Texel – Beaches – Loslopen.net

For a general overview of Texel and how to get there you can go here. This post is only covering the beach areas, if you want to know more about the forest and dune areas, then check out the page on Texel – Forests.

There are a number of all year round dog beaches on Texel where you can let your pup spend whatever energy he has. Technically you can walk your dog from the lighthouse at the north, all the way down to the south of the island to around Paal 9. It’s probably about a 25km walk in total and you can make your way back to the starting point using the Texelhopper bus service. Well behaved and leashed dogs are allowed on the busses. Note, you have to reserve the Texelhopper bus in a similar way that you would use an Uber, click here for more information.

FYI, the term “Paal” is not the locals being friendly and neither does it refer to a physical pole that Google translate suggests, it is an entrance to the beach. So Paal 9, Paal 17 etc, are referring to the number of a specific beach entrance. In Texel they start numbering from Paal 6 at the south up to Paal 33 at the northern tip of the island.

Our favourite spot is right at the north near the lighthouse (Paal 31). This is a vast beach, the tide goes out to a point that you can barely see it and half the beach is often covered in edible kelp which makes it interesting to sniff both for pups and people. It has so much space to play frisbee and run around and just get a fantastic feeling of open space and fresh air – enough to blow out the hardiest cobwebs from your head.

The other spot that we tend to visit is the beach next to Pal 17, another wide and sandy beach right next to a large car park, but it is also just a slight detour on the dunes walks so you can slip onto the beach for a coffee and a quick beach stroll before walking further into the dunes or forests, great if it is a hot day and you think your pup needs to be cooled off with a quick dunk in the sea.

Both of these areas have large car parks and a good beach cafe, both of which are very popular in the usual lunchtime or early evening slots so grab a coffee and a snack outside these hours and you will be able to find yourself a lovely cosy terrace spot.

Check out the official map of the dog areas on Texel for the dog beach areas. The sandy coloured beach zones are off leash areas for dogs. The blue spots are leash-only areas in summer but after 1 September and up to 1 March, you can let your pup run free in these areas too. Red is a no-go area.