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Zaanse Schans Windmills, Clogs and Dutch Cheese Small-Group Tour from Amsterdam

Recommended by 94% of travelers
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Viator Experience Award
High interest
Booked 10+ times today.
+3
  • 3 hours 30 minutes (approx.)
  • Mobile ticket
  • Offered in: English

Why travelers loved this

4.7
·
· Rodney_J ·
May 2026
We had a great tour! Got to see the more historic side of Amsterdam. Our guide Bianca was very knowledgeable about the area, windmills and local processors. We got to see the old fashion windmills, ate fresh cheese and sampled the local chocolate. It was a great way to cram in a few hours of the different side of Amsterdam. Highly recommend.
· Justin_R ·
Jun 2026
Bianca was our tour guide and she did a great job. We got out of the city and got to see some of the Dutch countryside. The Zaandijk village is super cool. You get to tour a working windmill, learn how Dutch cheese is made, and see a demonstration of wooden shoe making. It is a great way to get some culture and get out of the city.

Overview

Explore Zaanse Schans and the Dutch countryside this tour from Amsterdam. With an informative guide, admire the lush, canal-crossed Dutch landscape. Take a tour of pretty Zaanse Schans, famous for its wooden windmills and green-painted houses, and visit a cheese farm and clog-making workshop to learn about these traditional crafts. Lastly, visit a working windmill to learn about the role of windmills in the 17th-century Dutch Golden Age.
  • Perfect for first-time visitors to the Netherlands
  • All admission fees are included in the cost of the tour
  • Learn about the historical Zaans region from your guide
  • Round-trip shared transfers from Amsterdam are included

What's Included

  • Local guide
  • Round-trip shared transfer
  • Entrance fees
  • Food and drinks
  • Hotel pickup and drop-off
  • Gratuities

Meeting and Pickup

Meeting point

  • LOT61 Amsterdam Centraal Station
    Oosterdoksstraat 4, 1011 DK Amsterdam, Netherlands

    Meet your driver next to Amsterdam Centraal Station outside coffee store LOT61. Coffee store LOT61 is part of hotel DoubleTree by Hilton Amsterdam Centraal Station. Your tour guide will hold an orange umbrella.

End point

This activity ends back at the meeting point.

Itinerary

Your tour starts in Amsterdam, where you'll meet your guide at a meeting point near Amsterdam Central Station. Then head out to the Dutch countryside with a small group of fellow travelers until you reach the photogenic village of Zaanse Schans, listening to your guide tell you all about the region and its history along the way.

Once in Zaanse Schans, visit the Kooijman Souvenirs & Clogs Wooden Shoe Workshop to see quintessential Dutch footwear being made before continuing to Molen De Kat, a paint mill that relies on wind power to create paint. Your next stop is the Catharina Hoeve Cheese Farm to watch a cheese-making presentation, followed by a cheese tasting at the onsite cheese shop.

After experiencing the village, head back to your Amsterdam departure point.
1

Zaanse Schans

2 hours 30 minutesAdmission Ticket Free

Zaan Tours (Pass By)

2

Kooijman Souvenirs & Clogs Wooden Shoe Workshop

25 minutesAdmission Ticket Free

3

Molen De Kat

20 minutesAdmission Ticket Included

4

Catharina Hoeve Cheese Farm

15 minutesAdmission Ticket Free

Additional Info

  • Confirmation will be received at time of booking
  • Operates in all weather conditions, please dress appropriately
  • As seats on this tour are restricted, all travelers should have a ticket
  • Not wheelchair accessible
  • This tour contains a moderate amount of walking
  • Stroller accessible
  • Service animals allowed
  • Near public transportation
  • Most travelers can participate
  • This tour/activity will have a maximum of 16 travelers

Cancellation Policy

You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.

