Welcome, fellow adventurers, to the Den Helder City Tour! At the very tip of North Holland, where the North Sea meets the Wadden Sea, this windswept town has spent twelve centuries staring down the water — first as a huddle of fishing huts on a dune, then as Napoleon's mightiest fortress, and finally as 'Marinestad', the proud home port of the Royal Netherlands Navy. Today's route strings together dune-top villages, cannon-studded forts, a cast-iron giant of a lighthouse, a Napoleonic dry dock, a warship once disguised as a tropical island, and the ferry gateway to Texel, before ending among WWII bunkers turned into art. It's a longer trek across the whole 'Kop van Holland' peninsula, so lace up good shoes — or, this being the Netherlands, consider renting a bike for the two coastal stretches. Den Helder's oldest heart, Huisduinen, was already inhabited before the year 900, but everything changed in 1811 when Napoleon Bonaparte himself came ashore and ordered the biggest naval base and fortress ring in the country built here. His engineer Jan Blanken got to work, King Willem I later gave his name to the finished dockyard, and by 1947 Den Helder was officially the main operational base of the Royal Netherlands Navy — a title it still proudly holds. Answer the question at each stop to earn a letter. Collect all nine, in order, and you'll be able to solve the final puzzle!

Marinestad: Forts, Ferries & the Fleet

Den Helder City Tour

9 stops · 210 min · 9.1 km

€ 14,99€ 9,99

Instant access after payment — you'll get a code by email and on screen to unlock the tour.