The story of Edam: beyond the cheese to its shipbuilding past

Shipbuilding first

Edam received town rights in 1357 thanks to its harbour. In the seventeenth century yards here built ships for the East India Company; cheese only came to the fore later.

The cheese is world famous, the town itself surprisingly unknown. Seven thousand residents, canals without tour boats, and a cheese market staged only on summer Wednesday mornings.

The Grote Kerk

One of the largest three-aisled churches in the country, with the biggest collection of stained glass in the Netherlands. Free entry, rarely busy.

• The cheese market on Jan Nieuwenhuizenplein, Wednesdays in July and August

• The Grote or St Nicholas church with the largest stained-glass windows in the country

• The Speeltoren, Edam’s leaning tower

• The Kwakelbrug and the canals of the Voorhaven

The Speeltoren

The leaning tower in the middle of the village is what remains of a church otherwise demolished. Its carillon dates from 1561.

The cheese

The market runs only on Wednesday mornings in July and August. The rest of the year, buy Edam at the shop on the square.

Why sleep here

Three kilometres from Volendam, a tenth of the crowds, and often twenty euros a night cheaper.

Where to stay

• Along the canals: small hotels in listed houses

• Around the Voorhaven

• Purmerend and Volendam for more choice

Fifty-eight to eighty-five euros. Quieter and often cheaper than Volendam, three kilometres away.

Getting there

Bus 314 or 316 from Amsterdam Centraal in about forty minutes. Three kilometres by bike from Volendam.

When to come

July and August for the cheese market, May and September for the calm.

Crowds and timing

Crowding in Edam 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 Edam 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.

Renting a bike

A bicycle costs ten to fifteen euros a day at a rental point and about half that at a hotel that keeps a few of its own. E-bikes run around thirty. Reserve ahead at weekends; around Edam the rental points are empty by midday on a sunny Saturday. Two things to watch: take a bike with hand brakes if you are not used to back-pedal braking, and always lock it to something fixed, even in villages where that feels excessive.

Accessibility

New hotels and museums are nearly always wheelchair accessible; historic buildings rarely are. Canal houses and old fishermen’s cottages have steep, narrow stairs and no lift, and that includes many of the cheapest rooms. Ask explicitly when booking, even when a site says there is a lift — in a listed building it sometimes only starts at the second floor. Stations in Noord-Holland are mostly step-free; the ferries all are.

The best light

Photographers come here for two moments: the first hour after sunrise and the last before sunset. The flat landscape and the water give a soft, low light that lasts until half past nine in summer. In Edam that means the busiest view of the day is a wall of people at three and completely empty at eight. Under cloud the opposite holds — façades and courtyards look their best, the beach its dullest.

Combining with the area

Noord-Holland is narrow: from the North Sea to the IJsselmeer is nowhere more than forty kilometres. So Edam nearly always combines with a second destination without losing a day to travel. The rule of thumb is one town plus one landscape: a morning in a historic centre and an afternoon by the water or in the dunes. That works better than two towns in a row, because otherwise you see the same kind of street twice.