Things to do in Edam and Marken
Edam gave its name to a cheese and no longer has a cheese farm; Marken was an island until 1957 and still feels like one. Two old Zuiderzee villages half an hour from Amsterdam, with Volendam in between.
- About half an hour from Amsterdam
Two villages on a sea that is gone
Until 1932 both of these villages looked out on the Zuiderzee, an arm of the North Sea that reached almost to Amsterdam. Edam is named after a dam across the little river Ee, built around 1230, and by the sixteenth century it had thirty-three shipyards. Then the harbour silted up, the yards faded, and cheese — traded here until 1922 — was left to carry the town.
Marken went the other way. It was a low island that survived by raising its houses on mounds, and when a storm surge hit the Zuiderzee in January 1916 some of those houses toppled anyway. That storm set the Afsluitdijk in motion. The dam shut the sea out in 1932, and a causeway tied Marken to the mainland in 1957; it is a peninsula now, and it still feels like an island.
Which day to go to Edam
Edam is small and has one big day: the cheese market, on Wednesday mornings in July and August. If you want the porters and the hand-clapping, go then, and go early. If you do not, avoid it — on any other day the same square is quiet and you get the canals, the museum and the leaning tower without a crowd.
The cheese deserves a word. Edam is the red-waxed ball, and it was made to travel: it ages well and hardens rather than spoiling, which is why it went to sea. The Netherlands makes some 27 million of them a year, and there is no longer a cheese farm in Edam. Buy it by all means; just do not expect to see it made.
Putting the two together
Edam, Volendam, Monnickendam and Marken are strung along the old Zuiderzee coast, and Volendam is the one in the middle — ten minutes from Edam, with the boat across to Marken in season. By road, the way out to Marken is through Monnickendam and then along a three-kilometre causeway. Volendam has its own guide, so we will not repeat it here.
Edam, Volendam and Marken together make an easy half day; add Zaanse Schans and it becomes a full one. If it rains, the two museums are the answer: the Edams Museum for the cellar, the Marker Museum for the island’s history and costume.
What to see
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The Edam cheese market
On Wednesday mornings in July and August the Kaasmarkt is staged as it was before real trading stopped in 1922: porters in white with coloured straw hats carry the cheeses on wooden barrows, buyers and sellers clap hands to bargain the price — the old handjeklap — and the cheeses are weighed at the Waag. It was revived for visitors in 1989.
Driver’s tip: It is a re-enactment, and good-natured about it. Give it twenty minutes at the Waag, then go and see the town while everyone else is still watching.
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The Edams Museum and its floating cellar
The oldest brick house in Edam, a stone merchant's house of the mid-16th century on the Damplein, now a museum of the town's past. Its cellar is a loose chamber that floats on the groundwater, so it rose and fell with the Zuiderzee and never flooded.
Driver’s tip: Go down into the cellar first; it is the reason to buy the ticket. Local legend says a sea captain who missed the water had it built so he could feel it move.
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The Speeltoren and the Kwakelbrug
The Speeltoren is a leaning Gothic carillon tower, all that remains of a church pulled down in 1882; it was propped with steel in 1972 when it threatened to fall. The Kwakelbrug is a narrow 18th-century wooden drawbridge, one of the few seesaw bridges left in the town, raised by pulling a chain.
Driver’s tip: Stand in the Kleine Kerkstraat, where the tower leans over the street, on the quarter hour, when the carillon plays. The Grote Kerk, a hundred metres away, was rebuilt after a lightning fire in 1601 and has 32 stained-glass windows.
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Marken's houses on their mounds
Marken is a village of timber houses painted a green so dark it reads as black in the shade, standing on mounds called werven that the islanders raised to stay above the water. Many are listed monuments. The storm surge of January 1916 knocked some of them clean over — the storm that set the Afsluitdijk in motion.
Driver’s tip: These are homes, not exhibits — about 1,700 people live on Marken — so stay on the paths and keep cameras away from the windows.
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The Marker Museum
A small museum opened in 1983 on the history of the island: traditional dress, and how people lived on a mound in a sea that kept coming in.
Driver’s tip: Go in first, before you walk the village. The mounds and the costume both make more sense afterwards.
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The Paard van Marken
The Horse of Marken is a 16-metre lighthouse of 1839 at the eastern tip of the peninsula, at the end of a flat walk of about two kilometres from the village. It is not open to visitors.
Driver’s tip: The point is the walk, not the building: flat and exposed, with nothing between you and the Markermeer. Take a windproof.
Where is it?
Day trips that go there
Windmills & villages — three stops
Our most booked full day. Working windmills in the morning, herring on the harbour at lunch, and the old island village of Marken in the afternoon — three of the country's best-known places in one unhurried trip.
Shore excursions — Amsterdam & IJmuiden
For cruise passengers docking in Amsterdam or IJmuiden. We meet you at the terminal, spend the whole day wherever you choose — windmills, fishing villages, the tulip fields, Amsterdam itself — and have you back at the ship at least an hour before all-aboard.
Frequently asked questions
When is the Edam cheese market?
On Wednesday mornings in July and August only. It is a re-enactment of the market that ended in 1922, revived in 1989. At any other time of year Edam is a quiet town with a handsome square, so if the market is the point of your trip, plan the day around a Wednesday.
Is Marken worth it if I have seen Volendam?
Yes, because they are different places. Volendam is a harbour front with costume studios and restaurants; Marken is a quieter village of timber houses on mounds, with a museum and a lighthouse walk. Most people do both, with the boat between them in season.
How do you get from Edam to Marken?
By road, through Volendam and Monnickendam, then across a three-kilometre causeway — the one that ended Marken's life as an island in 1957. In season you can also take the boat from Volendam.
Can you drive us to Edam and Marken?
Yes — we are based in Amsterdam, and Marken is the last stop on our full day through Zaanse Schans and Volendam. Edam is ten minutes up the road from Volendam, so if you want it included, message us on WhatsApp with what you have in mind and we will tell you the price before you commit to anything.