English-Friendly Kids Activities in Amsterdam

The Amsterdam Museum turns 100, and it is celebrating with a festival of tours, creative workshops, exhibitions and birthday cake.

For families, the easiest way in is the giant city model, where projections show a small village on the Amstel growing into today's city, with 30,500 hand-placed buildings to spot. Much of the program is pitched at adults, so a visit to the model suits kids better than the talks and tours.

An exhibition of more than 80 works on paper from the museum's own collection, by Rembrandt and other artists up to today's makers, all experimenting with technique and material. In the middle of the show, visitors make their own drawing and try different papers and drawing materials, just like the artists on the walls. It all happens in the house where Rembrandt lived and worked.

Henry Chalfant photographed New York's graffiti scene in the 1970s and 80s, and STRAAT shows his work at true scale. Metro cars more than three meters tall pull you into the hall. Kids can draw their own pieces at a table, follow a treasure hunt made for families, or join a drop-in creative session.

Speel! (Play!) is a pop-up exhibition at Wereldmuseum Amsterdam about the stories behind well-known games, from the Royal Game of Ur to Tetris and from Mahjong to Mario. The point is to play: kids and parents can challenge each other on new and familiar games.

It also shows how games travel with people, like chess moving from India via Persia to Europe. Suits school-age kids who like games.

An outdoor ice rink on Museumplein, with the Rijksmuseum behind it and the Van Gogh Museum and Concertgebouw close by. Skates come in every size, so first-timers and confident skaters share the same ice. People skated on this square from 1887 to 1937, and the first official world speed skating championship was held here.

Next to the ice, Het Wak serves hot chocolate, lunch and dinner.

Meesterwerk Amsterdam brings the city's 17th-century paintings to the Stadsarchief, the city archive on Vijzelstraat. Kids look for hidden details in harbor scenes, markets and canal views, and ask whether the Golden Age city was as grand as the paintings say. A free treasure hunt booklet and an audio tour in Dutch and English let families explore at their own pace.

Super Sint Maarten is a neighborhood lantern parade that winds through the streets of the Indische Buurt in Amsterdam-Oost. Kids bring homemade lanterns and walk alongside big lit-up light sculptures, Pretvormer's glowing parade animals, costumed neighbors and live brass and percussion bands.

Anyone can join the procession or watch from the sidewalk. It started as a neighborhood addition to the usual door-to-door candy round.

Dozens of giant Playmobil dioramas: knights and a dragon castle, pirate ships, Roman camps, pyramids on the Nile, a circus and Star Trek spaceships. Some scenes have their own shows, like Dragon Castle with fire-breathing dragons and Space Western.

Kids don't just look: in the big play zones and at the play tables they play with Playmobil themselves. It suits families and Playmobil collectors alike.

Kids paint their own rabbits in a landscape, inspired by Vincent van Gogh's Landscape with Rabbits from 1889. It is a hands-on painting session inside the museum, a good fit for kids who like to paint and are curious about Van Gogh's work.

An all-white stage fills up with color, one shade at a time, until everything is mixed together. Vases roll away, feathers fly around, soap bubbles turn into a crown and balls decide they are ladybugs.

When the show ends, the kids get to play in the set themselves, among all the colors of the rainbow.

Sinterklaas arrives by boat at the Appelweg, then a procession of Pieten walks him through the garden village of Tuindorp Oostzaan. It is a local tradition run by the neighborhood's Sint and Christmas committee. Kids who know the story will enjoy it most, and the whole route is out in the open.

Sinterklaas arrives in Amstelveen with a parade of Pieten, music, dance and acrobatics, handing out pepernoten along the way. The procession winds through town to a welcome from the mayor and the children's mayor. Kids watch from the curb and wave. It suits young children who love the Sinterklaas story.

String players from Amsterdam Sinfonietta get an exciting letter: they're in a contest to see whose little plant grows the biggest. They're no good at sitting still, so while they wait they sing, dance and set their bows bouncing.

Kids meet the violin, viola, cello and double bass up close and are invited to bounce along. A playful first concert for preschoolers, made together with Het Concertgebouw.

Every November, Sinterklaas sails into Amsterdam on his steamboat and the city comes out to welcome him. Kids wave from the banks of the Amstel as the boat goes by, then line the streets as he rides through the center with his Pieten and decorated floats. At Leidseplein he speaks to the children himself.

It is made for kids who still believe in him. Expect big crowds.

Släpstick is a Dutch troupe of musical clowns, and Schërzo is their slapstick take on classical music. They play Rossini, Brahms, Saint-Saëns and Gershwin while everything goes wrong: a yodeling Schubert, a ventriloquist duel with a bust of Beethoven, tennis with violins, the Danse Macabre on theremin. Meervaart tags it "language no problem," so kids with no Dutch can follow along.

The Ruggeds, two-time Breaking world champions, perform Adrenaline, a high-energy show combining breakdance, acrobatics, and spontaneous movement set to breakbeat rhythms. Dancers swing through the audience and hang from the lights in a performance built on risk and physical precision. The show has played over 100 times globally, from New York to South Africa to China.

Offlab Studio is a series of three hands-on workshops led by two designers, Nina and Tina. Each one is its own project: a poster with a message the kid picks, made with collage, paint, stamps and drawings; a design printed on clothing; and a small book folded from one sheet of paper.

There's no right or wrong way here. Groups are small, and the focus is on trying things out.

Every winter, about 20 light artworks go up in, over and beside the canals of Amsterdam's old center. Families see them two ways: on foot along the route, or from a canal boat.

The festival app has a Kids Walk with fun facts, quiz questions and a scavenger hunt that ends in a small prize. It suits kids happy to be out in the cold after dark.

