Zaanse Schans and Volendam from Amsterdam: the €8.40 train, bus 316 and the Marken boat, or a coach tour

💡 The Short Version: The Zaanse Schans is an NS train, 17 minutes from Centraal, €8.40 return, plus a 15-minute walk from Zaandijk Zaanse Schans, and the village is free to enter in 2026. Its mills charge €7.50 each. A tourist entry fee has been delayed, not scrapped: Zaanstad council said in January 2026 it would settle the ticket before the 2027 season. Volendam is EBS bus 316 from Centraal, about 30 minutes, and Marken a 30-minute boat from Volendam. For all three in a morning the coach tour is from £25.19. Or book a tour: the Zaanse Schans, Volendam and Marken tourad (4.5 stars from 21,112 reviews, 5½ hours) is the most-reviewed Zaanse Schans tour on GetYourGuide (1 October 2026).

Going on your own

Fares are NS’s, as listed on 1 October 2026; the Zaanse Schans details are from zaanseschans.com.

• Zaanse Schans by train: NS from Amsterdam Centraal to Zaandijk Zaanse Schans, about 17 minutes, €4.20 each way, €8.40 return. The village is a 15-minute walk from the station, and from 1 April to 1 October a bicycle taxi runs between the two. The site says buses from Centraal are on a detour for works and recommends the train.
• Volendam by bus: EBS line 316 from Amsterdam Centraal runs through Broek in Waterland and Monnickendam to Volendam in about 30 minutes, and on to Edam. The timetable valid from 16 March 2026 shows buses every 10 to 15 minutes in the morning (line 316 timetable).
• Marken by boat: the Volendam Marken Express sails every day, every 45 minutes, and the crossing takes about 30 minutes. Boats leave from Haven 39 in Volendam and Havenbuurt 19 in Marken, and tickets are valid for a year (markenexpress.nl). The Volendam and Marken Express boat cruisead is on GetYourGuide from £8.97.
• A day ticket: the Amsterdam & Region Travel Ticket (€23 for a day, €34 for two, €44 for three) covers the Zaanse Schans train and the EBS buses (GVB; Amsterdam public transport has the GVB fares inside the city). The Zaanse Schans and Volendam are separate journeys from Centraal, so doing both on one day costs two trips in and out.

Tours from Amsterdam

A tour joins the Zaanse Schans to Volendam and Marken, which are three separate journeys on your own. Prices are GetYourGuide’s lowest “from” price on 1 October 2026.

Zaanse Schans, Volendam and Marken

From £25.19 · 4.5 stars from 21,112 reviews · 5½ hours

From Amsterdam: Zaanse Schans, Volendam & Marken Guided Tourad meets at the Tours & Tickets office in the IJ hall of Centraal (De Ruijterkade 34A). The classic tour has a guide, a stop at the Zaanse Schans windmills, a cheese demonstration with tasting near Volendam and a clog-making demonstration with an antique steam engine in Marken. The All-in option adds the 30-minute boat between Volendam and Marken and a demonstration inside a working windmill.

With Edam

From £28.26 · 4.8 stars from 5,626 reviews · 6½ hours

From Amsterdam: Zaanse Schans, Edam, Volendam & Markenad adds Edam, with entry to a cheese farm and a clog workshop near Volendam. The listing says the Marken visit may be swapped for another stop in bad weather. The guide speaks English or Spanish.

The Zaanse Schans alone

From £19.22 · 4.4 stars from 5,192 reviews · 3½ hours

Amsterdam: Guided Zaanse Schans, Windmills & Cheese Tourad is a guided half day. On your own, the same trip costs €8.40 for the train, and the village is free: the tour pays for a guide.

What the Zaanse Schans costs

The village is free; the tickets are for the mills and museums. Prices and hours are from each place’s page on zaanseschans.com, 1 October 2026.

• I amsterdam City Card holders enter the mills and Museum Zaanse Tijd free.
• Free as well: the pewter foundry, the wooden shoe workshop, the Saense Lelie craft centre and the bakery museum. The houses are lived in and cannot be visited.
• Cards only for the €1.00 toilets and for parking (€15 for a car for the day). There is no cash machine on site.
• The fee to come: Zaanstad’s press release of 7 January 2026 delays the tourist entry fee by about a year. The council’s research put a fair price at €17.50 before discounts, residents of Zaanstad and Wormerland keep free access, and the ticket is to be settled before the start of the 2027 tourist season (Zaanstad). Check zaanseschans.com before a spring 2027 visit.

What to see

About 2.6 million people a year visit (Zaanstad), so go early and use the crowd calendar on the site, which marks each day quiet, normal, crowded or very crowded.

1. The dyke and the mills. The mills stand along the Kalverringdijk. De Kat is the only paint mill left of about 50 that stood in the Zaan region, and the site calls it the busiest mill in the Netherlands, with about 130,000 visitors a year. One mill is enough: they cost €7.50 each.
2. The free crafts. The cheese farm, the wooden shoe workshop and the pewter foundry need no ticket.
3. Volendam. A harbour village: have a photograph taken in traditional costume at Fotograaf Volendam, which has done them since 1913, and watch waffles made at Woltjes Backerij (markenexpress.nl).
4. Marken. Wooden houses and a harbour, with a clog factory that runs a steam-engine demonstration. Taverne de Visscher is its oldest tavern.
5. Skip: the bus from Centraal to the Zaanse Schans while it is on a detour, and a second mill unless the first interested you.

Practical information

• Wheelchairs: paths, bridges and buildings are not always wheelchair-friendly, and the site has disabled parking, toilets and wheelchairs to borrow at the Zaans Museum.
• Cycling is not allowed on the site itself; the bridges and paths are too narrow.
• Boats: a pedestrian ferry crosses the water next to De Bonte Hen, and the Windmill Hopper runs cruises past the mills; both are separate from any ticket.
• The Marken boat sails every day, but its last departures differ between summer and winter, so check the operator’s times before you go.

The Zaanse Schans is one of the day trips from Amsterdam, which compares it with Keukenhof and Giethoorn on cost. It also combines with spring: the Keukenhof from Amsterdam guide covers the coach tours that add it. What to book before you go to Amsterdam has the Anne Frank House and museum slots, and 3 days in Amsterdam makes the Zaanse Schans its third day.