Netherlands / North Holland
Wijk Aan Zee Strand
Wijk Aan Zee Strand is a coastal resort area in North Holland, Netherlands. Its longest mapped beach stretches about 4.9 km and has a sand surface. The sea averages 18.6 °C in August, its warmest month, and 5.4 °C in February; it never reaches 21 °C on average.
Average sea surface temperature by month. Current month outlined.
The sea peaks at 18.6 °C in August. Most swimmers find water below 20 °C cold; a wetsuit is common here.
OpenStreetMap shows no lifeguard station within 1 km. Seasonal lifeguard posts are often unmapped, so check on site.
Services in the resort
- 18Restaurants, cafés & bars
- 1Public toilets
- –Showers
- 1Drinking water
- 18Car parks
- –Lifeguard stations
- 15Hotels & guesthouses
- 2Campsites
- 1Grocery shops
- 7Bus stops (1.5 km)
- 2Pharmacies & clinics
- 1Cash machines
- 3Viewpoints
Food and drink mapped within 1 km: 15 restaurants, 1 café and 2 bars. Accommodation: 15 hotels and guesthouses.
Counted within 1 km of the beach (bus stops 1.5 km) from OpenStreetMap features and Overture Maps places, release of 2026-10. Unmapped does not mean absent.
Bathing water quality
The official EU bathing-water site “Wijk Aan Zee”, 170 m from the beach centre, was rated Excellent for the 2025 season. It was Excellent in 11 of its 11 classified seasons since 2015.
- 2015Excellent
- 2016Excellent
- 2017Excellent
- 2018Excellent
- 2019Excellent
- 2020Excellent
- 2021Excellent
- 2022Excellent
- 2023Excellent
- 2024Excellent
- 2025Excellent
Source: European Environment Agency, EU Bathing Water Directive assessments · national site profile. Classes are based on four seasons of bacteriological sampling.
Month by month
October at Wijk Aan Zee Strand
Beach-day index 2.4/10 · Netherlands median 2.3
| Measure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sea °C | 6.1 °C | 5.4 °C | 6.1 °C | 8.4 °C | 11.5 °C | 14.7 °C | 17.2 °C | 18.6 °C | 17.3 °C | 14.6 °C | 11.2 °C | 8.2 °C |
| High °C | 5° | 6° | 9° | 13° | 16° | 19° | 21° | 21° | 18° | 14° | 10° | 6° |
| Low °C | 2° | 1° | 3° | 6° | 9° | 12° | 15° | 15° | 12° | 9° | 6° | 3° |
| Rain mm | 75 | 64 | 53 | 40 | 57 | 63 | 81 | 90 | 70 | 78 | 76 | 81 |
| Cloud % | 79 | 76 | 70 | 64 | 66 | 71 | 69 | 69 | 67 | 72 | 78 | 79 |
| Wind m/s | 6.7 | 6.4 | 5.9 | 5.1 | 5.2 | 4.8 | 4.7 | 4.8 | 5.1 | 5.8 | 5.9 | 6.4 |
| Daylight h | 8.2 | 9.9 | 11.8 | 13.9 | 15.7 | 16.8 | 16.4 | 14.8 | 12.8 | 10.7 | 8.8 | 7.7 |
| Record high/low | 12°/-9° | 16°/-11° | 18°/-8° | 25°/-2° | 26°/3° | 30°/7° | 32°/10° | 31°/10° | 28°/6° | 23°/0° | 17°/-3° | 13°/-8° |
| Beach index | 2.2 | 2.3 | 2.6 | 2.9 | 2.7 | 3.6 | 5.1 | 5.4 | 3.9 | 2.4 | 2.3 | 2.2 |
Long-term monthly averages: air from NASA POWER (2001–2020), sea from NOAA OISST (1991–2020); records are the extremes of 2001–2020. How the index works.
When to go
No month reaches 5.5 on the beach-day index; the best is August at 5.4/10, held back mainly by cold water (18.6 °C) and cool air (highs of 21 °C).
