Though its a tiny little island, Texel has 7 villages in it. I managed to bike in and around a few villages.
While the whole village is frozen is time and is so charming, the Whaler's House needs a special mention. This has been frozen since 1729 when whaling commander Klaas Jacobsz Daalder and his wife Marritje and their children lived here. I also spotted a cute cafe with a statue of Marilyn Monroe in her typical image with flying skirt!
Den Burg: This is primarily the central area of the island where all the government and other major offices are located. That makes it a very busy and modern village. Its more like a town with several modern households and very contemporary architecture. Suddenly I felt, I wasn't in the middle of an island!
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This is where one of the 2 world-war cemeteries of the island is located and it was locked when I visited! This village also has the House of Antiquities built in 1591 which originally served as a shelter for homeless & travelers. Today its a museum with the antiques of 19th C.
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Apart from the central region, the village's boundaries extends out in the west towards the beach where our hotel, Bos en Duin Appartementenhotel was located. Just beside the hotel is the Dunes National Park which has quite a few trail paths to explore which we unfortunately didn't have time to explore. All I wanted to do was to just see the Fonteinsnol watch tower and the Strand Pavilion beach further ahead, which flopped, thanks to the weather. The Strand Pavilion is supposed to be the most beautiful, instagrammable, family friendly beach in the whole of Texel, complete with beach huts!
To Stay:
Hotels & BnBs at all price points are available in Texel.
Several camping grounds & beach huts are also available if you're a bit adventurous.
Check out my Bos en Duin Appartmentenhotel review where we stayed.
To Get There:
To Texel: Refer my upcoming post.
The villages of Den Hoorn, Den Burg and De Koog are served by the regular service of Texel Hopper number 28. Rest of the villages are served by the flexible route which requires reservation half-an-hour prior.
However, as we went you could bike around these places. While going around in car is possible, it not really feasible to go inside the tiny lanes of the villages. An option could be to take the car to go to from one village to another, park it and explore every village on foot.
If you're pressed for time, just roam about only Den Hoorn village. Its so charming!