Alkmaar is the cheese city, and on a Friday morning between spring and autumn that is not a marketing line: thirty thousand kilos of Gouda and Edam are laid out on the Waagplein before nine, prices are still settled by slapping hands, and men in coloured straw hats run barrows of cheese to the weigh house in front of you. The rest of the week it is a quiet walled town of canals and bridges with a serious history behind it, because in 1573 Alkmaar became the first Dutch city to survive a Spanish siege. It is thirty-five minutes north of Amsterdam by direct train.
ProvinceNoord-Holland
From AmsterdamAbout 35 min, 4 direct trains an hour
Cheese marketFridays 10:00 to 13:00, late March to late September
Known forThe cheese market and the 1573 siege
Things to see & do
Highlights in Alkmaar
01
The cheese market on the Waagplein
The market runs every Friday from the last Friday in March to the last Friday in September, 10:00 to 13:00, and it is a working market rather than a re-enactment. The setters lay out around 30,000 kilos of cheese, roughly 2,400 wheels, before 09:30. At 10:00 the cheese bell rings, inspectors bore samples out of the wheels, and prices are agreed by handjeklap, the traditional hand-slapping. The carriers' guild dates from 17 June 1593 and works in four teams called vemen, each with its own colour of straw hat: red, green, blue and yellow. The cheese father who runs them wears orange and carries a silver-topped cane. Two carriers move a barrow holding well over 100 kilos.
Free, and busiest between 10:00 and 11:00. There is also an evening market on Tuesdays from 19:00 to 21:00 in July and August, which is far quieter.
The weigh house on the Waagplein started life in the 14th century as the chapel of the Holy Spirit hospital and was converted to a weigh house by 1583, with the present tower added between 1597 and 1603. Its carillon has 47 bells and keeps the historic meantone tuning of the 1688 original. On the hour, mounted knights ride out of the tower and joust while a wooden trumpeter sounds his horn. The Dutch Cheese Museum and the tourist office are both inside the building.
Stand on the square a few minutes before the hour so you catch the jousting figures. The carillonneur plays on Saturday mornings year round and on market Fridays in season.
A Brabantine Gothic basilica begun in 1470 and the largest monument in the city. It holds two remarkable organs: the choir organ built by Jan van Covelens in 1511, the oldest playable organ in the Netherlands, and the west organ finished in 1645 in a case designed by Jacob van Campen and rebuilt by Frans Caspar Schnitger in 1723. Floris V, Count of Holland, is buried here, and a Last Judgement by Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen is painted on the vault.
Free to enter, but the visiting season runs roughly from late March to mid-September and the open days change within it, so check before you walk over. Concerts are ticketed separately.
The city museum on the Canadaplein, built around Alkmaar's own collection: the story of the town and the siege, and a permanent room for the Bergen School, the expressionist painters who worked in the dune villages just west of here.
Open Tuesday to Sunday, 11:00 to 17:00, so it is closed on Mondays. Book through the museum's own ticket shop.
Forty-five minutes through the old canals with a guide, passing under twenty bridges, several of them low enough that everyone on board has to duck. Boats leave from De Mient, a minute from the Waagplein.
9,50 euro for adults and 7,50 for children up to ten. Cash and bank cards only, no credit cards. On market Fridays boats go every twenty minutes from 10:00, otherwise hourly in summer.
Housed in the old De Boom brewery on the Houttil, with the brewing gear still in place and a tasting room upstairs pouring four beers brewed for the museum. Entry includes an audio tour and a map for a brewery walk around the town.
Open Thursday 13:00 to 17:00 and Friday and Saturday 12:00 to 17:00, closed Sunday to Wednesday. 9,50 euro for the museum, 17 euro with a tasting or a guided tour.
An unlikely thing to find in a Dutch provincial town, and it calls itself the largest Beatles museum in the world at 1,800 square metres. One ticket also covers two other collections in the same building: models of the offshore pirate radio ships that broadcast to the Netherlands, and a walk through the history of recorded sound and vision.
15 euro, and the Museumkaart is not accepted. It is on the Pettemerstraat, about fifteen minutes north of the Waagplein on foot. From 1 October it closes on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Getting thereFour direct trains an hour run from Amsterdam Centraal and the journey takes about 35 minutes. From Alkmaar station the historic centre is a quarter of an hour on foot, and on market days the route is waymarked with signs shaped like blocks of cheese that lead straight to the Waagplein. Coming from Schiphol, change at Amsterdam Sloterdijk or Amsterdam Zuid. Drivers should use one of the central parking garages, or the park and ride sites at Bergermeer and Oudorp and take the bus in.
Getting aroundThe centre is small, flat and almost entirely walkable: nothing on this page except the Beatles Museum is more than ten minutes from the Waagplein. There is an OV-fiets hire point at the station if you want to ride out into the polders.
Best time to visitA Friday morning in the cheese market season, which runs from the last Friday in March to the last Friday in September. In 2027 that means 26 March to 24 September. The other date worth planning around is 8 October, when the city marks the lifting of the 1573 siege with a huge afternoon parade, a lantern procession after dark and a traditional sauerkraut meal.
Time neededA morning covers the cheese market and the Waag. A full day lets you add the Grote Kerk, a museum and a canal cruise, and still be back in Amsterdam for dinner.
Tickets & passesThe cheese market and the Grote Kerk are both free. The Museumkaart covers the Stedelijk Museum but not the Beatles Museum. Nothing in Alkmaar needs booking weeks ahead, though the canal boats fill up on market Fridays.
From our guides
Worth knowing before you go
The cheese market season is set by the calendar, not by fixed dates: it opens on the last Friday in March and closes on the last Friday in September, so always check the year you are travelling.
Go early. The setters have the whole square covered in cheese before 09:30, and watching that happen from an empty Waagplein is better than watching the 10:00 opening from six rows back.
The National Beer Museum is open only Thursday, Friday and Saturday, which catches people out on a Sunday day trip.
Follow the cheese-block signs from the station rather than a map app: it is the same quarter of an hour and it takes you in through the old streets.
Gallery
Alkmaar in pictures
Plan your visit
Useful links
Official sources, so you can check today's hours and prices rather than trusting ours. All open in a new tab.
During the cheese market season, tourist coaches set down and pick up at the Molenbuurt, and park for the duration at the Wielerbaan car park on Terborchlaan. Groups walk in from the Molenbuurt drop-off.
Every Friday from 10:00 to 13:00, from the last Friday in March to the last Friday in September, on the Waagplein. In July and August there is also an evening market on Tuesdays from 19:00 to 21:00.
Is the Alkmaar cheese market free?
Yes. It is a public square and there is no ticket. If you want a seat rather than a place in the crowd, the cafes around the Waagplein put terraces out along the edge of the market.
How do I get from Amsterdam to Alkmaar?
Four direct trains an hour from Amsterdam Centraal, about 35 minutes, then a fifteen-minute walk from Alkmaar station to the Waagplein.
Is Alkmaar worth visiting outside the cheese market season?
Yes, though it is a calmer day. The canals, the Grote Kerk with its 1511 organ, the city museum and the beer museum are all there year round, and the town is far less busy than Haarlem or Amsterdam.
Why is Alkmaar known for the year 1573?
Alkmaar was besieged by the Spanish army from 21 August 1573. William of Orange had the surrounding dikes cut on 23 September, flooding the polders where the Spanish were camped, and they withdrew on 8 October. It was the first city to hold out against a Spanish siege in the Eighty Years' War, which is why the Dutch say the victory began at Alkmaar.
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