Purmerbos, Purmerend

Purmerbos is about a half hour drive either from Amsterdam or Alkmaar, and if you plan a day trip in the areas of Edam, Volendam or Hoorn, then this spot is an excellent waypoint to stretch your pups legs and give him a treat for being such a good pup whilst you do your sightseeing.

Purmerbos is nearly all an off leash area, there is a section just after you enter the park which is very clearly marked as a no-dog zone for kids to play in. There are also a couple of kiddy play areas including a slide and some kind of adventuring paraphernalia where dogs are not allowed, but fortunately the rest of this huge park can give you a very decent run around!

There are a lot of waterways or canals which paved pathways weave around, and if you want to get off the hardened tracks, you can zig-zag your way between these on trodden pathways and over the canals on a quiet and less busy route. It can get a bit boggy on these pathways after rain.

There are two circular routes that you can follow, and it is pretty well marked but these seem to be mostly paved pathways which can get busy, so we tend to focus on the paths through the forest instead.

There is an official dog pool not too far from the entrance, which seems to be a bit of a meeting point at the park and probably the cleanest water in the area, which is very useful if your pup went belly deep in mud… The rest of the waterways were a mixture of mud and something else just a little too murky for some proper swimming but fine for a quick paddle to cool off the feet.

It seems the park is designed so horses and people/dogs don’t share paths, at least that’s what the signs indicate. I did not spot any kind of fishing activities to sidestep, possibly the waterways are too shallow to stock anything worth fishing but I haven’t been in summer to verify this.

Free parking is available on the Parkeerplaats De Populier. There are a couple of other parking spots but this one is the biggest.

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