Zaanse Schans Windmills, Marken and Volendam Half-Day Trip from Amsterdam

Had a lot of interesting areas/sites to visit in one tour. Guide was good but had limited contact with because of the size of the group. Lunch was arranged well with a restaurant that was able to give quick service. The stops/demonstrations of cheese and stroopwafel making were very enjoyable. The wooden shoe demonstration was a waste of time. It consisted of watching 2 machines shaping the shoes. There could have been a lot of information shared about the shoes but was not. The guy doing the demonstration seemed more interested in directing us to the store and then out the door so he could close.

Very interesting day. I would recommend it! The wooden shoe maker was entertaining, as well as educational. The windmill was amazing!

A great trip, informative/enjoyable..Wilson was a great guide..wish there was time for shopping..we walked past many cute shops, and would loved to have gone in them, but we were given no time.

Was well organized and loved seeing the windmills, cheese tasting and clog making ,only negative is it felt rushed and obvious the pushing sales by the traders ,otherwise a really nice way to see the sights !

Fast paced and interesting. Yes its touristy but as tourists that's what we came to see. Saw mill was really fascinating.

This is a very long, but extremely well done tour. The drive was smooth, and the guide was very skilled. She had a great deal of knowledge about all the locations, and did a fantastic job of both informing and organizing the group. We got just enough time at each location to thoroughly experience it. My wife and I agree: highly recommended.

I am not kidding! This dynamic guide and driver duo was the best tour we have ever had in her life. Steve the rock (Estev) and Sandra were fabulous. Steve, the driver entertained the bus with amazing piano music which he had installed a piano somehow in the bus, singing, special musical treats. He was helping people carry their bags, waving from the dock, interacting with everyone, Asking how we enjoyed everything, showing additional videos, and being so friendly. Incredible! Sandra was in excellent bilingual tour guide with amazing knowledge, friendly, never tiring, and we learned so much. If I was in Amsterdam more time I would take any tour this duo gave. Wonderful company! Thank you so much. Even the pick up from the hotel was unbelievable

The windmills at Zaanse are amazing, going inside a live, operating one is a must, but too bad there is no time for shopping in Zaanse. Volendam is lovely, the demo making cheese and the waffles are very interesting; it can’t be that easy! Finishing with the wooden clogs makes the day complete! The tour guides are very good taking care of everyone even though we have a big group.

This tour is a nice way to see a number of places in a short time. The windmills were very cool and we got to go into one of three windmills. You don't get much time to wander around which is the case on all three stops. The wooden shoe demonstration was better than I expected and the ferry ride to Volendam was picturesque. You lunch at Volendam which has a lots of cafe's overlooking the water. so if you don't want to eat at the guide's recommended place you don't have to. We would have enjoyed walking around the waterfront stores but there just isn't enough time. The guides were very good and the bus was clean and comfortable.

Comfortable drive outside of Amsterdam. First stop was to see a working windmill. Since it was a half day tour, it was a bit rushed. Then they drove to Marken for a demo on clog making. They had all of us in a packed room for the demo. Afterwards, lovely boat ride to Volendam for demo on cheese making. That was the only free time we had to walk around this picturesque town. Would've liked more free time at the windmills but still worth this trip. Glad we went to the countryside.

Oh my gosh! My favorite tour! Included all that is so iconic about Holland. Wooden shoe factory, working windmills, cheese factory, cutest little towns! Fantastic! After spending the days in the city with museums and such, it was the perfect finishing touch for our visit to Holland. Would recommend highly!

Good and professional tour guides who kept the group well in order and on time. The windmills are very interesting and worth the time involved. We also had a very enjoyable time in Marken and Volendam which are unique and beautiful. Good job-keep it up.

Very nice tour. Informative. Unfortunately the walk was quite extensive. First stop to a windmill was a good 20 min walk and the guide set quite a pace. Thankfully she stopped for a photo-op. No time to explore any town we were in. This could have been a full day tour so we could look at the local towns and shops. It seemed hurried.

This trip was everything we thought it would be. It was interesting, informative, and just plain fun. Well Worth the money! We loved seeing the windmills and getting a tour of one of them...and Zaanse Schans was so picturesque and interesting. We would have liked to have spent more time there. Volendam was great and had tons of good shopping. Really liked the cheese experience. Marken was equally interesting.

