De gids voor de hoogste duinen van Nederland
Onafhankelijke gids voor Schoorl, Camperduin, Hargen aan Zee, Groet en de Schoorlse Duinen. Parkeren, getijden, strandopgangen, routes en waar je slaapt.
Villages
Schoorl
Highest dunes and planted pine forest
Camperduin
Where the sea defence becomes dune
Hargen aan Zee
The drive-to beach of the Schoorlse Duinen
Groet
Smallest town hall, highest dunes
Bergen aan Zee
Wide beach, dunes and sea aquarium
Bergen
Artists' village with a museum and a country estate
Callantsoog
Wide beach and two dune lakes
Egmond aan Zee
Lighthouse, promenade and plenty of places to eat
Petten
Palendorp, a broad beach, free parking
Sint Maartenszee
Beach access with holiday parks
To the beach
Beach access Hargen aan Zee
The beach access at Hargen aan Zee is surfaced and lies about 200 metres from the car park, which has 1.600 spaces. From 1 March to 1 November parking costs 2.45 euros per hour, up to a maximum of 7.35 euros per day. From 1 November to 1 March your car stands there for free, including on public holidays.
Beach access Camperduin
The beach access at Camperduin is at the end of the Heereweg. Parking is on private land belonging to Hoeve Camperduin: €1.00 per 30 minutes, with a daily maximum of €7.00 in high season and €5.00 in low season. From the car park it is roughly 300 metres to the sand.
Beach access Schoorl aan Zee
Schoorl aan Zee can only be reached by bike or on foot. There are no parking spaces at the beach: you leave the car in Schoorl and cover five kilometres along the Schoorlse Zeeweg, or you park for free at the bicycle transfer car park on the Groeneweg in Bergen.
Beach access Bergen aan Zee
The main beach access at Bergen aan Zee is on the Van der Wijckplein, roughly 150 metres from the sand. Parking costs €2.45 per hour with a daily maximum of €14.70, from 1 March to 1 November daily from 10.00 to 19.00.
Beach access Egmond aan Zee
The main beach access at Egmond aan Zee is the Hoofdafgang, strandslag 32, at the end of the Voorstraat by the Westeinde. Parking on the Boulevard Zuid car park next to it costs 2.45 euros per hour with a daily maximum of 14.70 euros, from 1 March to 1 November daily from 10.00 to 19.00.
Beach access Petten
Parking at the Petten beach access is free, all year round, because the beach belongs to gemeente Schagen and not to the paid zones of Bergen. From the end of the road you walk 123 metres of boardwalk to the sand.
Beach access Callantsoog
Strandslag 12 at the Dorpsplein is the beach access of the village itself: about 140 metres of concrete from the square to the sand, on foot and by bike only. Parking costs nothing in Callantsoog, with one exception: in the blue zone around the Dorpsplein you need a parking disc from 1 April to 31 October inclusive between 9.00 and 19.00, and you may stand there for one hour at most.
Beach access Sint Maartenszee
At the Sint Maartenszee beach access you park on the Westerduinweg and cover the last kilometre on foot or by bike, because cars are not allowed on the beach access. Gemeente Schagen publishes no parking rate for this spot. From 1 April to 1 October the dog must be on a lead of no more than 1.5 metres between 09.00 and 19.00.
Nature
Schoorlse Duinen
The Schoorlse Duinen (Schoorl dunes) hold the highest dune in the Netherlands: the Catrijper Nok, 55.4 metres, with a staircase of 249 steps to the top. The area belongs to Staatsbosbeheer, is open all year round and has more than 60 kilometres of walking paths.
Klimduin
The Klimduin is a dune 51 metres high and roughly 110 metres long, in the middle of the village of Schoorl on the edge of the Schoorlse Duinen (Schoorl dunes). There is no entrance fee, and since May 2025 a bronze statue of Teun de Jager has stood at its foot.
Zee Aquarium Bergen aan Zee
The Zee Aquarium stands on the Van der Wijckplein in Bergen aan Zee, and one of the eight parking locations of the village lies on that same square, about 150 metres from the beach access. A sperm whale skeleton has hung there since 1998.
Buitencentrum Schoorlse Duinen
The Buitencentrum Schoorlse Duinen is the visitor centre of Staatsbosbeheer at Oorsprongweg 1 in Schoorl, on the edge of the dune area. There are two car parks 143 metres apart and parking costs 2.45 euros per hour.
Hondsbossche Zeewering
The Hondsbossche Zeewering is a 5.5 kilometre dyke between Camperduin and Petten, raised to delta height in 1981: 11.5 metres above NAP. Since the reinforcement of 2013-2015 the basalt dyke lies entirely under the sand, with a beach and dune area 300 metres wide in front of it.
Museum Kranenburgh
Museum Kranenburgh is the museum for modern art in Bergen NH and is tied to the Bergense School. Opening times, admission, the address and what is on the wall right now we have not been able to check at the source, so they are not here.
J.C.J. van Speijk Lighthouse
The lighthouse of Egmond aan Zee is called J.C.J. van Speijk and stands in the village. The year it was built, its height and whether you can go inside we have not been able to get from a source we could check, so they are not here.
