Beaches in the Netherlands

Four hundred and fifty kilometres of North Sea coast, almost all of it sand, and every metre of it defended. The Dutch coast is a working piece of engineering: dunes are the primary flood barrier, sand is pumped from offshore to maintain them, and the Sand Motor south of The Hague is an experiment in letting the sea distribute a single vast deposit along the coast over decades. Beach pavilions are built each spring and removed each autumn under municipal rules. The water reaches eighteen degrees in August, the wind is constant, and the country is one of Europe's kitesurfing centres as a result. Scheveningen and Zandvoort are the two beaches Dutch cities reach by tram, and both fill within an hour of sun. The Wadden islands to the north — Texel, Vlieland, Terschelling — are quieter, reached by ferry, and back onto the intertidal flats that are a World Heritage site.