Long before the Netherlands became famous for anything else, it was famous for cheese. Dutch dairy farmers have been trading on the country's flat, wet grasslands since at least the Middle Ages, and the ritual of the cheese market — where wheels are carried in on wooden sledges, tested for quality, and weighed at the public scales — has been performed in towns like Alkmaar and Gouda for centuries. Three of these markets still run today, offering a genuine piece of living Dutch commercial history.
Alkmaar: The oldest and largest
The Alkmaar cheese market has been held on the Waagplein (weighing square) since 1593, though weighing rights in the city date back to 1365. It runs every Friday morning from the first Friday of April to the first Friday of September, from 10:00 AM to 12:30 PM.
Up to 30,000 kilograms of Gouda and Edam cheese are laid out in long rows on the square. The market follows a carefully preserved ritual: buyers taste and inspect the cheese, clap hands to agree a price, and the cheese is then carried to the weighing house on traditional wooden barrows by porters in white uniforms with straw hats banded in guild colors — red, blue, yellow, or green, indicating which of the four carrying guilds they belong to.
The Alkmaar market is a spectacle rather than a working wholesale exchange — actual Dutch cheese is bought and sold by supermarkets and exporters through modern commercial channels. But the ritual is performed with genuine care, and the square itself, surrounded by 16th and 17th-century buildings, provides an authentic historical setting.
Gouda: The name behind the cheese
Gouda cheese is named after the city, which has held a cheese market for over 300 years on its central Markt square. The traditional market runs on Thursday mornings in summer (typically April through August) and follows the same format: farmers arrive with their cheese, buyers inspect it, and the transaction is sealed with a clap.
Gouda itself is worth half a day — the historic town hall on the Markt, the Waag (weighing house) from 1668, and the Gouda Museum are all nearby. The city's cheese shops sell an outstanding range of aged Goudas, from young (jong) to extra-aged (extra belegen), with the oldest varieties developing a caramel sweetness and crystalline texture very different from the mild export versions found abroad.
Edam: The smaller, quieter market
Edam's cheese market is the most intimate of the three, held on Wednesday mornings during July and August. The town received the right to hold a cheese weigh house from Emperor Charles V in 1526 — one of the oldest such grants in the Netherlands. The market recreates the historic process of farmers unloading cheese from small boats.
Edam is a quiet, photogenic town 20 minutes from Amsterdam by bus, easily combined with Volendam on the same day trip.
Combining with food tours
Amsterdam food tours that include Dutch cheese and dairy are available through Amsterdam food tour operators. Many include a cheese shop visit, tastings of aged Gouda varieties, and context about the dairy traditions that shaped the region's landscape.