Catrijper Nok
At 55.4 metres the Catrijper Nok is the highest dune in the Netherlands and the highest point in the province of Noord-Holland, taller than the better-known Klimduin at 51 metres. It stands in the Schoorlse Duinen (the Schoorl dunes), managed by Staatsbosbeheer, with a stairway of 249 steps to the top.
De Kerf
De Kerf is a viewpoint above a cut dug through the zeereep, the front dune ridge, roughly 2.9 kilometres north of Bergen aan Zee as the crow flies. Through that gap sea water can run into the area behind the first row of dunes instead of being held back. The site is registered to PWN.
Noordhollands Duinreservaat
The Noordhollands Duinreservaat is managed by N.V. PWN Waterleidingbedrijf Noord-Holland, the provincial water company, and is a designated Habitats Directive site. Unlike the Schoorlse Duinen of Staatsbosbeheer next door, you do need an access pass here: a duinkaart (an annual dune pass) or a day pass.
Palendorp
The Palendorp is an artwork of 160 poles between six and twelve metres tall, set in the shape of ten houses and a church, on the beach west of Petten. Who made it and when it appeared is not in any source we have been able to check.
Torensduin
The Torensduin is a viewpoint in the middle of Egmond aan Zee, on the spot where the Zuidertoren lighthouse stood until 1915. A stairway of 101 steps runs up, to about 28 metres above NAP, the Dutch ordnance datum. No guide names that height, we looked it up ourselves in the elevation dataset of Rijkswaterstaat.
De Bleek Viewpoint
De Bleek Viewpoint is a lookout dune south-east of Egmond aan Zee, in the Noordhollands Duinreservaat of PWN. From the age of 18 you need a dune pass, from 2.00 euros for a day, but the car park at the foot is free. The sources disagree about the height: OpenStreetMap holds to 33 metres, Geologie van Nederland writes as much as 35 metres.
Wreck of HMS Prince George
The wreck of HMS Prince George lies under the beach north of Camperduin. The British battleship ran aground on 28 December 1921 on groyne 24 of the Hondsbossche Zeewering, the sea defence there, and at the end of July 2014 disappeared under the sand pumped ashore for the coastal reinforcement. A line of poles on the beach marks the spot.
Zwanenwater
The Zwanenwater is a 600 hectare dune area belonging to Natuurmonumenten, the Dutch nature conservation society, a good two kilometres south of Callantsoog. It holds two dune lakes, the Eerste Water and the Tweede Water. Entry costs 3.50 euros per person, and members and children under 12 go in free.
Verwey Woods
The Verwey Woods are two small wooded plots on the eastern edge of Schoorl, managed by Landschap Noord-Holland, with a colony of grey herons in the old beeches. They are named after the biologist Jan Verwey, who bought part of the wood with a villa here in 1950, not after his father, the poet Albert Verwey.
De Fuik
De Fuik is a viewpoint dune in the Noordhollands Duinreservaat, the North Holland dune reserve, 1.7 kilometres west of the village of Bergen as the crow flies. A stairway runs to the top, which according to the AHN, the national elevation model, sits just over 21 metres above NAP. The site belongs to PWN, so from the age of 18 you carry a dune pass here.
Het Oude Hof
Het Oude Hof is a country estate from 1643 on the Eeuwigelaan in Bergen, owned by the municipality of Bergen and protected as a rijksmonument, a national listed monument. The park with its moats, avenues and artificial viewing mounds is free to enter, and the main building is not a museum.
Panoramaduin
The Panoramaduin is a viewpoint on the seaward side at Petten, roughly 590 metres as the crow flies north-west of the village centre and a good 800 metres from the Palendorp. It is listed as a viewpoint in OpenStreetMap and has its own Wikidata item, Q124326971. How high it is appears in no source we could check.
Ruins of Kasteel Egmond
The ruins of Kasteel Egmond lie at 52.62188 / 4.65427, by Egmond aan den Hoef and therefore not in Egmond aan Zee itself. OpenStreetMap records the place as an archaeological site. Opening hours, admission and who manages it we have not been able to establish.
Kasteel Nuwendoorn
Kasteel Nuwendoorn is a castle ruin near Krabbendam in the municipality of Schagen, four kilometres as the crow flies from Schoorl. The site is free to visit every day from April up to and including the autumn half term of 2026, and dogs are not allowed.
Zwarte Blink
The Zwarte Blink is a viewpoint in the Schoorlse Duinen (the Schoorl dunes), managed by Staatsbosbeheer, with a bench and a picnic table on the top. In the national elevation model AHN4 we measure 32.3 metres above NAP; OpenStreetMap and the tourist sites hold to 31 metres. You can only get there on foot or by bike.
Schoorlse Nok
The Schoorlse Nok is a viewpoint with a bench in the south-east of the Schoorlse Duinen (the Schoorl dunes), managed by Staatsbosbeheer. In the elevation model AHN4 we measure 48.85 metres above NAP on the top; OpenStreetMap and the tourist sites hold to 48 metres. The highest dune of Schoorl it is not: the Catrijper Nok is 55.4 metres and the Klimduin 51.