IJMUIDEN, GATEWAY TO HOLLAND
The port of IJmuiden is part of the municipality of Velsen and situated along the North Sea canal estuary, which discharges into the sea via enormous locks. It can look back on a very rich history, reflected in its landscape and architectural variety, which combines the peace of wide beaches and dune landscapes with historic country estates, woods and the hustle and bustle of a fishing port, fish market and local industry. With its unique location and excellent infrastructure and facilities, this versatile town offers a wide scope of local recreational activities, cultural sites and a convenient and quick access to a fast range of top hinterland marquee destinations.
Cruise ships moor at the berths of the Felison Terminal, which are conveniently located on the seaward side of the locks. The elegant terminal is able to harbor cruise vessel up to 250 meters, granting time saving access to the dynamic city of Amsterdam, which is only 30 minutes away. With close access to Schiphol Airport, the Felison Terminal provides the ideal starting point for the Baltic and North Cape routes and City cruises.
IJmuiden offers a beautiful beachfront with extraordinarily wide beaches, a modern boulevard and cosy beach pavilions which are open all year round. Its Seaport Marina provides direct access to the sea and has been awarded no fewer than seven Blue Flags. Enjoying the evening summer sun, surfing the waves in autumn, going for a walk along the beach during winter and visiting the National Park “Zuid Kennemerland” with its protected dune landscape, the beachfront in IJmuiden is a glorious place to be for young and old, summer and winter.
Take a tour to visit the medieval ruins of Castle Brederode, or the embattlements on the Fort Island, part of the Unesco World Heritage List. The area hosts more than 300 national, provincial and municipal monuments.
See and hear all about IJmuiden’s nautical past at the IJmuiden Sea and Harbour museum. If you want to get that ‘seafarer’s feeling’ yourself, head for the open sea in a real fishing boat or make a festive boat trip.
Did you plan on visiting Amsterdam ? The fast hydrofoil will take you there in less than thirty minutes. See the Night watch by Rembrandt, be amazed by all the paintings in the Van Gogh Museum or take a tour via the canals and see the city from a different point of view.
IJmuiden is the perfect base for daytrips , not only to the capital. The city of Haarlem, the best shopping city of the Netherlands, with its historic city centre is a stones throw away. As are Beverwijk’s renowned indoor flea market, the largest in Europe, hosting up to 80.000 visitors a week or the beautiful nature and recreation area of Spaarnwoude, with its 54 holes public golf club, horse stables and an indoor skiing slope.
Within an three quarters of an hours travel you can reach the Alkmaar Cheese Market, a tradition since 1593, is something you don’t want to miss. On Fridays, The Waag square is prepared for the cheese carriers’ guild to go into action. About 100,000 people from all over the world visit the cheese market in Alkmaar every year.
The same applies for the Zaanse Schans, were you can experience life as it was, when the Dutch really wore those famous wooden shoes and lived in windmills. It is a delightful old hamlet on the banks of the river Zaan with characteristic green wooden houses, charming stylized gardens, small hump-backed bridges, tradesmen's workshops, historic windmills and engaging little shops. This enchanting hamlet gives an excellent impression of how a typical Zaanse village must have looked like in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Apart from the cluster of windmills and houses there are also several museums, restaurants and a visitors' centre to be found as well as the possibility of taking a boat trip on the river. The Zaanse Schans has become one of the top tourist destinations in the Netherlands.
And who would not like to immerse in the intense colors of the famous Keukenhof flowers. At under an hour’s travel from IJmuiden, with it’s inspirational gardens, weekly alternating indoor flower exhibitions, the Keukenhof surely provides a bulb of enjoyment.
So visiting IJmuiden combines an easy, time and costs saving access to Holland’s top marquee attractions, next to a broad pallet of local touristic gemstones, which are yet to be discovered by the wider audience.