Volendam, Zaanse Schans, Marken & Edam de Amsterdam

We had a free day in Amsterdam and were looking to see the Dutch countryside. This tour proved to be a fantastic choice, The Tours and Tickets bus and guides did a great job. They were very helpful, friendly, and clearly focused on our satisfaction. We enjoyed the tour and everything we learned.

I had a bad experience with a bike tour that promised windmills, a farm experience and cheese tasting and purchased this tour after that one as I didn't get what I wanted. THIS TOUR DELIVERED!!! You go on a Motorcoach to all these small towns starting with the Windmills -- breathtaking!! Then off to a farm to taste a bunch of cheese, you see how the Holland shoes (klompen) are made and you have cute stores, among others, to buy them if you choose. The whole tour is about eight (8) hours and its tiring but you see so many towns and the sites are beautiful. I truly liked the tour and the memories made. You do not want to miss it!!!

This is a trip that includes a good description of the mills, while those about the production of clogs, cheese, and stroopwafels are advertisements for the connected shops. Too tight of a schedule; we arrived in Edam when everything was closed.

Do not trust them; despite three phone calls, they were unable to help me. The waiting time is longer than the contact time. Moreover, they refuse the refund.

The Tour has a great concept, with some really interesting content and good locations. I think it has great potential. But the tour that we did had far too many people on it for the amount of guides we had. 80-100 approx with x2 guides, with only one doing the main speaking part. Ideally the groups would be better as 20-30 people per guide. It was difficult to hear information, with some important things being told to the group while people were still exiting the bus so many did not hear it. The guide had no speaker and we didn't have head sets to hear it either. They piled us all in a room for the demonstrations, which made it difficult to see and then when we did tastings quite often the samples were finished when we got to them. It would be a better option to split the groups and have one watching the demo while the other tastes and then swap them. The guides were friendly and tried but very difficult to work with such a big group. Not a great experience, but please take this as constructive criticism.

The entire day is pleasant. The visit to the mill is interesting but very short. The visit to the cheese factory is actually a visit to a cheese shop. The demonstration at the clog factory lasts two minutes. The towns of Volendam and Edam are very pretty and worth a visit. The group was really too large (56 people), which often prevented us from seeing.

Each stop was very superficial and the last stop Edam the presentation was not being performed that day and the town was closed. So it was a waste. The tour was supposed to be English but it was both English and Spanish so were there might have been opportunity to hear more this eliminated that opportunity. Next time I would just take a public buss and visit on my own.

Stephan the bus driver was excellent!! He entertained us on the bus- the piano man! Helped with directing the group, and crowd control. The group size was way too large to fit into the venues. Should be cut in half. The group was so big we couldn't observe any of the demonstrations. The timing of the tours was so rushed that we had almost no time to enjoy the locations. We were supposed to get a demo of the waffle making, but we were too big and had 10 mins to line up for a tasting and leave. I would not recommend this tour to friends.

The tour guides were lovely and the locations were beautiful to visit. However, the tour was too full - especially the all inclusive. It seems the tour company did not cap the limit so they were overpacking every room (rooms without AC). The sample tastings were available but it was just food left out in bowls that everyone could stick their hands in so we ended up not even eating the samples. The locations we were taken to were all very touristy, and everything was closed (we went on a Saturday). Overall, the best part was the driver and the guides. They were funny, kind and patient but seems like the tour company is more interested in maximizing profit over the actual customer experience.

Large group, big bus, good value for the money although those who purchased direct from tour operator paid about half. Viator markup is too big!