Kinderdijk Know Before You Visit The Dutch Windmills
When you think about the Netherlands your first thoughts will go to tulips, clogs and of course: Windmills. If there is one place that you need to go to visit the traditional windmills of the Netherlands, it’s the town of Kinderdijk. This town is the home of a unesco world heritage site where 19 traditional windmills are displayed for the public. It’s an absolute must visit if you are going to the Netherlands.
How to get to kinderdijk
Kinderdijk is a small town in the province of South Holland. Besides the windmills there isn’t much to do in the city. Hence why I don’t recommend spending the night in this town. Your best option is to stay in Rotterdam or the surrounding area. We combined our trip to Kinderdijk with visiting the Tulips, which are also located around the province of South Holland.
From Rotterdam you can get to Kinderdijk by public transport (bus & waterbus) or by car (35min).
Bus: take the bus from Rotterdam, HES to Kinderdijk, De Klok (bus 489)
Waterbus: take the waterbus at Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam to Kinderdijk (line 21)
Car: during the week and park at a park and ride (paid) or on the weekends park for free (at scheepsbouwer Royal IHC)
There are also some parking spots at the entrance of Kinderdijk as well, but this is mainly for disabled parking spots.
The Story behind kinderdijk
Kinderdijk is a small town in South Holland, it got it’s name from a legend (originating in 1421) where a wave washed ashore with a cradle holding a sleeping baby. Due to it’s location (almost below sea level) there were some additional water issues to keep the polders dry. The local farmers decided to build windmills with the ability to pump the water and dump it back into the river when the levels were lower.
Nowadays the windmills are modernised but still function in a similar matter. In 1997, the Windmills were granted UNESCO World Heritage status. Opening up the museum so that people from all over the world can come and visit the windmills.
When to Visit Kinderdijk
Kinderdijk is open year round for visitors to explore this traditional dutch location. They are open 9.30am-5.30 pm (Jan-Oct) and 10.30am-4pm (Nov-Dec). If you want to avoid the crowds head on over right at opening hours. There is a yearly Illumination week, where the windmills are lit up and open till 11-11.30pm. This usually takes place in September.
What to do at kinderdijk
Kinderdijk is free to visit, as long as you stay on the main road and explore the windmills from a distance. You can also choose to buy a combined ticket to see all the activities that are happening at Kinderdijk. Unfortunately there is no option to pay for individual activities. Either you pay nothing, or you pay full price for all activities.
The paid activities include:
Walk through the museum mills
The Floating Exhibition
A Boat Trip
Watch a movie about Kinderdijk
The pumping station
Bird Theater
Audio Tour
The variety and multitude of activities can explain the price of the paid experience at Kinderdijk. On weekdays a ticket will cost 16EUR and on Saturday and Sunday a ticket is 18.50EUR. If you want to avoid the crowds, and pay less it is thus best to visit on a weekday. Booking tickets online will assure you are granted access, however most days you can still purchase tickets there.
We went in with the thought of doing the free tour, and then we would see if we wanted to upgrade to the paid tour. After walking around, we decided we didn't want to do the additional paid experience. However, if you want to know more about the history I do think it can be worth the price. We found it unfortunate that you couldn’t pay for example a single paid activity for a couple of euros rather than the full package.
