Beach access Sint Maartenszee: a kilometre down the access to the sea

There are two accesses here: access 15 (Zuid) and access 14 (Noord), both with a pavilion. The access road is asphalted along its whole length, but not for you: cars are not allowed on it. You park on the Westerduinweg and do the last kilometre on foot or by bike.

Those numbers are strandslag numbers. A strandslag is a numbered access through the dunes: every one along this coast carries a number, the numbers stand on the signs and the emergency services work with them, so it is the number you pass on if something happens.

Where can you park?

At the eastern start of the Strandslag Sint Maartenszee, at the junction with the Westerduinweg and the Zeeweg. There are several car parks there, in the same corner as holiday park De Goudvis and the bus stop. Further into the dunes you do not get: gemeente Schagen writes that beach accesses are only open to pedestrians, cyclists and holders of an exemption, and that a number of accesses also have a barrier.

How many spaces those car parks hold between them, we have not been able to find out. OpenStreetMap names a capacity at two of the car parks, but that was drawn in by volunteers and confirmed by nobody at the municipality, so we do not take the figure over.

What does parking cost?

As far as we have been able to check, nothing, and that qualification is not there for nothing. Gemeente Schagen publishes no parking rate for Sint Maartenszee. Its parking page covers only blue zones, in the town centre of Schagen and in Callantsoog, and states that parking in a blue zone is free. Paid parking appears nowhere on the municipal site. Two tourist sources, the holiday park on the spot and LekkerNaarZee, both write that parking at this beach is free. A municipal decision that puts it in black and white, we did not find on 6 September 2026.

Do not reckon with Bergen figures here. The hourly rate of 2.45 euros that you pay in Schoorl, Hargen aan Zee and Bergen aan Zee is the gemeente Bergen’s. Sint Maartenszee falls under Schagen, and that is a different till.

How far do you walk to the beach?

About 1,050 metres. We measured the beach access in OpenStreetMap, from the Westerduinweg to where the asphalt stops at Strandpaviljoen Zuid: 1,040 metres, plus the short stretch from the parking bay to the start of the access. LekkerNaarZee puts it at a little over a kilometre. A sign with an official distance we did not find.

It is the easiest kilometre on this coast, though. The whole access is flat asphalt, no steps, no loose sand, no climb. On a bike you are there in five minutes or so, and cycling is allowed here.

May the dog run off the lead here?

From 1 April to 1 October not between 09.00 and 19.00. Then it must be on a lead of no more than 1.5 metres, and that applies on the beach and on the access paths leading to it. Outside those hours and outside that period the municipality names no lead requirement on the beach.

The off-lead areas lie beside this access, not on it. The gemeente Schagen designates four stretches of beach where the dog may run free: between strandpaal 8,100 and 9,400, between 10,500 and 11,100, between 14,500 and 17,100 and between 18,400 and 20,000. A strandpaal is a numbered beach post: the 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. According to the Strandbeleid Schagen 2016, the beach area of Sint Maartenszee lies between beach post 17,240 and 18,150, exactly in the gap between the third and the fourth off-lead area. Walk north to post 17,100 or south to 18,400 and the lead can come off.

At which beach post exactly you come out of the dunes here, we have not been able to establish. The post numbers for Sint Maartenszee come from the vending zone that the municipality demarcated in that beach policy, not from a sign at the access. Both sources checked on 6 September 2026.

How do you get here without a car?

With bus line 151 of Connexxion, from Alkmaar station to the Goudvis terminus. That stop lies at the Westerduinweg and Zeeweg junction, at the start of the beach access, so from the bus you walk exactly the same kilometre as from the car park. How often line 151 runs and whether the winter timetable differs, we have not checked.

By bike you come off better. The access is surfaced, cycling is allowed on it, and you leave your bike at the pavilion.

Can you get here in a wheelchair?

Better than you would expect of a dune crossing. The beach access is asphalt over the full kilometre, so it can be driven. At Paviljoen Zuid you can borrow a beach wheelchair for a small fee; that is on the beach page of gemeente Schagen itself. Opening times and availability are not given with it and we have not asked, so ring ahead.

If you have a disabled parking card or an equivalent European card, you can apply to the municipality for an exemption from the driving ban and drive up the access yourself. Sint Maartenszee is, together with Petten Centrum, one of the two accesses for which that is possible. Without that card it is also possible, on production of a doctor’s certificate, but then only for access 15.

Do you want Noord or Zuid?

Zuid, in most cases. Access 15 (Zuid) lies at the end of the beach access, access 14 (Noord) you reach via the Burgemeester Breebaartweg, which branches off halfway. We measured that northern route at about 1.1 kilometres, so in walking distance there is almost nothing in it.

What does make a difference: the beach wheelchair and the car exemption both belong to access 15. If you are coming with a wheelchair or with a disabled parking card, take Zuid. On the beach the two accesses lie about 450 metres apart, with the rescue post of Reddingsbrigade Sint Maartenszee in between, closer to Noord. That last bit comes from OpenStreetMap; when that post is manned, we have not looked up.