Here's a truth nobody wants to print on the postcards: in the high summer, Amsterdam gets busy. Gloriously, suffocatingly, shoulder-to-shoulder busy. The canals are jammed, the museums sell out, and the city center starts to feel like a beautiful, slightly sweaty theme park. After fourteen years, I've learned the local survival trick: when Amsterdam fills up, you get out. The Netherlands is tiny and the trains are excellent, so half the magic of living here is how easily you can escape it. Let me take you on my three favorite day trips.
Zandvoort: the beach you didn't know Amsterdam had
Most visitors have no idea that Amsterdam has a proper sandy beach barely half an hour away by train. Zandvoort aan Zee is a breezy North Sea beach town, and on a hot day the direct train from Amsterdam Centraal practically empties the city of in-the-know locals.
The wide sandy beach is lined with strandtenten, those wonderful beach clubs where you can rent a lounger, order cocktails, and watch the sea all afternoon. Some are family-friendly and laid-back; others turn into open-air dance parties as the sun goes down. There's a famous stretch of naturist beach if that's your thing, and a lively, welcoming gay beach section too, which is exactly where you'll find me with an overpriced spritz and zero regrets.
Beyond sunbathing, Zandvoort has the buzzing Formula 1 racetrack (the Dutch Grand Prix turns the whole town electric), great seafood, and dunes you can walk or cycle through. Go for the day, swim, eat fries by the water, and catch the train back salty and happy.
Haarlem: Amsterdam's prettier, calmer sibling
If Zandvoort is the beach escape, Haarlem is the charm escape, and it's conveniently on the same train line, just fifteen minutes from Amsterdam. Haarlem is what people imagine Amsterdam to be before the crowds arrived: cobbled streets, canals, gabled houses, and a magnificent central square without anyone trying to sell you a canal-cruise ticket every ten meters.
The heart of it is the Grote Markt, the grand main square, dominated by the towering Grote Kerk (St. Bavo Church), a stunning Gothic church with a famous organ that Mozart and Handel both played. Around the square you'll find buzzing cafe terraces perfect for a long lazy lunch.
Don't miss the Frans Hals Museum, dedicated to the Golden Age master, and the Teylers Museum, the oldest museum in the country and a gorgeously weird cabinet of curiosities, fossils, instruments, and art. Haarlem is also famous for its hofjes, hidden almshouse courtyards tucked behind unassuming doors, little pockets of green silence in the middle of town. And the shopping is wonderful: independent boutiques, antique stores, and proper old Dutch bruin cafes (brown bars) for a beer. Haarlem is my answer every time someone says "I wish Amsterdam were less crowded." It's right there, and it's lovely.
Den Bosch: medieval charm and the country's largest cathedral
For something further afield and gloriously untouristed, head south to 's-Hertogenbosch, known to everyone with a normal-sized mouth as Den Bosch. It's about an hour and a bit by train, and it rewards you with one of the most atmospheric old towns in the Netherlands.
The crown jewel is St. John's Cathedral (Sint-Janskathedraal), the largest cathedral in the country, a breathtaking Gothic masterpiece bristling with flying buttresses, gargoyles, and hundreds of carved stone figures, including a famously bizarre little stone man perched on the roof. Step inside and crane your neck; it's the kind of building that makes even a jaded fourteen-year resident go quiet.
Den Bosch is also the hometown of the painter Hieronymus Bosch, the original master of glorious nightmares, and the Jheronimus Bosch Art Center celebrates his wonderfully unhinged imagination. After culture, do the very local thing and eat a Bossche bol, an enormous chocolate-covered cream puff that is frankly a dare disguised as a dessert. Wander the medieval streets, take a boat tour through the Binnendieze, the atmospheric covered canals running beneath the old city, and soak up a town that feels a century away from Amsterdam's rush.
How to make the most of it
- Trains are your best friend. All three are reachable from Amsterdam Centraal, and you can simply tap your contactless bank card to ride, no special ticket needed.
- Go early on hot, busy days. You'll beat both the heat and the crowds, and have the towns to yourself before lunch.
- Pack light and flexible. Swimwear for Zandvoort, comfortable shoes for the cobbles of Haarlem and Den Bosch.
- Eat local. Seafood at the beach, terrace lunches in Haarlem, and a Bossche bol you'll be talking about for weeks.
The genius of Amsterdam isn't just the city itself, it's everything within an easy train ride of it. So when summer turns the canals into a crush, do as the locals do: grab your sunglasses, tap your card, and let the rest of the Netherlands show you a calmer, just as charming, side of this beautiful little country.