North Holland

One of the twelve provinces of the Netherlands, and the one Amsterdam stands in.

Best seasonApr – Jun, Sep – Oct

Ideal length3 – 5 nights

Main gatewayAmsterdam Schiphol (AMS)

Getting aboutDense rail network; bicycles everywhere

MoneyEuro

SuitsCanals · windmills · dunes · cheese towns

Overview

Why North Holland

North Holland is a province, not a country, and the distinction matters because "Holland" is routinely used to mean the whole of the Netherlands. It is not: Holland is two provinces, North and South, and this is the northern one. It occupies a flat peninsula between the North Sea on one side and the IJsselmeer — the freshwater lake that used to be the Zuiderzee, an arm of the sea, until it was dammed — on the other. Much of what you stand on here was under water within recorded history, and the province is essentially a piece of engineering: dykes, polders, drainage mills and pumping stations. Amsterdam is in the middle of it and takes almost all the visitors, but the province around the city is where the windmills actually turn and where the old shipping towns kept their harbours after the sea was shut out.

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Cities & Places

Where to go in North Holland

Amsterdam is the province’s published destination and the base almost every Dutch itinerary is built around — the constitutional capital, and the arrival point for the country.

Amsterdam

Highlights

What this province holds

Working windmills, a provincial capital most visitors skip, an inland sea that used to be a real one, and a dune coast behind the beaches.

Zaanse SchansA group of working windmills and timber houses on the Zaan, just north of Amsterdam, preserved as a living site rather than a museum reconstruction of one. The mills here ground pigment, sawed timber and pressed oil — industrial machinery, not scenery — and several still run. It is the most accessible place in the country to understand what the mills were actually for.

HaarlemThe provincial capital, west of Amsterdam and close to the coast. A compact old city with a large market square, the Grote Kerk at the centre of it and the Frans Hals Museum — and a fraction of Amsterdam’s crowds. Many travellers who find Amsterdam saturated end up wishing they had based here.

The Zuiderzee townsHoorn, Enkhuizen, Volendam and Marken were seafaring and fishing towns on an arm of the North Sea until the Afsluitdijk closed it off in the twentieth century and turned it into the freshwater IJsselmeer. Their harbours, warehouses and wooden houses survive; their sea does not. Volendam and Marken are the most visited and the most dressed for visitors.

Alkmaar and the cheese tradeNorth-west of Amsterdam, an old canal town whose weigh-house and market square were built around the cheese trade, and where a traditional cheese market is still staged in season. The town itself is worth the walk regardless of whether the market is running.

The dunes and the coastA long dune belt runs the length of the North Sea shore, protected as nature reserve for much of it and holding the drinking-water catchment as well as the wildlife. Zandvoort is the closest beach to Amsterdam and reachable by train; the quieter dunes are north of it.

Texel and the far northAt the top of the peninsula, past Den Helder, the island of Texel is the southernmost of the Wadden islands — beaches, dunes, sheep and birdlife, reached by ferry. It is a different pace from the rest of the province and needs its own days rather than a day trip.

When to go

When to visit North Holland

A maritime climate: rarely extreme, frequently wet, and windier than the temperature suggests.

Apr – JunThe best window. Long days, the countryside green, the coast pleasant and the light at its clearest. Note that the famous bulb fields are mostly in South Holland and their flowering is short and weather-dependent — check dates rather than assuming them.

Jul – AugWarmest and busiest, with the beaches in use and Amsterdam at its fullest. Good for the coast and the islands; the city is at its most crowded, which makes the province a useful escape from it.

Sep – OctThe quieter equal of late spring. Mild, thinning crowds, and the best time to walk the dunes or cycle between the Zuiderzee towns without company.

Nov – MarGrey, wet and windy, with short days and a genuinely cold wind off the water. The cities and museums work well and are at their emptiest; the coast and the islands largely close down. Bring waterproofs rather than a heavy coat.

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