The tour was way too crowded and very little interaction with the tour guides occurred meaning very little information was passed on. If you just want to take pictures and move on this tour would work but there was little knowledge gained.

The first location we visited had several windmills and our group was able to tour a functioning windmill. We received a private informative demonstration on how a windmill operates. Then we went onto a different location and we viewed another private and interesting clog demonstration. After the demonstration, it started to become more of a tourist trap rather than a meaningful trip. Our next and final stop was a ferry ride to a small town which had nothing but cheap souvenir shops and restaurants. The tour group was given two separate "infomercial" demonstrations on how to make Stroopwafels and cheese. After both demonstrations, the tour group was led directly to their gift shops. At the end of the tour, the tour guide led us to the "town's historical museum." It was nothing more than cheap mannequins dressed in traditional Dutch outfits staging many historical scenes and a few stock photos with short captions. Please do not waste your money on this awful trip.

Our guide Diana was amazing.... one of the best we have ever had. I am a travel agent, and this tour would have cost two to three times as much as we paid if it was a Shore Excursion offered by the cruise lines.

Mena, Celina and Kevin were Great tour guides! Each was very welcoming and friendly. They certainly knew their history about each place we visited. I was very pleased with this half day excursion. Not even the winds and rain could dampen this great day!

Bus driver is a DJ and totally rocked the house. Guide was awesome and warned of all the places good and bad ( like to becareful of pickpockets, where we should spend the money on etca ) the place is beautiful. Timing doesn't felt too rushed.

This covered a lot of interesting sights very quickly. I wish we had taken the all day tour in order to relax at lunch and visit some of the shops.

If you want to take this tour, take the full day one. Ian did his best to get us through the 3 lovely places and boat ride within the time allowed, but it left no time for shopping and really enjoying them. Very rushed. Too bad, as they are all lovely and deserve better. Round trip, 3 beautiful sites, a boat ride - all in 51/2 hours? Take the full day tour and really see them.

We thoroughly enjoyed our bus tour with Tickets and Tours, very professional and informative and a fun day out to experience Amsterdam.

This was a nice tour to see some small towns, windmills and other interesting shops - cheese and wooden shoe making. There is an opportunity to buy things at these shops but no pressure. The day that I went was one of the hot days so be prepared as there is a lot of walking. They do sell water on the bus. this tour is interesting but a little touristy with a large group. One important note that the meet up location does not have the Viator name anywhere. Instead you will just see a generic Tours store in the train station, Viator should really make this more clear as this tour is through another company.

This is a well organised trip. You get to see quite a lot in a relatively short period of time. Good way to spend six hours in Amsterdam and get some insight to their heritage and culture

The trip is with "Tours and Tickets". They packed us like sardines in a big tour bus, so it is very crowded. Our tour guide "Astrid" behaved very uninterested and did not say much except what time to meet up. I would have expected a tour guide to be more friendly and to give us more information in the places. Zaanse Schans Windmills was so touristy and crowded. Also, we were only given free time for lunch at 4pm, so do have a big breakfast before meeting up if you are going for the 12pm tour.

The trip, its good despite the hot weather in Amsterdam at that time. Boat were on time, only better if able to spend a bit pore time in the windmills

We took this tour prior to hopping on a cruise the next day. We met inside Central Station at the tour shop near Starbucks. Took a Hop on Hop Off bus with 2 guides and drove out to windmills where admission to one windmill that cuts wood with presentation and free time to look at other windmills and shop. Took bus to Market and saw demo on clog making. Took 20 minute ferry ride on smooth water to Volendam fishing village where we went to cheese factory and got some time for lunch/shopping/pubs then demonstration at waffle bakery, then to a local dutch museum.

The places are great but the guide did not give clear instructions. She just walked from one place to another without waiting for the whole group to walk together. At Volendam we just walked after her . She explained nothing. Then i heard people asking her about the houses coluors as it seems that colours had meaning and explained to them only. Other tours I took with viator like the CANAL tour were excellent.

Half day makes it tight schedule, specially at the crowded location of Zaanse Schans. May be its the most visited location outside of Amsterdam. Ian, our tour guide had a nice sense of humour. Would have loved to spend more time . Would recommend a full day trip as all the 3 locations were very pretty and deserves some more time to soak it in.

This tour was excellent. We loved every moment of it. We visited a chocolate and cheese and wooden shoes factories. Besides we went on a short boat ride that was enjoyable. I would recommend this our to everybody.

