Starting next year, tourists will have to fork out €17.50 for the privilege of visiting the Zaanse Schans – one of Holland’s prettiest postcards comes to life.
This open-air museum may look like a peaceful 19th-century dream, but behind the clogs and windmills lies a modern dilemma: almost 2.6 million visitors a year and not enough money to keep the mills turning.
According to the NOS, the Zaanstad city council has decided it’s time to start charging at the door.
A price tag for open air?
The crowds are thick, and yet the local municipality is struggling to scrape together enough funds to maintain its beautiful old mills. An entry fee of €17.50 could solve this dilemma. But how would this even look in practice?
At a debate on Tuesday night, one proposal was to adopt no physical fences. Instead, visitors would buy a ticket from a machine and show it when asked.
This would let locals enter freely while keeping the site ticket-controlled for others.
But now, controversy swirls faster than a windmill blade.
The proposed entry fee has sparked a heated debate between the municipality, residents, and neighbours — none of whom seem to agree on whether charging visitors is a brilliant idea or utter blasphemy.
Parked campers and frayed tempers
Tourism professor Jan van der Borg is firmly in the “it’s too crowded” camp. “Then it’s just too busy,” he tells NPO Radio 1.
“Local residents experience a lot of parking nuisance. It is completely closed and in surrounding neighborhoods people park their campers on your driveway.” (No word yet on whether they at least bring stroopwafels.)
Meanwhile, windmill operators point out that many parts of the Schans – like some of the mills – already charge entry. Why slap a price tag on the whole thing?
READ MORE | The ultimate guide to the Zaanse Schans: visiting the windmills of Holland
Photographer Daan Engels passionately defends free access: “The Zaanse Schans is a living heritage,” he says. “Not a closed-off amusement park like the Efteling!”
Opponents of the fee have rallied under the catchy slogan “Hou de Zaanse Schans open” – “Keep the Zaanse Schans open” and asked for a referendum.
While the council has made their decision, this could (hopefully) change things.
Have you ever visited Zaanse Schans? If not, are you planning to go, especially now that they might start charging for entry? Let us know in the comments below!
