Sint Maartenszee: beach access, dunes and holiday parks

Sint Maartenszee lies on the coast between Petten and Callantsoog and falls under the municipality of Schagen. That last point is the most important thing to know if you come from Schoorl or Bergen: the parking rates and the beach rules you were dealing with there do not apply here.

If you are new to this coast: this is the North Sea side of the province of Noord-Holland, about an hour’s drive north of Amsterdam and of Schiphol airport, with Alkmaar the nearest town of any size. A strandopgang, a beach access, is the surfaced way over or through the dunes from the car park to the sand. Here that is essentially the whole place.

Where can you park at the beach?

There is a car park at the beach access. What it costs, we have not been able to verify, and we are not putting a figure here that we have not checked ourselves. Read the sign at the entrance.

What we do know for certain: the 2.45 euros an hour you pay in Schoorl, Bergen aan Zee, Egmond aan Zee and Hargen aan Zee is a rate set by the municipality of Bergen. Sint Maartenszee lies outside that municipality. So do not assume it is the same here, in either direction.

What campsites and holiday parks are there?

Behind the dunes lie a campsite and holiday parks with bungalows. That is what Sint Maartenszee mainly consists of.

Names, addresses, opening periods and rates are not here yet, because we have not checked them one by one. They will go on this page as soon as we have. Better an empty spot than a price that is wrong.

Three things to check yourself before you book: whether the park is open all year or only in season, how many metres it really is from the beach access, and whether you can park at your own house or on a central car park.

Can the dog come onto the beach?

That is for the municipality of Schagen to decide, and on 5 September 2026 we could not establish those rules with certainty. So we are not writing them down.

Above all, do not assume that the arrangement of the municipality of Bergen carries on here. On the beaches of Bergen the dog may run free during the beach season before 10.00 and after 19.00. That is a decision of that municipality and it stops at its boundary.

How do you get there without a car?

On bus 151, run by Connexxion. The stop here is called Goudvis and is the end of the line; at the other end lies Alkmaar station, which has direct trains from Amsterdam. On the way the bus stops at Groet and at the Idenslaan stop in Schoorl, among others.

How often it runs and whether the winter timetable is the same, we have not checked.

What is nearby?

Petten lies to the south, Callantsoog to the north. Further south again, at Camperduin, the coast of the municipality of Bergen begins: Hargen aan Zee, Schoorl aan Zee and Bergen aan Zee. Different municipality, different rates, different beach rules. On this coast that difference is the one thing you really have to remember.