Unesco Werelderfgoed Kinderdijk — Attraction in Molenlanden

My wife and I visited the UNESCO World Heritage Site at Kinderdijk on Easter Monday (2025) & it was a truly magical experience! This is the Netherlands as you imagine it and as you see it in the old masters' paintings! This is the Netherlands from your postcard! This is the Netherlands that everyone should see at least once in their lifetime! On a practical note, there are 19 windmills in total, and only two can be entered. In order to do that you need a ticket for €19.50 per adult. This ticket would also allow you to enter two pumping stations and the boat/barge that is moored (and held in place - so it does not sway - by planks screwed on to it). To be honest, in my opinion, it is not worth spending €19.50 per adult for all of this. The windmills inside are very claustrophobic, the stairs are super narrow and steep (so much so that on the way down you have to descend backwards), there are so many people inside that you have to wait and queue to go up and then down and the views from inside the mills aren't anything fascinating as the windows are not the cleanest you have seen! BUT! And this is a major "but", the ticket also allows you to take a boat along the canal and experience true serenity. There are only two boats - number one and number two. I strongly recommend you only take number two, as it goes around and allows you to see all 19 windmills. It's a round trip from the quay to the last windmill and back. It is about a 30 minute trip. The number one boat, in my opinion, is a waste of time, as it only takes you to the two museum windmills that you can enter with your tickets. It's easier to walk to these windmills and it would take less time than having to queue to get on boat one and then queue to disembark. So, take it from me, go on boat number two and enjoy the ride (literally & metaphorically)! Both my wife and I really think that the ride on boat two alone is worth the €19.50 per adult! If you are not bothered about the boat ride (and worry not, it does go very slowly, so even if you have motion sickness, I dont believe it will affect you, it is that slow!), don't bother with the tickets - entry to the site is completely free (i.e. you can walk the paths for free, you can enter the gift shop for free, you can walk to the pumping stations for free). Having bought our tickets in advance, we got very lucky with the weather (it was cloudy, but not windy or cold at all) and we happily spend 3 hours exploring the site. If we had not bought the tickets in advance we would have missed boat two (and had to wait for it to make the round trip and then board it, when it comes back, which would have been a waste of our time, so buy your tickets in advance). One last noteworthy item - if you are going to buy the €19.50 per adult ticket and you can, take the WaterBus from Rotterdam (there are other stops too, but this is the one my wife and I took and are familiar with) and do so with a combined ticket to the UNESCO World Heritage Site at Kinderdijk, as this way the WaterBus is way, way cheaper than if you were to just board it outright and pay with your card. This is another reason to buy your tickets in advance - to get the combined ticket. Overall, I would repeat the experience, I do recommend the experience to everyone and I would pay the €19.50 per adult again (just for the boat number two ride) - make sure you go too, you will...

A truly worth your while experience to see this place in action. I would never thought that these windmills are the master of all pumping water back in the days to make sure that water level in Holland is maintained. Very impresive all in all. The only suggestion I can make is that get ready your feet for walking. Either you can get on their shuttle boat or walk. But we opted to walking so we can really experience the audio tour. Three of their windmills is open for public, so we took our time to visit them one by one. I am very lucky to see this with my own eyes. Learning everyday and every minute. Coffee shop and boutique is available at the site. If you can try to follow the audio guide tour. I suggest to start at the theater, there it will give you an idea of what you are about to visit. Good pair of shoes will be your best friend. Getting there: We tried booking a day tour to visit this place but we seem to have having a hardtime picking one as we are coming from The Hague, we search high and low, but we failed, so we decided to do this on our own, by buying the ticket the directly from Kinderdijk windmill website for the entrance, then arrange the public transport from the The Hague to Rotterdam, where you will hop on a water taxi to Kinderdijk. Everything seems OK when we booked the water taxi from the website, but only to find out that the time slot we picked carefully, was not actually available. (There was a miscommunication between the website and the boat schedule itself). I suggest plan ahead when you go visit the Kinderdijk by public transport. We end up taking the UBER for the 20 minutes drive from Rotterdam. Despite the transport issue, all was...

A little gem a few kilometers from Rotterdam Kinderdijk is a nice escape from usual cities tours. Visit the official website for all the info (very well done with all relevant information). It’s very easy to get there. Car, bus or ferry (may-sept only). From rotterdam you can take the 489 from Kralingse Zoom metro station (near Erasmus University) or from South Station. It’s a R-NET bus so you have to pay the extra ticket if you already have bought the RET full day (it’s a 4,60€ for one way). Of course you can buy the ticket on board with a credit card. The travel is relatively short and the bus stop is exactly in front of the main entrance. You should get off the bus after the De Cloke stop. If you wanna see the village before I suggest take the De Cloke stop and have a look of the little Kinderdijk village with all its characteristic buildings. Here there is a little pub where you can also rent a bike. Once you get in front of the main entrance of the Kinderdijk Wind Mills you can find a small souvenirs shop and a little bridge. Go over the little bridge and you can find the entrance. Here you can buy the tickets (or just show them the tickets you’ve bought from their website, where you can save 1€) and pass the deck that brings you in front of this amazing scenery. From here just take a look at the pictures. I’ve been here in January. Note that the site in under maintenance in this period so no water tours or museum. Just a walk into this calm and relaxing...