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Top of Amsterdam 2025

Tour details
Dutch Barge Cruises 2
Dutch Barge Cruises
Top of  Amsterdam bike and barge 3
Top of  Amsterdam bike and barge 1

Bike and Barge Top of Amsterdam

This boat and bike tour brings you over small dykes and country roads of Northern Holland.

Not until the 17th Century large parts of the area north of Amsterdam were recovered from the sea and reclaimed through the use of hundreds of windmills. It’s here that you will find the typical Dutch landscape of polders, mills and harbours. Many of the windmills are still in working order. You can get a feel for the old Dutch atmosphere in Enkhuizen, Hoorn, Edam and Volendam: traditional costumes, sailing ships and long johns on the clotheslines. If you want to experience what it was to live in one of those villages in the old days we recommend to visit 'het Zuiderzeemuseum'.

On day 4 you’ll sail to Texel, an island with thousands of sheep and a magnificent nature reserve. Back on the mainland the route brings you to Holland’s most beautiful dune area. These are also the only kilometers you will be cycling above sea level!

Alkmaar will also provide a good picture of ancient times. It is the capital of Dutch cheese with its own cheese market and weigh-house for cheese. In Zaanse Schans, a lovely little hamlet on the banks of the river Zaan, the mills, houses, shops and traditional Dutch crafts bring the past to life.

Highlights include:

  • Typical fishing villages as Volendam and Enkhuizen
  • Isle of Texel
  • Alkmaar, the capitel of cheese
  • The land of Leeghwater, the Purmer and the Beemster

The route from day to day

  • Sat: Amsterdam, embarkation at 4 PM near Central Station, short round trip 15
  • Sun: Amsterdam – Volendam, 46, sailing to Hoorn
  • Mon: Hoorn - Enkhuizen 34 km Visit the Zuiderzee Museum
  • Tue: Enkhuizen - Medemblik and sailing to Texel, 35 km
  • Wed:Texel, round trip 35/48/62km
  • Thu: Texel, sailing to Den Helder, Den Helder – Alkmaar 58 km
  • Fri; Alkmaar – Zaanse Schans – Amsterdam, 55 km
  • Sat: Amsterdam, debarkation before 10 AM near Central Station

1 km = 0.62 miles