Traveler Photos

Gallery picture 1 (from a traveler's review)
Gallery picture 2 (from a traveler's review)
Gallery picture 3 (from a traveler's review)
Gallery picture 4 (from a traveler's review)
Gallery picture 5 (from a traveler's review)

Reviews

4.7
based on 2,787 reviews
Total reviews and rating from Viator & Tripadvisor
Sort by: Most insightful

Zaanse Schans Tour

John_R, Aug 2026
It was a very interesting tour with a number of historical insights and demonstrations. Our tour guide, Santiago, did an excellent job of keeping us moving at a nice clip and providing us with very interesting information.

Charming Village, Excellent Guide

Lynn_E, Aug 2026
This was a lovely tour. Sharron, our guide was fantastic, very friendly and enthusiastic, also extremely knowledgeable. The village is charming and very interesting. Would very much recommend.

The 6/9 Perspective!!

StephanneTeeJay_T, Aug 2026
Excellent experience with a very knowledgeable and professional and friendly tour guide. We will always remember The 6/9 Perspective!!

Kenny was a great tour...

Leslie_C, Aug 2026
Kenny was a great tour guide and explained very well about the amount of walking and the history he explains fascinating!

Great Tour - Too Many People!

Leslie_M, Aug 2026
Great guide, interesting content and beautiful town! My only criticism is that there were SO many tourists at once and it kind of ruined the pastoral atmosphere. Best to do it in the morning, on a weekday, in the off-season.

Fabulous small group...

Jeanette_H, Aug 2026
Fabulous small group tour- very personal-wonderful guide, Sharon who really made the tour a joy! Lots of great information.

This was a great...

Sarah_P, Aug 2026
This was a great experience. The small group was perfect and you were able to get into some great educational lectures and leave so much. And Sharon the guide was amazing and very knowledgeable. Thank you

The guide was excellent!...

CarolAnn_T, Aug 2026
The guide was excellent! The windmills were beautiful. The clod shoe making was fascinating as well as the cheese experience. Great excursion!!

Great small group tour of Zaanse Schanse

Daryl_P, Aug 2026
Caroline was pleasant, shared stories and history of Zaanse Schanse. Useful to have a guide connect what you see with the history of the place through stories. Our group of 15 people made this a much nicer experience due to more personal attention from our guide and the ability to mingle with your fellow travellers. All the while enjoying the historic windmills, clog making workshop, cheese making tour. Quite a touristy and busy location, but well worth a visit

Windmill excursion

Sharon_R, Aug 2026
Claudia was a very good tour guide. Good history on the windmills and very personsble. Good value for the money

Fantastic excursion!!

Sylvia_S, Aug 2026
The tour was incredible because Maake the tour guide was so friendly and knowledgeable. We enjoyed the windmills and the cheese experience very much. The transportation was a very clean nice van. Highly recommend!

A Perfect Dutch Countryside Experience

Chunghao_W, Aug 2026
If you’re visiting Amsterdam and only have time for one half-day excursion, make it this tour! It was the perfect escape from the city and an unforgettable introduction to the Dutch countryside. Zaanse Schans looks like something straight out of a postcard. The historic windmills, charming green wooden houses, and peaceful canals create some of the most beautiful scenery in the Netherlands. Every stop felt incredibly photogenic, and I came away with some of my favorite photos from the entire trip. The clog-making demonstration was fascinating and surprisingly entertaining. Watching the craftsmanship up close gave me a whole new appreciation for this iconic Dutch tradition. The cheese farm was another standout—the tasting was generous, delicious, and made it impossible to leave without bringing home some amazing Dutch cheese! One of the highlights was getting to go inside a working windmill. Learning how these engineering marvels powered the Dutch Golden Age while enjoying panoramic views of the countryside made the experience even more memorable. The entire tour was exceptionally well organized, with comfortable transportation, perfect timing, and a knowledgeable guide who shared fascinating history, local stories, and fun facts throughout the journey. The small-group format made everything feel relaxed and personal, never rushed or overcrowded. This tour offers the perfect mix of history, culture, food, and breathtaking scenery. It exceeded every expectation and was worth every penny. Whether it’s your first time in the Netherlands or you’re returning, this experience is an absolute must. I would book it again in a heartbeat and recommend it to anyone looking for an authentic taste of Dutch culture!

Sharon was amazing! She...

