Beach Day In Zandvoort, Netherlands

I have been visiting Amsterdam for 11 years, and I didn’t realize until my 3rd or 4th trip, how close it was to the ocean.

Now that I live here, I feel pretty silly for not recognizing this because nearly 1/3 of The Netherlands is surrounded by ocean. The country has 450km of coastline along the North Sea, 450km of land boundary with Belgium and 575km of land boundary with Germany.

In the yellow zone of the map, you can see Haarlem, which is where I live. From our front door to the Zandvoort coast is about 12km - a 20 minute drive, 40 minute bus ride, or a 35-50 minute bike ride (depending on the route you take).

We took the bike path through the Zuid-Kennemerland National Park. It was interesting to watch the scenery change from almost Alpine-like to sandy dunes.

When we got to the town of Zandvoort, we stopped at Blue Zone Espresso for Americanos and to share a pastry. Usually I get one of their smoothie bowls (they’re so fresh and beautiful) but we were saving our appetite for lunch on the beach.

Then we walked along the boardwalk to people watch and decide where we wanted to go for lunch. Clay spotted Hippie Fish, so we did a pass by and it looked super fun and lively. We were grateful to get a table under an umbrella and thrilled that they were dog-friendly.

We got a regular lemonade and a strawberry lemonade. Both were delicious, but we agreed that the original was better. Then we shared a fish and chips - my favorite meal to get on the coast. My dad has always been a big fish and chips fan, so I think it makes me feel sentimental because it reminds me of going to Long John Silvers with him as a kid and ringing the bell.

Even though it was a Saturday, we were able to get a table without a reservation but if you are going with a bigger group (especially on a summer weekend), I’d definitely recommend planning ahead because there were very few empty tables. If Hippie Fish is booked, Ubuntu has similar atmosphere and I really enjoy it as well!