Ferries from Den Helder

Four million people a year cross from this quay to an island twenty minutes away. The Den Helder to Texel service is the busiest ferry in the Netherlands, it runs 365 days a year, and it leaves every half hour whether anybody is waiting or not.

The service

• 20 minutes to 't Horntje on Texel.
• Every half hour, first boat at 06:30, last at 21:30.
• 365 days a year, roughly 4 million passengers annually.

The operator is Royal TESO, and our timetable holds 56 active sailings on the crossing.

⚠ Unlike the other Wadden islands, you can bring a car

Texel takes vehicles, which sets it apart from Vlieland — where visitor cars are not admitted at all — and makes this crossing a different kind of operation from the Harlingen boats further east.

It also means the vehicle deck is the constraint in summer, and that the queue at Den Helder on a July Saturday is a real one despite the half-hourly frequency.

Getting to the quay

Den Helder is the northern terminus of the railway from Amsterdam, and the station is close to the ferry. Arriving by train and crossing as a foot passenger is straightforward and avoids the vehicle queue entirely.

Bicycles are carried and are the sensible way to use Texel, which is flat and has a dense cycle network.

The town behind the port

Den Helder is a naval town — the main base of the Royal Netherlands Navy — and the harbour reflects it. The ferry terminal is a small part of a working port that does other things.

Season

The timetable is the same all year; the loading is not. Summer weekends and Dutch school holidays fill the vehicle deck, and the shoulder seasons are when the half-hourly service feels as generous as it sounds.