22 Apr 2024
We covered 4 stops, so if you want to see a few parts of the country outside of Amsterdam, this might be for you.
Unfortunately it really was a rushed agenda. There was only about 1 hour at Zaanse Schans, including 15-20 minutes walking to the included windmill visit, the 15 minute windmill presentation, and 15-30 minutes walking back to the bus. As such - this gave us little time to see anything else at Zaanse Schans. The stop at Marken included the clog making demonstration, and Volendam included a cheese making demo and Stroopwaffel demo - but both are really stops to allow you to buy souvenirs in the clog gift shop or cheese and waffle shops. We stayed in Volendam for probably 90 minutes total including 1 hour free time to shop and eat (not counting time at the cheese and waffle shops) - this would have been better spent with more of that free time in Zaanse Schans. Edam was the least interesting stop - it’s an older town with a 20 minute walking tour (in our case, in the rain - others in the group chose to stay on board the bus at Edam).
If you are hoping to really spend time at Zaanse Schans, this tour is probably not for you. But if you want to see a lot quickly, it’s ok.
One member of our group has some limited mobility - walks slower - the guides walk quite fast so it seemed difficult to keep up with the guide at times.