14 cycling and walking routes across North Holland, with the wind behind you

Why wind direction sets your route

The prevailing wind here is south-westerly. Ride south to north, or inland to coast, and it pushes you along; the other way, the same distance costs an extra ninety minutes. All fourteen routes below are planned in that direction.

Everything Amsterdam has, thirty percent cheaper and fifteen train minutes away. A medieval market square, almshouse courtyards behind unremarkable doors, and Bloemendaal beach ten kilometres out.

Routes 1 and 2: dunes and forest

The Kennemerland route runs thirty-eight kilometres from Haarlem through Zuid-Kennemerland and Zandvoort to Castricum aan Zee, with Highland cattle and fallow deer at the Kraansvlak. The Artists and High Dunes trail is twenty-four kilometres on foot from Bergen over the Klimduin to Schoorl.

• The Grote or St Bavo church with the Müller organ Mozart played

• The Frans Hals Museum in a seventeenth-century almshouse

• Teylers Museum, the oldest museum in the country, still lit by daylight

• The hofjes: nearly twenty hidden courtyards, free to enter

Route 3: castle to sea lock

Forty-two kilometres from Slot Assumburg in Heemskerk via Beverwijk to IJmuiden, watching ocean ships lock through the largest sea lock in the world. You can sleep in the castle itself, a hostel since 1933.

The best-preserved star fortress in Europe, with double moats and six bastions forming a perfect star from the air. Inside the walls three thousand people live in a town three streets wide.

Routes 4 to 7: Waterland, mills and forts

From Muiderslot along the dykes to Naarden fortress and on into Waterland (thirty-two kilometres). The whisper-boat and polder loop from Broek in Waterland is eighteen kilometres on foot past the Beemster. The Zaan route is twenty-eight kilometres from Zaandam via the Schans to Wormerland. The Purmerend–Edam–Volendam triangle is forty-five kilometres along canal dykes.

Routes 8 to 10: the East India coast

From Alkmaar through West Friesland to Hoorn (thirty-six kilometres) past warehouses and the Hoofdtoren. The Zuiderzee dyke from Hoorn to Enkhuizen is thirty kilometres with the Markermeer on one side and orchards on the other. The steam tram trail pairs twenty-two kilometres of walking with a return aboard a 1920s locomotive.

Routes 11 to 13: the far north

From the abbey at Egmond-Binnen through the woods to the Egmond lighthouse (twenty kilometres). The great polder route is fifty-two kilometres from Alkmaar through Breezand and Anna Paulowna to Den Helder, cutting through the bulb fields in spring. The naval fortress route takes in Fort Kijkduin, Willemsoord and the Wadden dyke.

Route 14: the Texel loop

Forty-eight kilometres from the ferry port via Den Hoorn, Ecomare and the sheep meadows to the red lighthouse, and back along the high Wadden dyke with the wind behind you. Bikes travel free on the boat; save the sea dyke for the final leg.

Sleeping along the way

Every leg ends somewhere to stay: dune hotels on the coast, a boutique hotel inside the walls of Naarden, a castle hostel in Heemskerk, harbour hotels in Hoorn and Enkhuizen, and an eco-resort on Texel. Book weeks ahead in season; the good addresses along these routes are few.

Practicalities for both disciplines

Cycle paths here are separated from traffic everywhere and the ground is flat; reckon on eighteen to twenty-two kilometres an hour with the wind and twelve to fifteen against. Walkers plan fifteen to eighteen kilometres a day and find a station or bus stop at the end of nearly every leg.

Where to stay

• Along the Spaarne: small hotels in listed buildings with water views

• The centre inside the moat: everything walkable, slightly pricier

• Haarlem-Noord and Santpoort: quieter, cheaper, ten minutes by bike

A double in the centre runs sixty to eighty euros off season. A day return to Amsterdam is about nine euros per person.

Getting there

Fifteen minutes by local train from Amsterdam Centraal, four an hour. Bus 81 reaches Zandvoort and Bloemendaal beach in twenty minutes.

When to come

April and May for the bulb fields nearby, September for the quiet. December’s Christmas market makes the centre busy but handsome.

Crowds and timing

Crowding in Haarlem is predictable and therefore avoidable. Between eleven in the morning and four in the afternoon the best-known spots are full; outside those hours they are quiet. That gap matters more than the gap between high and low season: a Saturday in October at half past ten feels busier than a Tuesday in July at half past eight. Turn the day around — start early, spend the middle of the day eating or walking outside the centre, and come back after four — and you see the same place at a completely different tempo, and pay less for food and entry while you are at it.

Money and paying

The Netherlands is largely cashless. Nearly everywhere takes a debit card or phone, and a growing number of places refuse cash outright. Credit cards are still not universally accepted in supermarkets and small shops — expect Maestro or V Pay. Tipping is not obligatory; five to ten percent for good service is normal and rounding up is enough. Tourist tax is nearly always charged separately at check-out, even when you have prepaid.

Without a car

This province is built for trains, buses, ferries and bikes. Nearly every place in this guide is reachable by public transport, usually in under an hour from Amsterdam Centraal, and the ferries across the IJ and the North Sea Canal are free. A day pass on the regional buses costs less than a day of parking in a historic centre. With three or four people a car can work out cheaper — in that case leave it at the edge of town and switch to a tram or train.

Travelling with children

Children up to eleven travel by train for a couple of euros a day on a Railrunner ticket, and small children ride free on a bike. Nearly every museum in the province has a children’s route, and most beaches have a pavilion with a playground. The real constraint is not supply but pace: plan two activities a day rather than four, and put the journey home before dinner rather than after.

Mistakes visitors make

Three classics. First: too many places in one day, so you mostly see trains and car parks. Second: planning everything around midday, exactly when everywhere is busiest and dearest. Third: driving into a historic centre where parking costs seven euros an hour while the station is a ten-minute walk away. Choose one place a day, start early and leave the car, and you keep both time and money for the part you actually came for.

Stay or go back

Most visitors do Haarlem as a day trip from Amsterdam and so miss the two hours that make it worthwhile. Do the arithmetic: two return train tickets plus dinner in the capital quickly costs more than an off-season double room here, breakfast included. Staying also gets you the morning light, which in this province — low, wide, across water — is the main reason to be here at all.