Where to Stay in Zaandam, Provincie Noord-Holland

What is Zaandam known for?

Just north of Amsterdam, it was once ringed by hundreds of windmills that sawed timber and ground paint and oil, and it keeps a green-timbered quarter of old houses at the Zaanse Schans, the cottage where Peter the Great once lodged, and the memory of a great age of ships. The river runs through the town. Mills and timber mark the city.

What are the main landmarks in Zaandam?

The Zaanse Schans is the pride of Zaandam. The riverside quarter of green wooden houses and working windmills, saved from the old Zaan villages, stands north of the centre, the emblem of the town, by the water. A tsar's cottage lies nearby.

The little Czar Peter House shelters the room where Peter the Great slept, while the Zaans Museum and the old churches mark the mill town of Zaandam.

What is the history of Zaandam?

Zaandam rose on wind and water. In the age of the Dutch republic the villages along the Zaan filled with windmills, hundreds of them sawing timber, pressing oil, and grinding paint, and the river became one of the first great workshops of Europe. Ships were built here in numbers.

The yards along the Zaan turned out vessels for the Dutch trade, and their fame drew a famous visitor to the town. In 1697 a young Russian came to learn the craft. The tsar Peter the Great lodged in a small wooden house and worked in the yards to learn how the Dutch built their ships, and the cottage is kept as a museum.

Then steam took the wind's work. The old windmills gave way to steam and factories, and Zaandam grew into a working town of mills for cocoa, timber, and food. A handful of windmills still turn on the Zaan.

Zaandam keeps its mills and its river north of Amsterdam.

Where is Zaandam?

Zaandam lies on the Zaan river in North Holland, just north of Amsterdam. The town sits on flat green polders below sea level, where the river meets the canal to the sea, among ditches, meadows, and old mill sites. Flat wet country spreads around.

The river winds to the harbour.

What is the climate of Zaandam?

Zaandam has a mild maritime climate. Cool summers and soft winters cross the low country, and rain and wind blow in off the North Sea through the year, with grey skies common in the cold months. Wind turns the old mills in autumn.

The polders stay green much of the year.

How do you get to Zaandam?

Zaandam lies just north of Amsterdam in North Holland. Frequent trains run to it from Amsterdam in minutes, and the motorway and the canals cross the low country, while ferries reach the Zaan villages. Buses reach the polder towns around.

Most arrive by train from Amsterdam.