Zaanse Schans Tour: Windmills, Cheese Tasting & Traditional Crafts From Amsterdam

Immerse yourself in Dutch culture with a Zaanse Schans tour from Amsterdam. Explore historic windmills, taste delicious cheese, and witness traditional crafts in action.

Duration: 3 hours, 30 minutes
Cancellation: 1 day learn more
Highlights
  • Zaanse Schans - The windmill village Zaanse Schans is an open air museum that houses a collection of working windmills, wooden houses, barns and shops dating back to the 18th and 19th Century. All these buildings were brought here from 1961 on, bringing back to life this most prosperous period of the Zaan region.
What's Included
  • Multi-lingual guided tour
  • Optional Amsterdam Canal Cruise
  • Dutch cheese tasting at a cheesefarm
  • Clog museum visit and wooden shoe demonstration
What's Not Included
  • Food and drinks
  • Hotel pickup and drop-off
  • Entry fee inside windmills at Zaanse Schans
Additional Information

Come and explore the picturesque windmill village, Zaanse Schans. In a short span of time, immerse yourself in everything that represents the culture of the Dutch. Witness the functioning windmills of the Zaanse Schans and the green timbered houses and stores. Gain knowledge about the process of cheese creation and observe the traditional artisans crafting clogs and other objects. A qualified, well-versed and amicable tour guide will escort you across the village before you are given free time to wander and discover more on your own.

Location
De Ruijterkade 105
De Ruijterkade
From the front of the Amsterdam Central Station, turn to your left and walk in the eastern direction. Keep on walking and cross the bridge. Walk until you reach the Hilton hotel. Turn left and follow the walkway underneath the railway crossing. Check-in inside Grand Cafe 1884
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
4.1
(518 Ratings)
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Staceyl_s
Aug 7, 2024
LOVELY!!! - The windmills were beautiful and the shopping experience was top notch. We wished that we had more time to spend. One could do an entire day!
Review provided by Viator
Kathline_l
Aug 4, 2024
Windmills - Picture perfect day, felt like I was looking at a postcard, so beautiful. Despite some crowds, was a easy tour.
Review provided by Viator
Geoff_u
Jul 29, 2024
A good day out - Opportunity to see the operation of windmills, seeing how cligs were made and tasting local cheeses. Yolanda our guide was terrific.
Review provided by Viator
Kim_d
Jul 27, 2024
Fun place to visit. - I really loved visiting the cheese factory. The cheese tasting was awesome! It was also fun to go to Zaanse Shans (you have to try the strupwaffles!) and see how wooden shoes are made. We didn't have as much time there as we would have liked, but we were on a cruise ship and had to get back to the ship, which was quite about 40-50 minutes away, so we had to choose a visit that fit within our time budget. This one is good if you have time constraints, but if you don't you may want to choose one where you can visit a little longer.
Review provided by Viator
Megan_g
Jul 26, 2024
A must when visiting Amsterdam! - This was the perfect tour for my family. I have two young children, they even enjoyed it. I would especially recommend it if you don’t have a lot of time in Amsterdam and want to learn and experience more of Hollands history and culture. Not only did we see wooden clogs being made, learned about the process of making cheese and tasting cheese, saw real windmills, and more…our tour guide educated us on both Hollands history and current Holland on our way to and from the city.
Review provided by Viator
Aliceh
Aug 4, 2024
Zaanse is a must if you’re visiting Brussels - Great way to see the windmills in Zaanse and enjoyed the wooden shoe demonstration. The cheese tour was nice too but we were hoping for it to be more of a tour of the cheese factory and instead it was just a presentation of how cheese is made.
Review provided by Viator
Lori_m
Aug 4, 2024
Dutch Traditions in a Single Day - Overall, this was a very good tour. Lots of history and invaluable experiences in the Dutch traditions. Finding the meeting point was a bit tricky (the guide stood outside pretty prominently to help) and we weren't prepared to separately book the follow-on canal cruise. It's probably a good thing that the canal cruise is booked separately because you didn't have to do it the same day if you didn't want to - more flexibility. I do recommend - it's a great way to experience a lot of Holland in just one day.
Review provided by Viator
871thip
Aug 2, 2024
Good overview of the Dutch countryside near Amsterdam. - Good overview of the Dutch countryside near Amsterdam. Discovery and tasting at the cheese factory Demonstration of the manufacture of hooves. Beautiful views of the canal and mills. Guide and driver accommodating and friendly. Anecdotes and local stories. I recommend.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Carrie_d
Jul 23, 2024
Short easy tour, worth the price for the experience - Wonderful, easy trip to the see the Netherlands countryside. This trip definitely does not need to be any longer, its plenty of time in this area. It is a crowded village atmosphere, but that was expected. We got great pictures and well-worth the experience for the price. I did book an English-speaking tour and the tour was then given and repeated in 3-4 languages, since there were non-English speaking people who booked the tour as well. I would have no issues if the tour was described as multi-language, but it was not.
Review provided by Viator
Soniayalejandrot
Jul 27, 2024
Dismal customer orientation - We are a couple with a little girl, we arrived in Amsterdam last Monday and left tomorrow, we hired several tours with tour company, the last one was today at 11.30, the visit to Zaanse, we hired her at 11.30 because she was the only one in thatpol, being already in Amsterdam, they send us a Mail saying that there are not enough people and offers to change the tour at 10:30 or 2:30, we don't speak English, but we more or less understood it and replied that at 2:30, subsequently, she sends us another email saying that the 2:30 Tour is only in German and English, this Mail we read this morning, since logically we are on vacation and we don't look at the mail continuously and we assumed that everything was already OK... we have asked please cancel the tour since we don't speak English and also the girl was going to be very bored not understanding anything, she has told us that it can only be canceled 24 hours before, we have explained again that we have just seen the mail since we are not looking at the email all the time, and that we also don't understand what they tell us since they reply in English and they have repeated the same thing to us that must be done 24 hours before, the truth has very little customer orientation and very bad business management with clients who are giving you explanations and who have also hired several tours with you, a zero for tour company!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
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up to 15 guests
1 Adult
September 2024
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