Some weekends the city feels too small. These are the trips we'd make with kids when there's a whole day to fill: villages with windmills, North Sea beaches, castles, theme parks and old towns, all close enough by train or car to be home for dinner.
Walibi Holland is a big theme park in Biddinghuizen, about an hour's drive east of Amsterdam, with around 40 rides. Teens head for thrill coasters like Goliath, Untamed and YOY THRILL.
Families share the Drako coaster, the Crazy River log ride, tea cups and the El Rio Grande rapids, and younger kids get their own rides, such as Walibi's World Tour and Space Kidz.
A zoo in Amersfoort, near Utrecht, where kids can watch elephants and tigers up close and walk past dinosaur models in the woods. Paths link the animal areas, so it is a walking day. It suits toddlers through primary school, and older kids who want rides will find the animals are the whole point.
A 9-kilometer stretch of North Sea sand running from Bloemendaal to Noordwijk, backed by dunes. Between February and October more than 30 beach pavilions line it, several with playgrounds, and five stay open all year.
Kids dig, fly kites and paddle in the shallows while lifeguards watch the north and south beaches in season. Sloping ramps from the boulevard make most entrances easy with a stroller.
Haarlem is a historic city built around the Grote Markt, where the Grote or St. Bavo Church holds the Müller organ that Mozart played as a child.
Kids can tour Molen de Adriaan, a windmill on the Spaarne river, and look out over the old town from its gallery, then see million-year-old fossils and old scientific instruments at Teylers Museum, the oldest museum in the Netherlands.
Marken was an island in the Zuiderzee until 1957 and is now joined to the mainland by a causeway. The old village is a cluster of traditional wooden houses, narrow lanes and a small harbor, and cars without a permit stay outside.
The Marker Museum fills six connected cottages, one set up as a 19th-century home with local costume. From the harbor, a ferry crosses the lake to Volendam.
Volendam is an old fishing town on the Markermeer, under half an hour's drive north of Amsterdam. Kids watch wooden boats in the harbor, eat kibbeling or herring along the Dijk, and pose for a studio photo in traditional costume.
The Volendams Museum shows village life from 1850 to 1950, and the Volendam-Marken Express sails to the former island of Marken in about 30 minutes.
Two sites a short walk apart in Enkhuizen. 't Zuiderzeedorp is an open-air village of more than 140 historic houses moved from towns around the old Zuiderzee, with a smithy, rope maker and fish smokehouse, plus costumed residents who chat with visitors. Kids can try on traditional clothes, play old Dutch games and sit in a period classroom. The Schathuys holds the museum's collection and a hall of wooden ships.
Naturalis is the national natural history museum of the Netherlands, holding over 45 million objects. The galleries run from the Life hall, which climbs from ocean depths to a mountaintop, through Dinosaur age with Trix the T. rex, to Ice age, Earth and Evolution.
On the free ground floor, kids can watch researchers at work in LiveScience. The Rexperience adds a bumpy capsule ride back to the T. rex.
Kinderdijk is a UNESCO World Heritage site where nineteen windmills line the canals that have kept this low-lying land dry for centuries. Kids can step inside three of the mills, ride the tour boat past the rest and explore the old Wisboom Pumping Station.
The Mill Code activity sheet, included with entry, turns the walk into a puzzle hunt, with a surprise for kids who crack the code.
Madurodam shrinks the Netherlands' best-known sights into one walkable park. Container ships move through a model port of Rotterdam, the Cube Houses stand on the Blaak, and Amsterdam's canals are lined with hundreds of tiny bicycles.
Indoor attractions add hands-on play: kids help fire the cannons to defend Nieuw Amsterdam, the Dutch roots of New York, and try the interactive Dutch Masters and Waterwolf halls.
Vogelpark Avifauna opened in 1950 as the first bird park in the world, and its 15 hectares of ponds and planted paths now hold toucans, pelicans, kiwis and Steller's sea eagles. Red pandas share an enclosure with Chinese birds, and lemurs and meerkats live alongside.
Trained birds of prey fly in demonstrations several times a day, and the playground has the tallest slide tower in the Netherlands.
Duinrell combines a theme park and the Tiki Pool water park in the forested dunes near The Hague. The park has more than 40 rides, from the Falcon rollercoaster with its loop and nose dive to the Kikker8baan frog coaster, Splash boats, bumper boats and a toboggan run.
The Tiki Pool has 21 slides, waves, and Playa, an indoor kids' area with a heated toddler pool.
Linnaeushof bills itself as Europe's largest playground, with around 350 play structures and attractions spread across a green park near Haarlem. Kids climb a pirate island, ride a little train, play minigolf and drive karts.
On warm days the Oasis water playground has separate shallow sections for younger and older kids, with benches close by. An indoor playground covers rainy spells.
