Visit the Cheese market of Alkmaar
All information about the Alkmaar cheese market, like how to get there, parking, opening hours, location and all other whereabouts, you'll find on this page.
All information about the Alkmaar cheese market, like how to get there, parking, opening hours, location and all other whereabouts, you'll find on this page.
The Cheese Market is back! The first Cheese Market always takes place on the last Friday of March from 10:00 to 13:00h on Waagplein in Alkmaar! Every friday untill the last Friday of September there will be a Cheese market on Waagplein.
In the months July and August, the cheese market also takes place on Tuesday evenings from 19.00 to 21.00 o'clock.
If you have any questions about the Cheesemarket or your trip to Alkmaar, call the Tourist Information Point of Alkmaar: +31 (0) 72 - 511 4284
Thousands of visitors from all over the world visit Alkmaar for its cheese market, a particular spectacle which includes a market filled with cheese and hauling cheese carriers. In 1365 Alkmaar was granted weighing rights and a weighing scale, and in 1612 this number increased to four. Exactly when the first cheese market took place is shrouded in mystery. Old documents have been found that confirm the cheese market definitely took place in 1622, but there is also evidence that the cheese bearer's guild was founded in 1593; we can therefore deduce that there must have been a cheese market at that time as well.
What do you see?
Cheese carriers carry the cheeses on barrows. On the cheese barrows they can carry up to 160 kilos of cheese!
The cheese is weighed at the Waaggebouw.
Traders and farmers negotiate the prices of the cheese.
'Throwers' throw the cheese on wagons so they can be transported.
The cheese girls inform the visitors about the cheese and the ins and outs of the Cheese Market.
If you're coming by car, you can park in the Schelphoekgarage or Karpertongarage.
The Cheese Market takes place on Waagplein, 15 minutes by foot from the train station (a beautiful walk through the Alkmaar town centre).
In the summer holiday there is a 'Children's Cheese Market', a special tour for children between the ages of 6 and 12. A guide tells the children about everything that can be seen here. At the end, they are allowed to go on the cheese scale and are given a prestigious weighing certificate.
Unfortunately the Children's Cheese Market has been cancelled as well due to the measures taken against the spread of Corona.
Stalls offering delicious cakes, art and natural cheese can be found around the Cheese Market. After the Cheese Market, organ concerts often take place in the Grote Kerk Alkmaar. Want to see more of Alkmaar? Take a city walk through the historic town centre.
The Cheese Market takes place on Waagplein, 15 minutes by foot from the train station (a beautiful walk through the Alkmaar town centre).
You can also take advantage of the special deal if you travel by train: get an admission e-ticket to Cheese Museum and a day return train and tram ticket from any station in the Netherlands to Alkmaar Station.
What is more Dutch than a Cheese Market? Edam, Hoorn, Gouda and Woerden have their own versions, but the Alkmaar Cheese Market is the oldest, biggest and most famous Cheese Market in the Netherlands.