Wayne_B, Aug 2026
Sharon was amazing! She had a great energy and was extremely knowledgeable. We enjoyed learning about the town and clog and cheese making. The windmill was very interesting. Time flew by as we were having fun and learning at the same time!

10/10 would repeat

Stephanie_C, Aug 2026
Such a great time getting to explore outside of the city! There was a lot of history given, as well as plenty of time for free exploration! I am so sorry but I forget my lovely tour guide's name, Katrina or Caroline I think? (She is from France Originally) She was lovely!

Brilliant 🤩

wendy_s, Aug 2026
It’s brilliant and we had an amazing guide which made it all the better for our enjoyment , friendly and caring to everyone, we were a small group but everyone was made welcome

Great experience

Michael_V, Aug 2026
Great trip and the guide was fantastic Very informative. If you are engineer you will geek out inside the windmill. If not, you will be in awe Learned a lot!

Worth the time

Peter_K, Aug 2026
Worth the time. Picturesque and interesting. Sharon was a local and a great guide withe a joyful, cheerful personality and great knowledge.

Nice tour!

Jeffrey_T, Aug 2026
Very nice and informative host. Great personality. An Amsterdam native, so he had great perspective.

This was such a cute...

Cherra_O, Aug 2026
This was such a cute place to visit! My only complaint is that the excursion isn’t long enough and I felt super rushed at each stop. Not very much shopping/free time. Even an extra hour would have been great! But I do recommend this tour.

Escape to the Countryside

Cathy_S, Aug 2026
I am so glad I took this excursion to see something else besides Amsterdam City. Our guide was great and gave us lots of info about the town, the windmill, and the other sights. Getting to go into the Windmill was a highlight. I will say I would have liked a bit more free time to shop and look around but overall a fun day.

Amazing experience- perfect excursion

AUTUMN_C, Aug 2026
Spent the day learning about Dutch culture and history in the beautiful countryside. It was the perfect way to end our trip and was a highlight! Sharon our guide was amazing and made the tour

Awesome experience, great location

Joao_S, Aug 2026
That the guide is extremely knowledgeable and very friendly! The location was very clean and well kept. Sessions were short and very informative

Very little free time to...

Karen_M, Aug 2026
Very little free time to walk around and explore. The samples that are said to be included, are not actually part of the demonstration, but available to all travelers, regardless of whether they are on a tour. You wait in line with dozens of people for a teeny tiny snack of cheese. Cheese samples should be provided in the group tour room. The windmill tour that includes the art paint, had no demonstration of that activity. Travelers could climb the stairs to the top of the windmill, but we did not actually get to see how the paints are made.

Cutest Little Windmill Town

lexxiefern27, Aug 2026
This was such a wonderful tour! We had Sharon and she was amazing! Short ride from Amsterdam to this cute little village. Very picturesque. Lots of great photo opportunities. Definitely a highlight of our trip!

Great experience!

Ajinkya_D, Aug 2026
Brilliant tour by Ingrid! Fantastic guide, great factoids about the village and its history. Highly recommend this tour with Ingrid.

Fun way to learn about Amsterdam

Dennis_P, Aug 2026
Very interesting part of Dutch history. Our guide was informative. The shops were great to see. The people were receptive.

Windmill experience

Rose_H, Aug 2026
Our guide was fantastic very friendly, great sense of humor, and very knowledgeable of the area and history of windmills.

Don't miss this wonderful tour

Debra_B, Jul 2026
Loved this tour and our wonderful guide, Hans Dikker. I had limited mobility and was walking with a cane and this excursion was easy for me.

Beautiful scenery and interesting

anne, Jul 2026
It was an amazing tour very interesting because we had an insight into cheese making and clog making. Our guide Sharon was the BEST!

Ingrid was exceptional -...

Gary_C, Jul 2026
Ingrid was exceptional - this was one of the very best tours we have been on. A nod to the driver as well; he was excellent.

From $49.90

per person

up to 24 hours before the experience starts (local time)

Book ahead!
On average, this is booked 43 days in advance.

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