Zuid-Kennemerland National Park covers 38 square kilometres of dunes, heath, and oak-and-birch woodland running north from the edge of Zandvoort all the way to the IJmuiden canal. It is one of the largest stretches of contiguous protected land in the western Netherlands and the closest serious nature to Amsterdam.
The terrain matters: these are not the flat, planted dunes of the Wadden Islands but rolling, vegetated dunes that hide narrow ravines, small lakes, and bands of pine. The grazers — Scottish Highland cattle, fallow deer, roe deer, and reintroduced wisent (European bison) in a fenced enclosure further north — keep the dunes open. Several waymarked walking and cycling routes start from the Koevlak, De Zandwaaier, and Parnassia entrances; entry is free.