Gouda Cheese Experience Entry Tickets Gouda

Inside the giant cheese

The Gouda Cheese Experience is housed inside an enormous wheel of Gouda, and the playful design sets the tone from the moment you step in. A short show introduces the world of Gouda cheese, from the cows on the polders to the farmers and traders who made it famous, before you move on through a series of rooms that follow the life of a cheese.

The visit takes about one to one and a half hours at your own pace, with texts and interactive displays rather than a guide. Gouda Cheese Experience tickets are sold for timed entry slots every 15 minutes from morning to late afternoon, so you can plan it around a walk through the city.

Interactive cheesemaking and the tasting

The heart of the exhibition is hands-on. Try your skill at virtual milking, discover how the curd is pressed into moulds, and turn the heavy wheels the way cheesemakers do while the cheese ripens for weeks, months or even years. You also learn handjeklap, the old way traders sealed a deal by clapping hands while bargaining over the price.

At the end you follow a wheel of cheese from the farm to the market and finally to you, and taste the result: real Gouda, the cheese locals call yellow gold. Young Gouda is mild and creamy, while aged Gouda becomes firm, nutty and crystalline, and the tasting helps you understand the difference.

Gouda, the city of cheese

Gouda cheese is named after the city because, for centuries, farmers from the surrounding countryside brought their cheeses here to be weighed and traded. The weigh house, De Waag, built in 1668 with a relief showing cheese being weighed, still stands near the Markt, and from April to August the traditional cheese market takes place on the square on Thursday mornings.

In the middle of the Markt stands the Gothic Town Hall from the mid-fifteenth century, one of the oldest in the Netherlands, with its red shutters and pointed spires. Nearby, the Sint-Janskerk is the longest church in the country and famous for its sixteenth-century stained-glass windows. Gouda is also the birthplace of the stroopwafel, the thin caramel waffle you will see in every bakery.

Planning your visit to Gouda

Many travellers ask how to get to Gouda: the city lies in South Holland, easy to reach by direct train from Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht in about 20 minutes, and from Amsterdam in under an hour. From the station it is a pleasant ten-minute walk to the historic centre and the Gouda Cheese Experience.

The best time to visit Gouda is on a Thursday morning between April and August, when you can combine your ticket with the cheese market. A visit makes an easy half-day trip: the exhibition and tasting, a walk around the Markt and the Town Hall, a look at the church windows and a fresh stroopwafel before you head back.