Three hundred years ago the banks of the river Zaan were one of the first industrial areas in the world. Several hundred windmills stood along the water, sawing the timber for Dutch ships, pressing oil and grinding pigments, spices and cocoa. The wind did the work that steam would do elsewhere a century later.
Zaanse Schans is where a handful of those mills, and dozens of green wooden houses brought in from around the region, have been gathered together along a single stretch of the river. It sits about 20 minutes from Amsterdam by car or train. It is busy, and it is still worth going, as long as you know which mills to go inside and when to avoid the crowds.
On a private tour your guide collects you from your hotel or cruise ship and does the planning for you: which mill is turning that day, where to stand for the best view of the river, and how to fit Zaandam’s hotel and the Tsar Peter house into the same trip. A visit inside a working windmill is always included.
Our shortest option is the Wonderful Windmills of Zaanse Schans tour, about four hours, which can start and finish at your ship. For a full day, the Zaanse Schans Windmill and Dutch Villages tour adds fishing villages such as Marken, Volendam or Edam.
The Zaan region grew rich in the 17th century on wind power. Mills sawed wood for the shipyards, and the ships carried Dutch trade around the world. Most of those mills disappeared as factories took over, and in the 1960s and 1970s surviving houses and mills from across the region were moved here to save them. The result is part open-air museum and part real neighbourhood. People still live in some of the houses, and several of the mills still produce what they were built to make.
Six mills can be visited inside, each with its own small entrance fee:
Climb the steep ladder to the balcony if you can. You get the sails turning a metre or two away, with the whole Zaan below you.
Ten minutes down the road, in the centre of Zaandam, stands the building most visitors photograph first. The Inntel Hotel, designed by WAM Architecten and opened in 2010, looks like almost seventy traditional Zaan houses piled on top of each other, in four shades of the local green. Look for the one blue house. It is a nod to Claude Monet, who painted a blue house in Zaandam in 1871.
In 1697 the young Russian Tsar Peter the Great came to Zaandam, travelling under a false name, to learn shipbuilding. He lodged in a small wooden worker’s house that is still standing, now protected inside a brick outer building. Inside are the simple rooms and period furniture of a Zaandam working family at the end of the 17th century.
The houses are painted a deep green with white trim, the colour scheme that became the signature of the region. Many were moved here from other villages along the Zaan, which is why styles and ages differ from one door to the next.
In the clog workshop you can watch a block of wood turned into a shoe in a few minutes, and at the cheese farm you can taste the local cheeses and see how they are made.
If you want to understand what you are looking at, start here. The Zaans Museum tells the story of the region’s mills and factories, and it also houses the Verkade Experience, about the Zaandam chocolate and biscuit factory that many Dutch people grew up with.
Yes, with two caveats. It is one of the most visited places in the Netherlands, with around 2.6 million visitors a year, so the middle of the day can feel crowded. And the village is a collection rather than a place that grew on its own. Go early or late in the day, pick one or two mills to go inside, and add Zaandam for the Inntel Hotel and the Tsar Peter house. That turns a quick photo stop into a proper half day.
Yes. Some of the houses are privately owned and lived in, so please respect the residents when you take photos.
A bit of both. The houses and mills are authentic, but most were moved here from elsewhere in the region to preserve them. Some are homes, and some of the mills still work.
By train it is about 17 minutes from Amsterdam Centraal to Zaandijk Zaanse Schans, then a 10 to 15 minute walk. Bus 391 from Amsterdam Centraal takes about 40 minutes. By car it is 20 to 25 minutes, and our private tours include pick-up from your hotel, the airport or the cruise terminal.
Walking around the village is free in 2026. The windmills and museums charge their own entrance fees. The municipality of Zaanstad has postponed a general entrance fee for the village to the start of the 2027 tourist season at the earliest.
Two to four hours, depending on how many mills and museums you go into. Add an hour if you also want to see Zaandam.
