"Zandvoort - starting point to explore Holland" Top 5 Page for this destination Zandvoort by laughing_lioness

Planning a trip to Holland is not very unusual for someone living only about 3-4 hours from the Dutch - German border. As we had never been to Holland before we had no clue what would await us there.

Some time ago we (my cousin Stefanie and I) had the idea of spending a weekend in Amsterdam. As we don't meet up during the year very often we decided to spend at least a weekend travelling together. Checking out the hotels in Amsterdam we realized it would be a rather expensive trip. We surfed web and by chance we stumbled across a website for a B&B in Zandvoort. Fell in love with the B&B directly and booked right away. Cute place, cheaper than most hotels in Amsterdam (didn't want to stay in hostel) and great to combine city trip and chilling at the beach (or going walks as the weather sometimes isn't that great in the beginning of May).

By train only 30 min. from Amsterdam (€ 8.30 return - change at Haarlem)

- crossing the Dutch - German border traffic slows down immediately. 120 km/h on the motorway is way to slow for 2 german girls wanting to check into the hotel and take a train to Amsterdam to join the Koninginnendag (Queensday) party.
- it's really flat - 'course we knew that (and know it from northern Germany) but it's really flat
- people are smoking pot in the backseat of cars
- nooooooo tulips anywhere - only green fields, horses and cows (that's because most tulipfields are to be found between Haarlem and Leiden)
- houses are soooo tiny (but cute) compared to the ones in Germany
- somehow we didn't get the signs for diverted traffic and always ended up in the wrong direction

Miles of white sandy beaches surrounded by dunes and due to the early time of the year not many people. PERFECT!

Loads of beach clubs, restaurants, bars, etc. Must be great fun during summertime. I believe there are quite a few beach parties going on.

There was a small trailer on the beach - almost in the water - selling deep fried seafood (why do the dutch deep fry everything?) - never seen that before. Seemed to be good business though.

• Pros:great beaches
• Cons:rather ugly big hotels at some parts along the beach
• In a nutshell:perfect combination of city trip and beach