One of the most famous day trips is visiting Volendam and Marken island, you can do it in 1 day (actually one afternoon) there are very small places. They are very touristic places, restaurants shops they live thanks to that and fish.
HOW TO GET TO MARKEN
If there is one thing the Dutch can be proud of, it is their excellent public transportation. From the central station of Amsterdam, all the buses leave to visit the charming towns that surround the capital.
Our recommendation is that you buy a day ticket that costs 12.50 € (Waterland ticket) and that will allow you to make all journeys and transfers for a day, enough time to visit two or three villages. The buses are the red ones of the EBS company. To get these buses you just need to cross the train station.
To go to Marken we took bus 315 that in little more than half an hour left us in the same town. There is no direct bus from Amsterdam to the island, you need to change (don’t worry is easy), so I recommend you first visit Marken and then Volendam.
MARKEN
Although currently the town of Marken is linked to the mainland by a dike built-in 1957. Until that time the town was totally isolated in the middle of the Zuiderzee on an island. Also, we were struck by the fact that what we saw of the village was barely a third of it, since the middle ages the action of the sea was gaining ground to this small population. Even so, the ingenuity of the Dutch and their innate ability to build on the land on artificial platforms allowed them to live with the tides for centuries.
VOLENDAM
To go to Volendam from Marken we have two options. Either we can take the “Marken Express” that joins both towns and cross from one cape to the other by ferry, or return by bus to Broek in Waterland and connect there with line 316 that will take us directly to Volendam. We opted for the second option since the day was not good and we would not have enjoyed it. If you are up for it, the boat ride costs 14€ each way.
Volendam is a popular tourist destination in the Netherlands, known for its old fishing boats and because some residents still wear traditional clothing. The Volendam women’s costume features a high hat and is among the best known of the traditional Dutch costumes and often appears on postcards and tourist posters.
The best thing to do is to buy some food and sit down to enjoy the views of the harbor and the boats that dock there. In Volendam is very typical eel and herring with salt and gherkin and onion, don’t leave without trying them! Do you want to know more about Netherlands food? Click here!