Archeon is an open-air archeology museum park where reconstructed houses show how people lived in the Netherlands from the hunter-gatherer era to the Middle Ages. Kids paddle a dugout canoe, march with the Roman legion, try archery and sword fighting in the medieval town of Gravendam, and sail on the Viking ship at Dorestad. Costumed staff work as bakers, smiths and craftspeople, and the Archeologiehuis shows the real finds.
Efteling is the largest theme park in the Netherlands, set in woodland. The Fairy Tale Forest is a walk past scenes from classic stories, including the Fairytale Tree, while rides run from calm family attractions to roller coasters like Baron 1898.
Fairy tale characters walk the paths, shows run through the day, and it ends with Aquanura, Europe's largest water show.
The Nijntje Museum is a hands-on museum for toddlers and preschoolers built around Miffy, the rabbit from Dick Bruna's picture books. Its 1,500 square meters of rooms are made for looking, touching and exploring on your own, the way Bruna's books invite kids to fill in the story themselves.
A 360-degree projection room plays a Miffy story every day, and weekends add an art studio and Sunday read-alouds.
This railway museum is built around a real station, Maliebaan, with platforms and halls full of historic locomotives.
Kids ride Steel Monsters, a cart on real rails through the dark past hissing engines, and Trial by Fire, a prize-winning attraction through 200 years of railway history. In the Techlab they close a circuit to move a train, pedal to feel its energy use and pull an emergency brake.
Keukenhof is a 32-hectare spring garden where 7 million bulbs are planted by hand each year: tulips, daffodils and hyacinths along 15 kilometers of paved paths, with cherry blossoms, a historic windmill and flower shows in the pavilions.
Kids head for the playground, which has a Miffy area for the youngest, the maze with its lookout point, and a free scavenger hunt from the information desks.
Muiderslot is a moated castle dating back to 1285, now a national museum. Kids walk through the Knights' Hall, see armor and a 14th-century chest carved from a hollowed-out tree trunk, and follow routes through the castle and gardens.
The free audio tour, in English or Dutch, suits children, and the studio runs creative activities every day. Outside are a herb garden, a plum orchard and a shaded green tunnel.
Zaanse Schans is a heritage village of green wooden houses and working windmills along the river Zaan. Kids can climb into an open mill to watch it saw timber or grind paint pigments, see clogs being made at the clog workshop, and taste cheese at the Catharina Hoeve farm. A windmill boat cruise and marked walking routes along the water round out the day.
Some weekends the city feels too small. These are the trips we'd make with kids when there's a whole day to fill: villages with windmills, North Sea beaches, castles, theme parks and old towns, all close enough by train or car to be home for dinner.
Walibi Holland is a big theme park in Biddinghuizen, about an hour's drive east of Amsterdam, with around 40 rides. Teens head for thrill coasters like Goliath, Untamed and YOY THRILL.
Families share the Drako coaster, the Crazy River log ride, tea cups and the El Rio Grande rapids, and younger kids get their own rides, such as Walibi's World Tour and Space Kidz.
A zoo in Amersfoort, near Utrecht, where kids can watch elephants and tigers up close and walk past dinosaur models in the woods. Paths link the animal areas, so it is a walking day. It suits toddlers through primary school, and older kids who want rides will find the animals are the whole point.
A 9-kilometer stretch of North Sea sand running from Bloemendaal to Noordwijk, backed by dunes. Between February and October more than 30 beach pavilions line it, several with playgrounds, and five stay open all year.
Kids dig, fly kites and paddle in the shallows while lifeguards watch the north and south beaches in season. Sloping ramps from the boulevard make most entrances easy with a stroller.
Haarlem is a historic city built around the Grote Markt, where the Grote or St. Bavo Church holds the Müller organ that Mozart played as a child.
Kids can tour Molen de Adriaan, a windmill on the Spaarne river, and look out over the old town from its gallery, then see million-year-old fossils and old scientific instruments at Teylers Museum, the oldest museum in the Netherlands.
Marken was an island in the Zuiderzee until 1957 and is now joined to the mainland by a causeway. The old village is a cluster of traditional wooden houses, narrow lanes and a small harbor, and cars without a permit stay outside.
The Marker Museum fills six connected cottages, one set up as a 19th-century home with local costume. From the harbor, a ferry crosses the lake to Volendam.
Volendam is an old fishing town on the Markermeer, under half an hour's drive north of Amsterdam. Kids watch wooden boats in the harbor, eat kibbeling or herring along the Dijk, and pose for a studio photo in traditional costume.
The Volendams Museum shows village life from 1850 to 1950, and the Volendam-Marken Express sails to the former island of Marken in about 30 minutes.
Two sites a short walk apart in Enkhuizen. 't Zuiderzeedorp is an open-air village of more than 140 historic houses moved from towns around the old Zuiderzee, with a smithy, rope maker and fish smokehouse, plus costumed residents who chat with visitors. Kids can try on traditional clothes, play old Dutch games and sit in a period classroom. The Schathuys holds the museum's collection and a hall of wooden ships.
