Welcome to Alkmaar, a hidden gem just north of Amsterdam in North Holland, home to majestic windmills, winding canals, traditional Dutch architecture, and the oldest and largest cheese market in the world.

Great Wheels of Gouda: Alkmaar’s Historic Cheese Market

They’ve been selling cheese at this town’s Kaasmarkt since 1365! And they’ve been carrying, weighing, and ferrying it in the same way for more than 400 years. Alkmaar is the only city that still runs its cheese market in the traditional manner (albeit now with an announcer and a Jumbotron). Every Friday morning, you can watch the delights of cheese ballet as the cheese guild members strap on their carrying pallets to move wheels of Gouda to and from the ancient weighing scales.

You can also see them moving the cheese around on old carts and then transporting it gondola-style through the city’s canals.

I’m not sure how much of this is done to keep Alkmaar on the tourist map, but it’s fun to see them keeping the tradition alive. And if tourism helps it continue, I’m all for it. I only wish that tourists saw more of the town, because Alkmaar has so much to offer. When the last wheels of cheese are ferried away, here’s what the town has waiting for you.

Canals, Steeples, and Gables: Classic Dutch Architecture in Alkmaar

First of all, you can walk or take a boat ride along the city’s canals and admire the traditional Dutch houses.

A canal walk will allow you to see everything from the Waag (the medieval chapel and cheese weighing house — not a combination you run into every day) …

… the sixteenth-century town hall …

… the many beautiful shops and houses …

… and the Huis met de Kogel (the House with the Bullet), one of only two wooden houses left in the town, which a Spanish cannonball purportedly hit during the 1573 siege of Alkmaar (you can see a replica cannonball lodged near the top of the building on the left-hand side):

Quaint Almshouse Courtyards

As you walk, make sure to try to stop into one of the city’s traditional almshouses (known as hofjes), which were developed as charitable projects in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to provide nice housing for people with meager incomes. You won’t find all of the hofjes open every day, but if you’re lucky, you can pop in for a quick peek.

The Wonderful Windmills of Alkmaar

It wouldn’t be a great Dutch town without a windmill, and Alkmaar has several to choose from. You’ll find De Molen van Piet right in town …

… and if you’re willing to take a short bike (or car) ride beyond the city center, you’ll find four windmills right in a row: Strijkmolens B, C, D, and E.

Sights, Scenes, and Shopping in Alkmaar

As you walk around, you might be lucky enough to catch someone out with a street barrel organ (draaiorgel), an instrument that dates back to the early 1700s.

Alkmaar is a great city for shopping — it’s filled with small boutiques, and it’s especially fun to poke around narrow streets like Fnidsen and the Hekelstraat.

If you like candy, make sure to seek out Soete Suyckerbol, which has been selling traditional Dutch sweets for over 150 years.

The Oldest Playable Organ in the Netherlands: Alkmaar’s Grote Kerk

Finally, a visit to Alkmaar wouldn’t be complete without a visit to the Grote Kerk (also known as the Sint-Laurenskerk).

Built over a fifty-year span between 1470 and 1518, this city landmark no longer functions as a church, but it remains open to the public for everything from art installations to organ concerts. It’s worth catching a concert if you can (they’re often on Friday afternoons, after the cheese market) — the Grote Kerk is home to the oldest playable organ in the Netherlands.

The church also has a cafe, this beautiful contemporary stained glass window …

… and remarkable gravestones on the floor from the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries.

Why do I like Alkmaar so much? With just over 100,000 people, it has plenty to do and see, but it feels manageable. The center city is compact and easy to walk around; you can see most of it in a long afternoon walk. With the exception of Friday mornings, it’s not crazy-touristy, and even the cheese-market visitors rarely venture much beyond the market’s Waagplein. Finally, it’s accessible: while I would recommend more time, you can easily visit Alkmaar as a day trip from Amsterdam (the train takes only about half an hour).

Hungry? Where to Eat in Alkmaar

• Satisfy your sweet tooth at Sweets & Antiques. They’re best known for their apple pie, but in the springtime, I would absolutely go for the waffle with pastry cream and fresh strawberries.
• More of an ice cream fan? Head over to IJssalon De Mient.
• For a snack on the salty side, stop by De Vlaminck for a packet of delicious fries.
• If you want real food, you can’t go wrong with the traditional Alkmaar cheese soup and a hunk of bread at Soepp.

Alkmaar Travel Tips: Things to Know Before You Go

• Alkmaar is most crowded on Fridays, because that’s cheese market day.
• If you want to see the cheese market, it starts at 10:00 every Friday. Get there early if you want to see anything — I’d recommend arriving by 9:30 and staking out a spot near the weighing house. If you’re in town in July or August, you can also see the market at 19:00 on Tuesdays.
• For an English-language walking tour, I would recommend heading out with Jen of Alkmaar Tours.
• For a boat trip, make a reservation with Grachtenrondvaart Alkmaar.
• If you have a car, know that parking in the old city center is a nightmare. I would suggest looking for a garage or street parking somewhere outside of the center and then walking in.

Need a Place to Stay Near Alkmaar?

I truly loved the houseboat Liefke in Oudorp, which is right next to Alkmaar. When else will you have the chance to be on a houseboat right under a windmill like this?

Want to know more about Dutch windmills? Explore how they work and how to visit them in this post.

Excited to visit more charming Dutch towns? Head to Groningen — a true jewel of the north — and Leiden, the City of Discoveries.