A perfect weekend on Texel Island was first published on Culture Tourist on July 5th 2016 and updated on July 12th 2022.
You know that feeling when you book your holiday at the last minute, don’t really know what to expect from it and then, when you arrive there, it just blows your mind? Well, that’s precisely what happened to me at Texel Island. I was reading about it before and saw some photos, but that was it. I wasn’t expecting that the island has it all, beautiful nature, interesting sights, great food and that it’s so child-friendly.
A perfect weekend on Texel Island
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Texel Island makes a great weekend trip within the Netherlands. I spent two days there with my family, and we all fell in love with it. Keep reading to learn more about what to do during the weekend on Texel Island.
⤷ Read more: Texel Island’s legends & some beautiful art inspired by them
How to get to Texel Island from Amsterdam
Texel is easily reachable from Amsterdam by train. You should take a train to Den Helder (it takes around 1,15 h to get there). And take a twenty-minute long ferry ride to Texel from there.
We took our bicycles with us, and it was pretty easy to travel with them. You have to pay around 7.50 euros per bike on a train. There is a particular part of the train where you can leave them. You’ll recognise it by the image of a bicycle on the outer side of the train. We paid the return ticket for the ferry 5 euros per person (this is the price if you are taking your bicycle with you).
How to get around Texel Island
Bicycle paths are everywhere on Texel Island. The distance between villages isn’t large, so it’s the best way to explore the island. You can rent bikes in many places at Texel. There is one just next to the ferry station.
Other ways to get around are by car or the local bus (for more information about public transport, take a look here). You can also rent an e-scooter through this link or KNAAP E-fatbike on a link here.
⤷ Read more: Weekend trips in the Netherlands
Day one on Texel Island
Visiting Den Burg
We arrived at Texel later in the morning, around 11 am, and first went to the island’s ‘capital’, Den Burg. It’s the largest village on Texel. The tourist information office is there, as well as many restaurants, cafes and shops. It is definitely an excellent place to start your weekend at Texel Island.
We started our trip to Texel Island at a local restaurant called Lindeboom Pofferglop, located on the main town square, where we had a coffee and the best poffertjes I ever tried. The weather was terrific, so it was a beautiful place to relax. It’s a lovely place for families because there is a beautiful playground and park opposite it.
One of the things that really surprised me on Texel was how children-friendly the island is. Wherever we were, the restaurants had changing rooms and high chairs for kids. And what’s even better, most restaurants had excellent children’s playgrounds. Texel is such a great place to visit for families with kids!
⤷ TIP: If you feel adventurous, you can explore Den Burg with a fun escape tour. Read more about it on a link here.
A trip to Ecomare
The next stop during our weekend on Texel Island was Ecomare, the seal shelter and a nature museum. I was so impressed with its story. The seal population is threatened in the North Sea by the flow of polluting waste materials and drowning in fish nets. To help them, Ecomare is taking care of sick animals by providing shelter and care for them. When they are healed, they return back to their natural habitat, the North Sea.
You can visit a small museum about it together with an aquarium and basins with seals. We came just in time to see the feeding, which was also very informative. The cutest thing was a room for baby seals with names and dates of birth of little animals.
The Dunes of Texel National Park
Ecomare is located in the Dunes of Texel National Park, so after our visit, we cycled through it. The trees there were much higher than the ones you usually find in the Netherlands. It was a proper forest, and riding a bicycle through it was a beautiful experience.
The landscape diversity is also something pretty exceptional on Texel. The inner part of the island is covered by vast fields and meadows. You’ll see numerous sheep, cows and horses grazing there. The western part of Texel is surrounded by beautiful forest that’s a part of the National Park is located. And then, there are beaches and dunes at its edges.
We were fortunate because our hotel was located just at the border of the National Park. We stayed in Bos en Duin in the apartment with a fantastic view of the nearby forest and fields. They are also home to a very nice restaurant where we had dinner.
Once again, I was amazed by their attention to the youngest visitors. When we came, Karlo got some colouring paper and crayons, so we had time to enjoy dinner.
A lovely playground is located in the back of a hotel. Besides a trampoline, there were numerous toys for kids to play with.
⤷ Read more: Locations linked to Vincent van Gogh in the Netherlands
Day two on Texel Island
The beach
After a peaceful and relaxing night, day two was reserved for visiting the beach. It took us around twenty minutes to cycle there. We came there very early and were completely alone at it.
The beach was fantastic! A combination of white sand and dark blue sea makes it almost surreal. I could spend hours just walking around it and enjoying the sea view. The waves were huge, so it must have been heaven for surfers.
There are a lot of different kinds of restaurants located there, so you can easily spend the whole day at Texel Island’s beach.
⤷ Read more: Dutch Golden Age heritage sites in the Netherlands
We rode our bicycles back to the forest, which is one Texel only five minutes away. There, we found another beautiful place – Bospaviljoen ‘t Turfveld. We tried a delicious Texel cake while our son played next to us. I don’t need to mention the restaurant had high chairs and changing room for its youngest visitors, right?
After some more cycling and a picnic lunch at Den Burg, we went to the ferry and left Texel.
⤷ TIP: Would you like to explore more Dutch cities filled with art and culture? Check out Maastricht, Haarlem or Rotterdam.
The variety of landscapes and the fantastic feeling of being in such an isolated place were things I loved the most during our weekend on Texel Island. You can feel that you are on the island and that there aren’t many people there. That feeling with the beautiful smell of flowers, trees, meadows, and the sea makes Texel such an amazing place.
Have you been to Texel Island? What did you like the most there? Let me know in the comments below!