Naturalis is the national natural history museum of the Netherlands, holding over 45 million objects. The galleries run from the Life hall, which climbs from ocean depths to a mountaintop, through Dinosaur age with Trix the T. rex, to Ice age, Earth and Evolution.
On the free ground floor, kids can watch researchers at work in LiveScience. The Rexperience adds a bumpy capsule ride back to the T. rex.
Kinderdijk is a UNESCO World Heritage site where nineteen windmills line the canals that have kept this low-lying land dry for centuries. Kids can step inside three of the mills, ride the tour boat past the rest and explore the old Wisboom Pumping Station.
The Mill Code activity sheet, included with entry, turns the walk into a puzzle hunt, with a surprise for kids who crack the code.
Madurodam shrinks the Netherlands' best-known sights into one walkable park. Container ships move through a model port of Rotterdam, the Cube Houses stand on the Blaak, and Amsterdam's canals are lined with hundreds of tiny bicycles.
Indoor attractions add hands-on play: kids help fire the cannons to defend Nieuw Amsterdam, the Dutch roots of New York, and try the interactive Dutch Masters and Waterwolf halls.
Vogelpark Avifauna opened in 1950 as the first bird park in the world, and its 15 hectares of ponds and planted paths now hold toucans, pelicans, kiwis and Steller's sea eagles. Red pandas share an enclosure with Chinese birds, and lemurs and meerkats live alongside.
Trained birds of prey fly in demonstrations several times a day, and the playground has the tallest slide tower in the Netherlands.
Duinrell combines a theme park and the Tiki Pool water park in the forested dunes near The Hague. The park has more than 40 rides, from the Falcon rollercoaster with its loop and nose dive to the Kikker8baan frog coaster, Splash boats, bumper boats and a toboggan run.
The Tiki Pool has 21 slides, waves, and Playa, an indoor kids' area with a heated toddler pool.
Linnaeushof bills itself as Europe's largest playground, with around 350 play structures and attractions spread across a green park near Haarlem. Kids climb a pirate island, ride a little train, play minigolf and drive karts.
On warm days the Oasis water playground has separate shallow sections for younger and older kids, with benches close by. An indoor playground covers rainy spells.
Archeon is an open-air archeology museum park where reconstructed houses show how people lived in the Netherlands from the hunter-gatherer era to the Middle Ages. Kids paddle a dugout canoe, march with the Roman legion, try archery and sword fighting in the medieval town of Gravendam, and sail on the Viking ship at Dorestad. Costumed staff work as bakers, smiths and craftspeople, and the Archeologiehuis shows the real finds.
Efteling is the largest theme park in the Netherlands, set in woodland. The Fairy Tale Forest is a walk past scenes from classic stories, including the Fairytale Tree, while rides run from calm family attractions to roller coasters like Baron 1898.
Fairy tale characters walk the paths, shows run through the day, and it ends with Aquanura, Europe's largest water show.
The Nijntje Museum is a hands-on museum for toddlers and preschoolers built around Miffy, the rabbit from Dick Bruna's picture books. Its 1,500 square meters of rooms are made for looking, touching and exploring on your own, the way Bruna's books invite kids to fill in the story themselves.
A 360-degree projection room plays a Miffy story every day, and weekends add an art studio and Sunday read-alouds.
This railway museum is built around a real station, Maliebaan, with platforms and halls full of historic locomotives.
Kids ride Steel Monsters, a cart on real rails through the dark past hissing engines, and Trial by Fire, a prize-winning attraction through 200 years of railway history. In the Techlab they close a circuit to move a train, pedal to feel its energy use and pull an emergency brake.
Keukenhof is a 32-hectare spring garden where 7 million bulbs are planted by hand each year: tulips, daffodils and hyacinths along 15 kilometers of paved paths, with cherry blossoms, a historic windmill and flower shows in the pavilions.
Kids head for the playground, which has a Miffy area for the youngest, the maze with its lookout point, and a free scavenger hunt from the information desks.
Muiderslot is a moated castle dating back to 1285, now a national museum. Kids walk through the Knights' Hall, see armor and a 14th-century chest carved from a hollowed-out tree trunk, and follow routes through the castle and gardens.
The free audio tour, in English or Dutch, suits children, and the studio runs creative activities every day. Outside are a herb garden, a plum orchard and a shaded green tunnel.
Zaanse Schans is a heritage village of green wooden houses and working windmills along the river Zaan. Kids can climb into an open mill to watch it saw timber or grind paint pigments, see clogs being made at the clog workshop, and taste cheese at the Catharina Hoeve farm. A windmill boat cruise and marked walking routes along the water round out the day.
