Amsterdam's Fairy-Tale Villages: Edam - Volendam

Every shade of green, colourful towns, houses like Lego... Hello again to Amsterdam's peaceful towns! Edam, Volendam, Marken..

The Town of Peace and Quiet: Edam

Although life began with fishermen and farmers settling in the town, today its worldwide fame comes from cheese. For those who don't know, this is home to the very, very famous Edam Cheese. Cheese production continues, and you can visit the cheese factories for tasting and shopping. Since they're like museums, you'll hardly notice the time passing! My suggestion is to taste and decide on the cheese you like. Prices here are higher because of the tourist effect. If you have time, you can buy the cheese you liked here at a better price in central Amsterdam.

The most important thing that impressed us in the town was its lovely architecture. Cobblestones, quiet streets, canals running into one another! And there are tiny bridges that open and close. Edam has gone on the list of places you shouldn't come back without seeing.

Getting there

​You can get to Edam from many points. With the 10€ unlimited day ticket sold as "Go Dutch" at the EBS offices at Amsterdam Central, you can use all the buses below. If you buy online, you pay 9€ for the ticket. There are 3 routes on which the tickets can be used. If you like, you can make your own route like us, or follow the routes shown on the map.

Note: The EBS ticket office at Amsterdam central train station opens at 09.00 in the morning. If you want to make the most of the day, you can save time by buying your tickets 1 day in advance.

• If you're coming from Volendam, you can get there in 10-12 minutes using bus number 316.
• If you're coming from Amsterdam like us, you can get there in 30 minutes using bus number 314.

The Fishing Town: Volendam

The first things that come to mind when you say the town of Volendam, which is quite a bit bigger than the towns of Edam and Zaanse Schans, are fishing and fish. So much so that it's said almost all the fish sold in Amsterdam come from Volendam.

Having come somewhere like Volendam, the first thing is to eat fish! You should definitely add it to your plan... Sharing fish served at lovely restaurants with your loved ones at long, pleasant tables is a special pleasure, but if like us you don't have much time, you can eat it fried. As we mentioned in our Amsterdam Travel Guide, one fish you should eat is Herring. 😋 There are delicious sauces with it too.

Coming from Brussels, we didn't really do dessert tasting around here. After Brussels, the paradise of waffles and chocolate, we're off to Bruges too! Bring on the calories 😬

For those who didn't visit in Edam, here too you can visit the Cheese Museum
, very close to the waterfront. Perfect for us middle-of-the-road travellers: entry is free, and on top of that you can do cheese tasting. 😋

If, like us, you're lucky enough to go in along with a tourist group, you can get good information from the demonstrations on cheese making given in different languages downstairs. As I mentioned for Edam, it'll also be more economical to do your cheese tasting here and leave the shopping for central Amsterdam.

At Albert Heijn, the Netherlands' local supermarket, you can find good cheeses at very economical prices. We bought nearly 3 kilograms of cheese. Of course, whatever European city you're in, don't forget the Lidl factor. We didn't come across one in Amsterdam, but in Belgium we bought lovely Amsterdam cheeses from Lidl too.

Another striking thing in Volendam is that at old photo studios you can have wonderful photos taken in old local costumes to remember later.

Getting there

You can get to Volendam from many points. By buying the 10€ unlimited day ticket sold as "Go Dutch" at the EBS offices at Amsterdam train station, you can use all the buses below. If you buy online, you pay 9€ for the ticket. There are 3 routes on which you can use these tickets. If you like, you can make your own route like us, or use the routes on the map.

• If you're coming from Edam like us, you can get there in 10-12 minutes using buses number 110 or 316.
• If you're coming from Marken, you can use the boat called the Marken Express. But our EBS transport card isn't valid on this boat. If you want to cross by boat, you need to pay 8€ one way and 10.5€ return. There is of course a way to cross without the boat! First take bus number 315, get off at the Monnickendam-Nieuwpoortslaan stop, and then, using bus number 312 from the Monnickendam-Bernhardbrug stop, you can get there in 50 minutes.
• If you're coming from Amsterdam, you can use bus number 316, the fastest bus. Apart from that, you can also use bus number 312. I'd guess the journey will take a bit longer.

The Tiny Island: Marken

While Marken was a very old islet, with a small road from the mainland it looks like a peninsula today. Before, it could only be reached by boat; today it can be reached by land.
This town felt so sweet to us: its streets are very narrow, it has wonderful wooden houses, and there's a small harbour with services to Volendam. But the ARTT tickets we bought don't cover travel by sea. There is of course a way to cross without the boat! I'll explain it in the getting there part.

Here the houses are lined up parallel to the sea and offer a wonderful view for those who like to relax in their garden facing the sea.
There's also a small museum where you can learn the history of the town of Marken. And here there's a factory that makes Amsterdam's traditional wooden shoes.

Getting there

​You can get to Marken from many points. By buying the 10€ unlimited day ticket sold as "Go Dutch" at the EBS offices at Amsterdam train station, you can use all the buses below. If you buy online, you pay 9€ for the ticket. There are 3 routes on which you can use these tickets. If you like, you can make your own route like us, or use the routes on the map.

• If you're coming from Volendam like us and don't want to use the boat, first take bus number 316, get off at the Broek in Waterland-Dorp stop, and then, using bus number 315 from the Broek in Waterland-Village stop, you can get there in 1 hour.
• If you're coming from Edam, first take bus number 314, get off at the Monnickendam-Bernhardbrug stop, and then, using bus number 315 from the Monnickendam-Nieuwpoortslaan stop, you can get there in 40 minutes.
  get off at the stop and then you can get there with bus number 311.
• If you're coming from Amsterdam, you can get there in 40 minutes using bus number 315.

The Old Town: Monnickendam

In this town, older than the other places, after seeing so many places we didn't come across anything surprising. We realise that the building that looks like a church from outside is actually the town museum. As you'll see earlier in the post, every town has a museum. Depending on your time, you can visit one of them.

Getting there

Since Monnickendam is very close to central Amsterdam, getting there is both easier and quicker.

• If you're coming from Amsterdam, you can get there in 25-30 minutes using buses number 312 or 315.
• If you're coming from Marken like us, you can get there in 10-15 minutes using bus number 315.
• If, like us, you chose Monnickendam as your last stop and you're returning to Amsterdam, you can be in the city centre in 20 minutes using one of buses number 312, 314 or 316.