Europe >> Benelux >> Netherlands >> North-Holland

North-Holland (Dutch: Noord-Holland) is a Province of the Netherlands. It is the northern half of the old County of Holland, and contains many of the historic cities, towns, and landscapes considered typical of the country. The name 'Holland' is often used for the whole country, but North-Holland should not be confused with the northern Netherlands, which consists of Friesland, Groningen (province) and Drente.

Regions

Cities and towns

Culture and History

North-Holland is one of the twelve provinces and consists of about 60 municipalities. It can be divided into the following regions:

  • The part of the province north of Amsterdam - With its cow-filled meadows, ditches and windmills, even today much of this area is still archetypically Dutch. The old towns on the IJsselmeer such as Volendam, Marken and Enkhuizen are picturesque too.
  • The North Sea coast - Almost the entire coastline consists of wide, sandy beaches. In summer, especially Zandvoort draws many inhabitants of Amsterdam.
  • "Het Gooi" (the area to the east of Weesp) - Because of its forests, heaths and access to the IJsselmeer, Het Gooi is a very desirable area to live in. Many television-related organizations are based here.
  • The triangle between Haarlem, Amsterdam and Schiphol Airport - This is arguably the economic heart of the country and riddled with modern office buildings. Companies like ABN Amro and Philips have their headquarters here.

Talk

With the exception of immigrants, most people in North-Holland speak standard Dutch, with standard pronunciation. Many speak English, although often not as well as they think they do.

Travel to North-Holland - Visa Requirements

By car

  • The highway E22/A7 passes over the Afsluitdijk from Friesland

Buses to North-Holland

  • Bus 350 from Alkmaar or Leeuwarden enters North-Holland via the Afsluitdijk, but it also stops at all major points of interest along the way.

Flights and airtickets to North-Holland

As it is home to Schiphol Airport, North-Holland is easy to reach by plane.

By train

International train services connect Schiphol/Amsterdam with Germany as well as Belgium/France.

Tours and Getting around North-Holland

There is an excellent public transport network throughout the Netherlands and particularly in the highly populated province of North-Holland. Buses and railways criss-cross the region with services reaching all but the most remote villages. Larger cities in North Holland (Amsterdam, Haarlem, Hilversum) also have trams and sometimes light railways (metros). Planning routes across the region (and throughout the country) is exceptionally easy because of the co-operation between the service providers. http://www.9292ov.nl provides a comprehensive point-to-point public transport route planner covering all major transport types.

North-Holland tourist attractions and sightseeing

  • Amsterdam of course!
  • The Zaanse Schans. It is an open air conservation area and museum, on the bank of the river Zaan, north of Amsterdam in Zaandam (Zaanstad). It displays the traditional architecture of the area (green wooden houses) and has several functioning windmills and craftmen's workplaces, which are open to visitors.
  • The Afsluitdijk. A 32km long dike connecting North-Holland and Friesland. Built in 1930 to close what is now the IJsselmeer from being flooded by the North Sea. The dike was built as part of a plan to reclaim land in the IJsselmeer; this land became the province of Flevoland.
  • The Kazematten Museum. The bunkers defending the entrance to the Afsluitdijk were a vital part of Hollands defence plan during the Second World War. Some of the bunkers have been restored, with period-appropriate weapons, equipment and everyday items giving an overview of the soldiers' life inside the bunkers in 1940.
  • Het Monument. A small statue of a dike-builder which has been placed on the spot where the dike was closed in 1932. Next to the monument is a plaque, cafe and a watchtower where (because of all the water) you can see the Wadden islands on a bright day.
  • Medieval castle Muiderslot. In Muiden, just outside and east of Amsterdam. With 17th Century-style herbal and vegetable gardens. Website castle (in Dutch, but a lot of images and video).

North-Holland city tours

North-Holland Restaurants: cheap, moderate and expensive

North-Holland nightlife, bars, clubs and pubs

Get out

a fun thing to do in holland (netherlands) is to go to a market and see their famous wooden shoes. Although you'll have to go to the typical tourist-markets (oude ambachten), because contrary to what most of the world thinks, the Dutch wear normal shoes. Only a small percent of the people (most of them work on farms) actually wear them.

Destinations in North-Holland:

This page was last edited by Peter Fitzgerald. Based on work by Patrick, Stacy Hall, Nick Roux, Ravikiran Rao and Evan Prodromou, Wikitravel user(s) Episteme and Wesopa, Anonymous user(s) of Wikitravel and others. - Content on this page is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 1.0 license

Didn't find what you were looking for?
Submit your question to the North-Holland travel forum
Subject
Question / Comment
Note: HTML tags will be removed.
Your Name (required)
Your Email (will not be published) (required)
Website (Optional)

Note: Hitting submit you grant Traveltips24 the right to edit, display and store the content you provide.