Beach access Egmond aan Zee: the Hoofdafgang at the Westeinde

The main beach access at Egmond aan Zee is called the Hoofdafgang and carries number 32 in the run of strandslagen. A strandslag is a numbered access through the dunes: the numbers stand on the signs and the emergency services work with them, so the number is what you pass on if something happens. This one starts where the Voorstraat meets the boulevard, at the Westeinde, and runs on as a surfaced ramp right onto the sand.

Where do you park at the beach access of Egmond aan Zee?

On the Boulevard Zuid car park, on the sea side of the boulevard. The gemeente Bergen describes it as the large car park next to the main beach access, by the boathouse of the KNRM, the Dutch lifeboat service, and the historic fishing vessel De Pinck. It lies between the Hoofdafgang and the next access to the south, which OpenStreetMap calls Afgang KNRM.

How many cars fit on it, we have not been able to find out. The number is not on the site of the gemeente Bergen, not at ParkeerService and not in OpenStreetMap. For a different car park, a good four hundred metres further south on the Kennedyboulevard, OpenStreetMap does give a figure: 200 spaces, 2 of them for disabled drivers. So that is not the car park by the Hoofdafgang.

If everything is full on a summer day, there is the free park and ride site in Egmond-Binnen. That comes from egmond.nl, the tourist site for the Egmond villages, not from the municipality.

What does parking cost in Egmond aan Zee?

2.45 euros per hour, 2026 rate. Where exactly you stand decides the rest, because Egmond aan Zee has three paid parking zones. The boulevard, where you stand for the Hoofdafgang, falls in zone B, and there a daily maximum of 14.70 euros applies. The Voorstraat itself is zone A, and there the rate climbs to 4.90 euros per hour after an hour and a half, with no daily maximum. The difference in rates is in the rate table of ParkeerService gemeente Bergen, the zone boundaries on their map of Egmond aan Zee.

From 1 March to 1 November you pay every day from 10.00 to 19.00, public holidays included. From 1 November to 1 March only on Saturdays and Sundays, in the same hours. On weekdays in winter you therefore stand for free, and outside those hours all year round. That is more relaxed than the centre of Bergen, where you pay all year, and stricter than Hargen aan Zee, where the whole winter is free.

How far do you walk from the car to the beach?

At its end the Voorstraat turns into a concrete ramp that carries on onto the sand. The geometry in OpenStreetMap works out at about 90 metres of surfacing, measured from the boulevard to where the concrete stops. A pushchair, a rollator or a wheelchair therefore has a hard surface all the way to the beach. How steep that ramp is, is recorded officially nowhere.

From the car park it depends on where you stand. From the nearest corner it is about 70 metres to the sand, from the furthest corner about 150. Reckon on 110 metres or so. The local site egmondaanzee.org puts it at about 60 metres, but that is not a municipal figure.

May the dog run off the lead on the beach at Egmond aan Zee?

In winter all day, in summer only early and late. That is set out word for word in the Aanwijzingsbesluit loslopende honden op het strand, the designation decision on dogs off the lead on the beach of the gemeente Bergen, adopted on 28 April 2009 and still in force: the lead requirement does not apply on the beaches of the municipality from 1 May to 1 October before 10.00 and after 19.00, and from 1 October to 1 May all day long.

On a lead the picture differs per zone. On the activity beaches (orange beach-post caps) your dog may come along on a lead all day. On the sun and swimming beaches (yellow) and the naturist beach (pink) it may not come at all in summer between 10.00 and 19.00, not even on a lead.

That colour sits on the cap of the strandpaal, the numbered beach post. Those posts stand at fixed intervals along the whole Dutch coast, the signs refer to them and the emergency services use them to fix a position, and here the colour of the cap also tells you what the stretch of beach behind it is for.

Which post colour stands at the Hoofdafgang, we have not been able to find out. So walk past the post before you settle down. New beach rules come into force on 1 January 2027, adopted by the municipal council in March 2026. Until then the rules above apply.

How do you get here without a car?

The Boulevard Zuid stop is about 55 metres from the access, but according to OpenStreetMap only community bus 410 stops there, the same Strandvonder that runs on to Camperduin. For an ordinary service bus you walk to the Vuurtoren stop, about 195 metres to the north: line 164 from Castricum station, line 165 from Alkmaar station and line 410 stop there. The bus station of Egmond aan Zee lies about 520 metres to the east, with 165, 408 from Heiloo and 410. How often those buses run, we have not checked.

By bike you will find free cycle parking at the beach accesses, on the boulevard and in the centre. From P+R Bergermeer in Alkmaar it is about 25 minutes of cycling, according to egmond.nl.

Which other beach accesses does Egmond aan Zee have?

Six numbered strandslagen along this coast. To the north of the Hoofdafgang lie 31 (Boulevard Emmastraat) at about 310 metres, 30 (Afgang Noord) at 600 metres and 29 (Six) at 870 metres. To the south lie 33 (Afgang KNRM, also called Badzuid) at about 110 metres and 34 (Afgang Zuid) at 470 metres. Those distances are straight-line figures worked out from the coordinates in OpenStreetMap, not walked.

Can you get onto the beach with a beach wheelchair?

Yes, with the Jutter, a large wheelchair with wide balloon tyres. At the main access there is one from Strandpaviljoen Bad Egmond, to be reserved on (072) 506 44 26. Nautilus aan Zee has three, kept on the large car park next to the main access by the KNRM boathouse, to be reserved on (072) 506 41 95. What borrowing one costs and whether set times apply, the municipality does not say.

Practical: at the beach accesses of Egmond aan Zee there is a dispenser with free suncream, which gives out a measured amount based on the weather at that moment. And put the number of the lifeguard post in your phone before you walk onto the sand: 072 506 18 87, with 072 506 33 12 as the emergency number of the Egmondse Reddingsbrigade. In an emergency call 112.