Which is more cheaper to visit Kinderdijk or Zaanse schans?

The average cost of visiting Zaanse schans is €32,50. That is more expensive than Visiting Kinderdijk € 24,00. However is due to the amount of attractions and things you can do at Zaanse schans. If you travel on a budget just visiting Zaanse schans (€ 7,50) is cheaper than visiting Kinderdijk (€ 8,80).

Introduction
When I was writing the article about comparing Kinderdijk and Zaanse schans I wondered which one is cheaper to visit. I quickly found out there are quite a lot of things to compare. So I thought by myself, maybe I should make a separate article with a clear overview of cost and prices of Kinderdijk and Zaanse Schans so its easy for the reader to compare the two.

Method
First a comparison of travel cost towards both locations is done then I will summarize all the free things which you can do at Kinderdijk and Zaanse Schans and last I will show the costs of the museums and tours you can take at each location. For this comparison I will calculate the costs using Central station of both Rotterdam and Amsterdam as starting point.

Ok, so lets start!

What does it cost to travel to Kinderdijk?
The cheapest and easiest way of traveling to Kinderdijk is to take the waterbus. The cost of a return ticket is € 8,80. It stops near the Erasmus bridge and goes directly to Kinderdijk. An alternative is to go by car but the Kinderdijk carpark is very small and quite expensive also it is certainly not quicker to go by car.

Travel to KinderdijkCost
from Rotterdam:
carpark kinderdijk (Full day)€ 7,50
Carpark Smitweg 6 Kinderdijk (weekends only)free
waterbus from Rotterdam Erasmus bridge (return ticket)€ 8,80
if you miss the last waterbus, you can also take a normal bus R-NET lijn 489 to train station Rotterdam Kralingse zoom (approx. 40min), from there take the metro to Rotterdam central (20min)

What does it cost to travel to Zaanse schans?
The most common way to get to Zaanse Schans from Amsterdam are to go by train or to take the Zaanferry , the train is the cheapest €7,80 (return) however you also have to walk 20 minutes. The Zaanferry takes you on a boat ride directly to Zaanse schans but a return ticket is slightly more expensive €15,-. If you go by car a full day of parking cost €12,-.

Travel to Zaanse schansCost
from Amsterdam:
Car parking (full day)€12,-
Train + walk (return ticket)€7,80
Zaanferry   (return ticket)€15,-

You arrived at the location, great! Lets have a look at the free stuff first! Traveling is expensive enough isn’t it?


Free things to do at Kinderdijk
Well you can do what most people do: Have a nice walk down the road and look at the beautiful mills. Also the visitor center and souvenir shop are free of charge to have a look.

At Kinderdijkcost
Walk around and have a look at the windmills from outsidefree
Have a look in the visitor center free

Free things to do at Zaanse schans
Zaanse Schans has much more Also, here it is free to walk around and have a look at the windmills. However here are some souvenir shops which are quite interesting and you can visit. For example a dutch cheese shop, a wooden shoes shop but also a bakery museum shop where you can try some Dutch treats and an Albert Heijn Museum shop (one of the largest supermarkets in Netherlands).

At Zaanse schansCost
Walk around and have a look at the windmills from outsidefree
Walk around and have a look at over eight different fun shops (among them: Dutch cheese, liquorice, wooden shoes shops)free
Albert Heijn Museum Shopfree
Bakery Museum Shopfree

How much does Kinderdijk ticket cost?
In Kinderdijk you have basically 2 options: You can buy either a Kinderdijk ticket which includes visiting 3 museum windmills open to public, a boat ride (approx. 15 minutes) by the windmills and a visit to the pumping station. Or, if you feel like only taking the boat tour you can also choose to buy a ticket just for this. I think there is also a nearby bike rental if you feel like biking.

At Kinderdijkcost
Adultschildren
Kinderdijk ticket including: 3 windmills open for public, boat tour, visit pumping station and audio tour
€15,50*€5,50*
single ticket, just the boat tour€7,00
*weekend fee +€2,00, prices as of 13/12/2020

How much does Zaanse Schans ticket cost ?
On average a visit at Zaanse schans cost 32€ based on a train ticket from Amsterdam, one museum tour and a Windmill cruise. However you can choose to do more or less as at Zaanse Schans the list of things to see and do is quite long. If you want to learn more about windmills and enter one then I would suggest a single entrance ticket which cost €5,- for adults. You can also buy a world of windmills museum ticket which grants you entrance to the windmill museum and 2 windmills. Buying a Zaanse schans card grants you access to the Zaans museum, time museum, free access to several small museums and gives 40% discount to the windmill cruise.

At Zaanse schansCost

Museums:
Adultschildrenfamily card*
One of the 5 museum windmills open for public (single entrance fee)€5,-€2,50€12,-
world of windmills Museum + 2 windmill€15,-€7,50-€35,00
Zaans Museum and Verkade experience€12,50 €6,50- €28,-
The Zaanse Time Museum€10,-€5,-
Museum Honig Breethuis€10,-€2,-
Cruises:Adultschildrenfamily card*
windmill cruise (not the zaanferry)€9,95,-€5,-€ 24,50
Windmill hopper€8,-€5,-
Zaandijk pedestrian ferry€1,-€1,-
discount / combination cards:
Zaanse Schans Card€15,-€10,-
*family card, 2 adults and 2 children (<17yr), prices as of 13-12-2020

I hope this overview of the ticket prices for Kinderdijk and Zaanse schans was helpful to you.

Thank you for reading.

– Mr. A –