An historic Dutch village with just 100 residents is set to start charging visitors an entry fee in an effort to bring down overtourism and raise money to pay for facilities. Zaanse Schans, around half an hour north of central Amsterdam, recorded 2.6 million tourists in 2024, making it one of the most “overtouristed” places in the world, with locals outnumbered 1 to 26,000.
The attraction? A series of typical Dutch windmills, with colourful wooden weatherboarding, thatching, and of course, sails that make for great Instagram content against the surrounding flat landscape, especially when the tulip fields are in bloom. With woodworking and clog-making, a weaver’s house and a cooperage, the village is essentially an open-air and open-access heritage site.
But from 2026, Zaanse Schans is introducing a €17.50 fee for access. The idea is to raise funds for better toilet facilities and maintenance, and perhaps to reduce tourism to a more manageable degree.
Opinions on the new charge are divided. The director of the village museum, Marieke Verweij, is in favour of the move, telling the BBC: “In 2017 we had 1.7 million visitors… this year we’re heading for 2.8 million. But this is a small place! We just don’t have room for all these people!” Verweij also describes poor visitor behaviour, including intrusions into local gardens, public urination, and even the use of selfie sticks to peer inside residents’ homes. There’s “no privacy at all,” she claims.
On the other side of the debate, the owners of local retail and restaurant outlets, such as Sterre Schaap of Trash and Treasures gift shop, located in a building that dates back to 1623, fear the entry fee will reduce both footfall and visitor spending. “It’s awful. It will mean that people who don’t have a big wallet won’t be able to come here,” Schaap says. “It will mean that we will lose a lot of our shoppers. If you’re with a family of four and you have parking, it will be around €100. So people won’t have a lot of budget over for other stuff,” she says.
While some might point out that reducing footfall is precisely one of the aims of the fee, others note that there is already a similar charge for adults to visit the local museum €16, and that the new levy, that will give access to both the museum and two windmills, is significantly cheaper than the Zaanse Schans Card (€ 29,50) which does the same (with added benefits) – which may undermine its deterrent effect.
What’s more, it could be argued that charging a general access fee will make visitors feel even more entitled to behave however they like, as they have paid for their day out in the village, potentially giving them a feeling of ownership. Views on the fee were mixed among visitors interviewed by reporters. Some agreed it’s a good initiative, while others suggested they might give the village a miss if they had to pay to get in.
For an alternative day out on the outskirts of Amsterdam, the town of Almere, just 40 years old and The Netherlands’ newest, features a selection of adventurous civic and private architecture and a development of unrestricted and individual contemporary housing, where “grand designers” have constructed an eclectic variety of homes and offices that resemble boats, upside-down residences, and villas built on such an angle they appear to lean into the horizon. Currently, there is no charge to wander around.