Across the year the sea averages 11.6 °C, cooler than 86% of the coastal beaches in the atlas.
August is the wettest month (90 mm) and April the driest (40 mm); the yearly total is about 830 mm.
Daylight runs from 7.7 hours in December to 16.8 hours in June; in mid-August the sun rises at 06:22 and sets at 21:10 local time.
Orientation, sun and shore
The shore faces west-north-west (290°). Open water fills about 42% of the horizon close by, which makes it an open stretch of shore.
The sun sets over the sea in every month; in mid-June it goes down at 22:05 local time on a bearing of 312°.
Straight out to the west-north-west about 300 km of open sea lies before the next coast, enough for large swells to build.
About 1 km offshore the sea is roughly 4 m deep and 12 m at 3 km, a shallow, gently shelving sea floor. Behind the beach the ground is about 16 m above sea level 500 m inland and 13 m at 1.5 km, a flat coastal plain.
Within 1 km, the land is 43% grassland, 21% tree cover and 21% built-up land (satellite land-cover map, 2021): a partly built-up setting. Water makes up 41% of that circle.
- Grass 43%
- Tree 21%
- Built 21%
- Bare 14%
Land cover: ESA WorldCover 2021 (10 m). Orientation from OpenStreetMap land polygons sampled in 36 directions; depths and heights from the GEBCO 2020 grid (about 450 m cells), indicative only.
Getting there
| Airport | Code | Distance | Direction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amsterdam Airport Schiphol Amsterdam | AMS | 23.8 km | south-east |
| Rotterdam The Hague Airport Rotterdam | RTM | 60.5 km | south |
| Eindhoven Airport Eindhoven | EIN | 128 km | south-east |
Straight-line distances from the beach; road distance is usually 20–40% longer.
Local transport: 7 bus stops within 1.5 km and 18 mapped car parks within 1 km.
14 towns and villages of 1,000+ people lie within 10 km (about 252.7K residents); within 30 km there are 127 (about 3.2M).
Around the beach
Viewpoints
- Paasduin 640 m SE
Campsites
- Aan Zee Slapen 510 m N
- Kampeerterrein Aardenburg 970 m E
Map and nearby beaches
Loading map…
Open in OpenStreetMap · Directions in Google Maps
| Beach | Distance | Warmest sea | Length | Surface |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wijk Aan Zee Strand | – | 18.6 °C | 4.9 km | Sand |
| Zandvoort Strand | 13.2 km S | 18.7 °C | 5.3 km | – |
| Langevelderslag Strand | 21.5 km S | 18.7 °C | 522 m | Sand |
- Zandvoort Strand13.2 km SCompare
- Langevelderslag Strand21.5 km SCompare
Data on this page
- Air temperature, rain, cloud, wind, humidity: NASA POWER climatology 2001–2020, 0.5° grid.
- Sea temperature: NOAA OISST v2.1 monthly normals 1991–2020, nearest ocean cell 14.9 km away.
- Beach outline, surface, rules and public facilities: OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), feature w685480572; restaurants, cafés, bars and lodging: Overture Maps places (CDLA-Permissive-2.0).
- Towns and time zone: GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Airports: OurAirports (public domain). Sunrise and sunset: NOAA solar equations.
- Satellite view: Copernicus Sentinel-2 (ESA), scene S2A_31UEU_20230624_0_L2A.
- Orientation: OpenStreetMap land polygons (ODbL). Depth and terrain: GEBCO 2020 grid.
- Bathing-water quality: European Environment Agency (site NLBW95_WIJKAZBSD).
- Settlements: GeoNames places with 1,000+ inhabitants.
- Land cover: ESA WorldCover 2021, 10 m (CC BY 4.0).
- Search popularity: about 12.1K Google searches a month for the name (KeywordTool, October 2026).
Data compiled 2026-10-13. Something wrong? Report a data error.