The Spot in Zandvoort: A Versatile Watersport Location and Beach Club

On a spring-like Monday in March, we visited The Spot on the beach of Zandvoort, right next to the circuit. It's a beach club, but above all, the perfect spot for kite surfers, surfers, and stand-up paddleboarders. It's a place where you can order lunch, dinner, or coffee, and just as easily rent a wetsuit.

At the time of our visit, The Spot had just been fully rebuilt. The summer season for The Spot runs until October 1st, after which the entire pavilion is dismantled and stored. From February 1st, after a well-deserved break, reconstruction begins again, taking about a month. It’s somewhat of a miracle that just three days after opening, there is no sign that everything has just been put back into operation. “Yet, it is every time a difficult task,” says manager Menne Bartlema, “and definitely not an automatic process.”

Due to its unique location on the beach of Zandvoort, it was natural for The Spot to expand its functions with catering services. Since it is often feast or famine at the beach and scheduling staff accordingly can be very tricky, they opted for Butlaroo, to optimally serve guests during good weather.

Where The Spot places a lot of value on The Beach Lifestyle (combining sport, health, and sustainability), this is naturally reflected in their operations. That they excel in this is evident: in 2021, The Spot won the Falco Eleonara Award for the most sustainable F&B concept and was named the best Plastic Free Terrace in the Netherlands! Replacing a physical menu with a digital version also contributes to this. “Especially on the beach, a paper thing just blows away and it’s never error-free or complete. That’s why we consciously choose to only use a digital menu that we can adjust at any moment of the day according to our discretion.”

When we take a look at this digital menu, one thing immediately stands out: the photos of the dishes look truly stunning. You could get hungry just from looking at them, especially after a few hours of active sports in or along the water. “Seeing food makes you want to eat,” says Menne, “so we spend a lot of time each season on the photos of our dishes in the app.”

It's clear: for a day of watersports followed by a meal and a drink, The Spot is the place you want to be.