Woudsend is small — the village can be walked end to end in twenty minutes — and most of what there is to see clusters along the Ee, the short canal that links the Slotermeer and the Heegermeer through the centre of town. Two 17th and 18th century smock mills stand on opposite banks of the canal, the steep bascule bridge between them, and a cluster of stepped-gable merchant houses lining the water.
For most visitors the real attraction is the boating: Woudsend sits at the southern end of one of the largest sailing areas in the Netherlands, and the village marinas are a natural stop for skûtsjes, sloops, and yachts working their way through the Frisian lakes.