Giethoorn, Volendam and Zaanse Schans Day Trip from Amsterdam

Zaanse Schans windmills and wooden houses

Your first stop, about 20 minutes from Amsterdam, is Zaanse Schans on the banks of the river Zaan. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the Zaan region was one of the first industrial areas in the world, powered by hundreds of wind-driven mills that sawed timber, pressed oil and ground spices, mustard and paint pigments. From the 1960s, historic wooden houses, workshops and mills from across the region were moved here to create a living heritage village.

Today the working mills still turn along the dyke, and the green-painted houses with white gables make one of the most photographed scenes in the country. A Zaanse Schans tour with a guide brings the story to life, and you have around one and three-quarter hours to see the mills from the riverside, browse the craft shops and take photos. Entry to the village grounds is open, while visits inside individual mills are optional.

Clog-making and cheese-making demonstrations

At Zaanse Schans you step into a clog workshop to see how traditional wooden shoes, or klompen, are shaped. Clogs were carved from poplar or willow for farmers, fishermen and factory workers because they kept feet dry in the wet polders, and a craftsman shows how a block of wood is turned into a shoe in minutes using machines that copy a model.

Next comes a cheese workshop, where you learn how Dutch cheeses such as Gouda and Edam are made, from curdling the milk to pressing the round wheels and ageing them for weeks or years. Cheese samples are included, from young and creamy to mature and crumbly, along with flavoured varieties with herbs or cumin. It is a hands-on, family-friendly stop and a good chance to buy vacuum-packed cheese that travels well.

Volendam fishing harbour and old streets

About 30 minutes north lies Volendam, a fishing village on the shore of the IJsselmeer that has welcomed visitors since the late nineteenth century. The lake was once the Zuiderzee, an open arm of the North Sea, until the Afsluitdijk dam closed it in 1932 and the salt water slowly turned fresh. Fishing boats still moor along the harbour, and the colourful wooden houses with their tiled gables line the dyke.

You have about one and a half hours of free time here. Stroll along the harbour front, look into the narrow lanes behind the dyke where houses sit below the water level, and try traditional fried fish or warm poffertjes from a street stall at your own cost. Is Volendam worth visiting? It gives you a real taste of the old Zuiderzee coast, and some families still wear the traditional costume with its winged lace cap on special days.

Giethoorn village and the canal cruise

After a scenic drive of about one and three-quarter hours, you reach Giethoorn in the province of Overijssel. The village was founded in the thirteenth century, and its canals were dug by peat cutters whose work also left the lakes and islands around it. Its old centre has no roads for cars, so gardens are linked by wooden arch bridges and boats are still the natural way to travel.

Here you spend about two and a half hours, including the canal cruise that is part of this Giethoorn day trip from Amsterdam. From the water you see the steep reed-thatched farmhouses, flower gardens and narrow side canals that earned it the nickname Venice of the North. After the cruise there is time to stroll the canal path, take photos from the bridges or sit at a waterside cafe before the drive back to Amsterdam.