Zandvoort aan Zee

Zandvoort is where Amsterdam goes to the sea: a direct train from Centraal takes about half an hour, the station is a few hundred metres from the sand, and on a hot day the trains run full and the beach fills for kilometres. It is a nine-kilometre stretch of North Sea beach with a long line of seasonal beach clubs put up each spring and taken down each autumn, a boulevard, and dunes behind. Circuit Zandvoort, built into the dune ground in 1948 partly on wartime road works, held the Dutch Grand Prix from the 1950s to 1985 and after a rebuild hosted it again in Formula 1 from 2021 to 2026 - race weekend brought well over a hundred thousand people and the town was entirely given over to it. The beach is naturist in a marked section and there is kitesurfing at the northern end. The Kennemer dunes run behind.

History

Zandvoort is known from 1100 as Sandevoerde, "sand ford", and lived from fishing for centuries until it began to turn into a seaside resort in the 19th century, opening its first resort in 1828. The railway station near the coast opened in 1881 and a tram to Haarlem in 1899, which greatly increased beach tourism, and Circuit Zandvoort was built in 1948 (Wikipedia, Zandvoort).

The main sights

• Amsterdam's beach - half an hour by direct train, and it fills accordingly.
• Seasonal beach clubs - put up each spring along nine kilometres of sand.
• A Formula 1 circuit - built into the dunes in 1948 and back in the calendar from 2021 to 2026.
• Dunes behind - the Kennemer reserve running inland from the boulevard.

When to go

May to September. A day.

Before you go

Extremely crowded on hot days and the trains are packed. Race weekend fills the town and accommodation entirely. The North Sea is cold and there are rip currents - swim between the flags.

Nearby

The Amsterdamse Waterleidingduinen are south; Haarlem is inland.