at Volendam.
- Cross the causeway to Marken.
- Optional canal cruise back at Centraal Station.
Who this suits, and who should book something else
This one is for you if: A first trip to the Netherlands, where the point is the country outside Amsterdam rather than one village in depth. It also suits anybody weighing value hard. Six and a half hours, four villages, a guide and the tastings for a fare in the low forties is difficult to beat. More people have booked this one than anything else here.
Book something else if: Anyone who came for the windmills. Forty-five minutes will not get you inside one, and travellers say so repeatedly in almost the same words. If the mills are the reason you are going, the small-group half-day gives you two and a half hours there, with the entrance included. It also gets you back to Amsterdam sooner.
What the fare covers, and what it does not
In the fare
- Transfer by coach.
- Professional guide.
- Tasting of local cheese and other regional products.
- One-hour Amsterdam canal cruise with audio guide, if that option is chosen.
Not in the fare
- Food and drinks unless specified.
- Hotel pickup and drop-off.
Where the coach leaves from
Amsterdam (De Ruijterkade 151, beside the Aloha bowling alley). Every day out of Amsterdam names its own corner. Zaanse Schans windmill tours gather at four different points behind Centraal Station, and several collect from a hotel door instead. Getting there sets out where each of them puts you.
Know before you go
- Look for the blue umbrellas. The coach leaves from the bus stop at De Ruijterkade 151, by the Aloha bowling alley on the riverside. Arrive fifteen minutes early — it leaves on time.
- Hotel pickup is not included. You make your own way to De Ruijterkade, which is a five-minute walk behind Centraal Station.
- Choose the cruise when you book. The one-hour Amsterdam canal cruise is an option added at booking, not a decision you make on the day.
- A lot of walking. Four villages in a day on flat ground, about two miles in total. Wear something you can cover that distance in.
- It is a full coach. Fifty travellers is the cap and the vehicle is a double-decker, which is tight if you are tall. Sit downstairs.
- Food is not included. Beyond the tastings you buy your own. Volendam harbour is the place to do it, and its souvenirs cost less than the ones at the mills.
The four villages on this route
What travellers said about this coach day
The best-value tour I have been on. Rob gave real detail and the five stops were varied. I came away understanding something about the country's history and its water management, and there were photographs everywhere.
joe_b · August 2026
Rob was excellent and I learned a great deal about Holland. It is a very full day and we were ready for a nap afterwards. The one drawback is that you only really get forty-five minutes at each place.
Lily_K · September 2026
Rob was knowledgeable and friendly and the time at each stop felt about right. One tip: buy your souvenirs in Volendam, where they are considerably cheaper.
Kellie_C · August 2026
Fast-paced, and we saw a lot of different places. We would have liked more time at the Zaanse Schans, and did not think Marken added much.
Ragan_K · August 2026
Frequently asked questions
How long do I get at the Zaanse Schans?
Is the canal cruise included?
Do I need a ticket for the Zaanse Schans itself?
What is included in the tastings?
Is there hotel pickup?
Can I cancel?
Other ways to reach the windmills
- Zaanse Schans Windmills, Clogs and Dutch Cheese Small-Group Tour from Amsterdam
- Giethoorn, Afsluitdijk, Zaanse Schans Day Tour Incl Hotel Pick Up
If four villages in six and a half hours sounds rushed, the ten-hour minibus day trades Edam and Marken for two hours at the windmills and four in Giethoorn.
Zaanse Schans Tours has all of them in one grid, with prices, group caps and how long each one gives you on the dike.