The North Sea beach stretching west of De Koog is one of the finest in the Netherlands — thirty kilometres of unbroken, wide, clean sand backed by high dunes. The access points from De Koog are well-marked and it's a ten-minute bike ride through the dunes to the shore.
The surf here is genuinely lively, making it a favourite with kitesurfers and windsurfers, particularly around the beach access points where a few schools operate in summer. But the beach is wide enough that you can walk ten minutes in either direction from the car park and find a patch of sand that feels deserted even in August. The water is cold by Mediterranean standards — expect 14–18°C in summer — but plenty of people swim. The tideline is rewarding for beach-combers: amber, shells, and occasionally pieces of historic ship wreckage surface after winter storms.