Keukenhof, Zaanse Schans and Haarlem by Car, Before or After an Amsterdam Cruise

Three of these sit inside 15 road miles — the car saves you little on any one of them.

Where it earns its keep is the day that strings two or three together — windmills in the morning, Volendam for lunch, Haarlem by late afternoon.

The southern runs are another matter — Kinderdijk is 1 hr 24 min each way before traffic, and Delft and The Hague sit near the hour mark.

Pick your stops, then decide whether a train or a car links them better.

Zaanse Schans is free to walk into; cars pay €15 a visit at the Schansend 7 car park, open 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM, and the information desk keeps 9 to 5. That €15, about US$17, is per car, not per person.

The Zaanse Schans Card, which covers the paid museums and mills, is €29.50 for adults and €20 for ages 4 to 17, about US$35 a head.

At an assumed €40 (about US$45) a day from Centraal, the day comes to about €55 before fuel — our arithmetic. Type the pump price and the fuel line fills in.

Without a car: the train from Centraal to Zaandijk Zaanse Schans takes about 17 minutes plus a 15-minute walk, or bus 800 about 24 minutes, every 15 minutes from 9 to 5.

Two seats on the Viator coach that adds Edam, Volendam and Marken come to $82, about €73 at the ECB rate.

For Zaanse Schans alone, take the train — rent only if the windmills are the first stop of three.

Keukenhof’s 2026 season ran March 19 to May 10. Visit Leiden’s tourist office lists 18 March to 9 May 2027, read Oct 2026; keukenhof.nl blocked our reader, so we couldn’t confirm that or read prices or parking.

Our routing puts it about 27.3 miles (43.9 km) from the PTA, 41 minutes on empty roads. Expect more in tulip season.

Most Amsterdam departures we found start after it closes, so this stop mostly suits a land stay before a cruise. Check keukenhof.nl for dates and tickets before you book the car.

The Frans Hals Museum at Groot Heiligland 62 opens Tuesday to Sunday, 11 AM to 5 PM; adults pay €18.50, ages 19–24 €9, under-19s free. Adult entry is about US$20.

Haarlem is about 13.7 miles (22.0 km) west of the PTA by our routing, 29 minutes. The museum is closed on Mondays.

The Marken Express boat crosses from Volendam to Marken in about 30 minutes, roughly every 45 minutes, from Volendam 9:45 AM to 6:30 PM; its page didn’t show a fare. A review elsewhere cites a fare — we couldn’t confirm it, so it stays off this page.

Volendam’s harbour is about 14.6 miles from the PTA, 30 minutes.

Haarlem in the morning and Volendam after lunch is a car’s kind of day, not a train’s.

Plan any Haarlem visit for Tuesday to Sunday.

The Mauritshuis, Plein 29 in The Hague, opens Monday 1 to 6 PM and Tuesday to Sunday 10 to 6; adults pay €21, and it says there’s parking within 100 m of the entrance. That’s about US$25 a ticket.

Royal Delft’s museum at Rotterdamseweg 196 opens daily 9:30 AM to 5 PM, last entry 4:30; its page sends prices to a ticket shop we didn’t read and says nothing about parking.

Kinderdijk’s ticket is €8 at the gate or €6.50 online for adults, €5.50 or €4 for ages 4 to 12; the public footpath and cycle path are free all year. Its ticket page shows no hours or parking. Two online adult tickets are €13 (about US$15).

Our Kinderdijk routing point is approximate, typed in by our researcher rather than taken from the site — treat its 55.4 miles as close, not exact.

Each sits near an hour or more from the PTA on its own. All three in one day is a long loop — we didn’t route the legs between them, so time it yourself.

Shore Excursions Group’s Grand Holland tour (The Hague, Rotterdam, Delft) runs 9 hours for $98 an adult, about €87 at the ECB rate; two seats are about €175.

Somebody else drives the motorway on that one, and parks.

If Rotterdam is in the plan anyway, our Rotterdam rental page covers the desks down there.

Price the coach against a day car before you commit to driving it yourself.

We didn’t read a toll operator’s page and didn’t check any of our routes for a toll tunnel, so no toll appears in any total here.

If your sat-nav shows a toll tunnel or bridge, add it yourself — the calculator won’t.

Petrol rental cars can enter Amsterdam’s low-emission zone freely, since it only restricts diesels; the IJmuiden drive page has the zone rules and the speed limits.

Every “about US$” figure here is the euro price at the ECB’s Oct 2, 2026 rate, roughly $1.12; your card company sets its own.

Book the single day you’ll drive — collected from a Centraal desk that morning, not the day you land.

Enterprise there opens 8 to 6 every day; Sixt opens 7 on weekdays and 8 at weekends. The hours checker has the rest. Our Discover Cars review covers coverage and deposits.