Too much on pushing vendors as per normal Viator, guide and driver were good, the last visit to the bakery was a waste of time, need more time at the first wind mill location. Too rushed, and the bus at the last stop was much too far for the end of day walk.

Diana, Steff, and Ali were gracious tour guides and made the day educational and fun! We would have loved to have been able to spend more time at the sites and with these three.

Excellent tour! We enjoyed everything- excellent demonstrations on how to make cheese,peanut oil, stroopwafels and clogs! Well organised! Definitely worth every cent spent. Excellent tourguides and wonderful funny busdriver!

Loved this trip! We had Edgar as our tour guide and he was great! It was definitely one of our favorite excursions!

One of my favorite tours!- the Zaanse Schans windmills alone would have sufficed for me and my friends, to be honest! Definitely a must-see when you travel to Netherlands! Lovely sights!

This is a great way to view the countryside. We learned about cheese, cheese making, and the culture.

This tour checks off a lot of “must sees” on a trip to Holland - windmills, cheese and waffles. The information given during the bus ride was interesting but the delivery of our tour guide Ian really added to our enjoyment. Yes his jokes are corny but that’s what make Ian seem like a friend - his language skills were amazing - he went out of his way to make sur3 everyone knew where and when they needed to be and was always there to answer questions. The driver Andre was also more than just the guy a the wheel and all the staff at the sites we visited were happy to see our team.

My family and I thoroughly enjoyed the tour. The main tour guide, Ian, was awesome! He kept us together and entertained us as well. Well worth the time. We enjoyed the cheese very much. The shoe maker was interesting. The windmills were impressive. Great tour overall!!

This tour lets you see so much and allows a visitor to experience so much of the areas surrounding Amsterdam. Be prepared for an extreme amount of walking. If you have physical limitations, please keep in mind that you are required to do a lot of walking. The tour bus drops you off several times and you must walk with the tour guide. There is no way to avoid all that walking.

We had a good time joining the tour. Tour guide was professional, friendly, knowledgeable, helpful, speaks well and with a smiling face all the time. Because it was a big group, we had 3 guides and a driver. Everyone of them are wonderful. We enjoyed the tour at Zaanse Schans, Marken and the cruise to Volendam. Beautiful sceneries and amazed by the architectures. A must to visit when you are in Amsterdam. Plus point to the tour guides. Thank you for an enjoyable day.

An interesting and informative trip seeing many of the things Amsterdam has to offer. Windmills, Cheese factory and Clog factory.

Enjoy, guides are friendly, the bus comfortable. Too bad, time running fast. Recommed this trip to everybody.

Would have appreciated more time at Zaanse Schans and especially in Volendam .. Lot of good shops and eateries But absolutely no time .

My family and I (6 total) really enjoyed the 8:45 tour on Sunday, March 31! We are from various places in the US but meet up for travel and family time across the world. We learned about cheese, clogs and windmills in a serene environment. Ian was a PERFECT tour guide with plenty of info and most importantly...jokes. He made the tour worthwhile! He even stopped at our table as we crossed the canal and told us about his time in Spain and how he came to learn all of his languages. He told us about the beauty of Spain’s beaches and much more. Equally as charming was Steve!!! On all of the tours we’ve been on, the driver doesn’t interact but Steve was the loveliest of the bunch! He sang on the intercom, told his own variety of jokes and even complimented my cousin’s hairstyle. At the cheese factory he was nice enough to not only take our photo but had us move behind the flowers to get the best shot. I cannot rave enough about the staff here. While the tour itself was nice, these two guys made it the BEST experience we had in Amsterdam!!! Warmest Regards, Shereeta;)

A very nice trip -- windmills, cheese, stroopwaffles, wooden shoes -- bus was plenty comfortable and the guides were very friendly.

We had a great time and would recommend this trip, it is a bit of a tourist trap but you do learn about Amsterdam. Great team effort with our tour guides

Delihtful tour - breath taking dutch country life- Wind mills amazing - clogg making demonstration interesting - Super guide Quan

Windmills, Wooden Shoes, and Cheese...oh my! Excellent day trip that provides a lot of bang for the buck. You get some history or the Netherlands, engineering lessons, and cheese tasting all in one day! Highly recommend this excursion. Family friendly as well, so take the kids.