Whether your dog may run off the lead depends on the municipal boundary, and you cannot see it

You drive from Camperduin to Petten, ten kilometres along the same coastal road, and somewhere along the way the rules for your dog change. There is no sign announcing it.

Where exactly is that boundary?

Between Camperduin and Petten. Egmond aan Zee, Bergen aan Zee, Schoorl aan Zee, Hargen and Camperduin lie in the municipality of Bergen. Petten, Sint Maartenszee and Callantsoog lie in the municipality of Schagen. Two municipalities, two sets of rules, and the Hondsbossche Zeewering, the sea defence, runs straight through the middle.

What applies in Bergen?

The Aanwijzingsbesluit loslopende honden op het strand (the designation order on dogs off the lead on the beach) states that in the winter period, from 1 October to 1 May, the lead requirement does not apply at any time of day. So off the lead, all day.

In summer it is arranged per beach zone, marked by the colour of the beach-post caps. On the activity beach (orange) the dog may come along on a lead all day. On the sun beach (yellow) and the naturist beach (pink) it may not come at all between 10.00 and 19.00, not even on a lead. Before 10.00 and after 19.00 it may run off the lead.

From 1 January 2027 that changes completely. The municipal council adopted new beach rules in March 2026 in which recreation beach and nature beach replace the colour zones, with a lead requirement in season between 10.00 and 19.00.

And in Schagen?

That is our gap, and we would rather say so than paper over it. For Petten, Callantsoog and Sint Maartenszee we found no designation order that sets out the winter arrangement in the same form. Our pages on those beach accesses say the same.

So do not assume the Bergen rule carries on once you are past the sea defence. Read the sign at the beach access.

And in the dunes?

Something different again, and this is the trap most people fall into. In the Schoorlse Duinen (the Schoorl dunes) of Staatsbosbeheer, the Dutch state forestry service, a lead requirement applies from 1 March to 1 September, wider than the ordinary breeding season, because the nightjar breeds on the ground and raises its young well into August.

That means your dog may run off the lead on the beach all day in March and April, but no longer on the path leading there. The same walk, two regimes, and the changeover lies somewhere in the dune with nothing marking it.

There is also a draft Natura 2000 management plan from the province of Noord-Holland that wants a year-round lead requirement across the whole area. That was open for public inspection for six weeks from 9 March 2026. Whether it has been formally adopted, we have not been able to establish.

In short

Four regimes over ten kilometres of coast: Bergen municipal beach, Schagen municipal beach, the Staatsbosbeheer dune, and the dune reserve run by PWN, the regional water company, with its own access pass. The signs at the entrance are what count, not this page.