Noord-Holland in Two Days: Cheese, Coast and Canals

Day 1: Alkmaar and Hoorn

If it is a Friday between late March and late September, start at the Alkmaar cheese market on the Waagplein. It runs 10:00 to 13:00 and the actual carrying with the wooden barrows happens in the first 45 minutes. Take the 08:38 train from Amsterdam Centraal (36 minutes, €8.90). Afterward, walk the Bierkade and the Zeglis for the old warehouse facades, then lunch at Proeflokaal De Boom. By 14:30 continue by train to Hoorn (25 minutes).

Hoorn is the honest old VOC port: brick, wonky rooflines, and the Hoofdtoren on the harbour. Walk from the station down the Grote Noord to the Rode Steen square, then the Westfries Museum (€12) for the Golden Age loot. Dinner at De Hoofdtoren on the water. Sleep at Hotel de Keizerskroon on Breed or, for something with more character, the Van der Valk in the restored dairy factory at the edge of town.

Day 2: Enkhuizen and Waterland villages

Take the first train from Hoorn to Enkhuizen (18 minutes). Go straight to the Zuiderzeemuseum outdoor section (€19.50), which opens at 10:00 and needs a solid 2.5 hours. It is a reconstructed fishing village with working smokehouses and a genuinely good exhibition on the flooding that shaped this coast. Ferry across the old harbour is included.

After lunch at a herring stand on the Dijk, drive or bus back south via Edam and Volendam. Bus 314 runs from Amsterdam Noord to both villages roughly every 30 minutes. Edam is prettier and quieter; Volendam is louder and has the fish stalls. End the day on Marken, a former island reached by a 3 km causeway, and get the last Marken Express ferry back to Volendam at sunset. Sleep in Amsterdam or at Hotel Spaander in Volendam right on the harbour.