A gentle, cheerful show about butterflies, built from dance, music and paper props. Kids help hunt for butterflies that hide and pop up again, meet fireflies under the moon, and end up in a sea of butterflies.

Afterward, everyone is invited onto the stage to play in the set of butterflies, raindrops and grass. It suits toddlers and preschoolers who would rather move than sit still.

Volunteers at Speelboerderij Elsenhove, a city farm on the edge of Amstelveen, run a Sinterklaas afternoon where kids bake speculaas and pepernoten, the spiced cookies of the season.

Between batches there are rare old Dutch breeds to visit (belted cows, spotted goats, North-Holland blue hens) and a natural playground built for kids up to about 12. It suits preschoolers and school-age kids who like getting their hands in dough.

Christmas Village fills Museumplein, the big lawn in front of the Rijksmuseum, with wooden stalls selling winter food, hot drinks, art and Christmas gifts. Now in its tenth year, it is a stroll-and-snack outing more than a full day out.

It suits families who like to browse and graze, and pairs well with a museum morning. The lights look best once it gets dark, which in December is late afternoon.

A gentle, almost wordless show that moves through spring, summer, fall and winter with dance, pictures and live music. Everything makes a sound, even clothes on a washing line, and bits of Vivaldi drift through on kalimba, ukulele and drums. Afterward kids get to play in the set with the leaves, the "snow" and other bits of nature. With so little spoken, it needs no Dutch.

Kids sit on cushions and blankets right next to the musicians at Splendor, a collective of 55 professional players in an old bathhouse. Each concert brings a different set of instruments, from bassoon and cimbalom to recorders, tuba and the Turkish kemenche. The musicians play short pieces and explain them, the whole room joins a simple music game, and afterward kids can touch the instruments and sometimes try one.

A dancer on the floor and an aerial acrobat on a rope play with flashlights, mirrors, shadows and colored light. The show builds slowly from small beams of light. It is told through dance, light and music, so it needs no Dutch. Near the end, the children step onto the stage themselves. LiCHT won the 2026 Jonge Zwaan for the most impressive Dutch youth dance production.

A Christmas family concert: the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie plays Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker while a narrator tells the story. Ella wakes on Christmas Eve, the toys dance and the nutcracker becomes a prince who leads her into a world of sweets come to life.

The retelling is modern and bold (why not swap a princess dress for a judo suit?). It suits kids happy to sit and listen to a full orchestra.

Carré opened in 1887 as a circus building, and at Christmas the ring comes back. The World Christmas Circus books top international acts, many of them prize winners at the Monte Carlo circus festival: flying trapeze, aerial duets, clowns and acrobats. This winter is its 40th edition, with more award-winning acts than any year before.

A classic circus of separate acts suits kids who lose the thread of a play.

A huge winter fair spread through the RAI halls and out onto the square in front. Kids skate on indoor and outdoor rinks (plus a small rink just for under-6s), ride a Ferris wheel and carousels, go down a 10-meter slide, throw fake snow in the snow garden and walk a light trail. A kids' theater runs puppet shows, story readings and a winter circus. Busy and loud at peak times.

Lolobaki follows a stone that travels the world and meets animals who each teach it something, until it finds itself through them. Five musicians from the Dierenband tell the story with songs, sounds and masks, playing marimba, accordion, violin, harp, guitar and saxophone live on stage.

It suits toddlers and preschoolers who like music and animals. Older kids may find the story simple.

A sing-along Christmas concert for the whole family. Dutch jazz singer Wouter Hamel and a small band (piano, trumpet, double bass and drums) play Christmas songs in Dutch and English, from cozy modern ballads to the classics everyone knows, and kids are invited to sing along the whole way.

It suits children who already belt out songs at home. Kids who would rather sit and listen will find it gentle and warm.

Once a year, Dutch tulip growers fill Museumplein with a picking garden of 200,000 tulips and open it to anyone. Kids walk the rows and pick their own bunch to carry home in a biodegradable tulip bag.

A dweilorkest, a traditional Dutch street brass band, plays songs like Tulpen uit Amsterdam along the queue. It suits families with patience for a line and kids who like a hands-on job.

Three pop stars set out to look grown-up, harmonious and cool, then find their audience is mostly small kids. Pops of the Top is a lip-synced slapstick concert and a nod to the classic girl band, full of would-be hits, onstage fuss and squabbles over who gets the solo. Nobody speaks a word, so kids need no Dutch to follow along.

Four acrobats fall from the sky onto a garbage dump full of old stuffed animals, broken toasters and empty bottles. With acrobatics, humor and imagination they build a bright new world out of what everyone else threw away. A wordless circus theater show about teamwork, reuse and second chances, for kids who like movement and slapstick.

Stilte is an interactive show by Club Wauw about all the noise young ears take in every day. Two performers with a microphone go looking for silence and find it full of rustling, rattling and creaking from everyday objects like cardboard tubes and hoses. Toddlers sit close and get invited into the play, and parents take part too, since the show is made for kids and grown-ups to share.

Keukenhof is a huge spring flower park in the bulb country between Amsterdam and Leiden, planted with about 7 million bulbs in hundreds of varieties. Kids follow paths past beds of tulips, daffodils and hyacinths, walk out to the windmill, where an electric boat cruises the bulb fields, and duck into pavilions full of flower displays. Best for kids happy to wander and look.

Three dancers see the world the way a toddler does: a reflection in a shop window is thrilling, and a knocked-over plant pot means earthworms, not a mess. BonteHond tells it all through movement, music and giant folding paper fans, with no spoken words, so kids need no Dutch to follow along. A gentle first theater trip for toddlers and preschoolers.

Bloemencorso Bollenstreek is a parade of giant floats covered in hyacinths, tulips and other spring flowers, rolling 42 km from Noordwijk to Haarlem through the bulb-growing villages. Kids see animals, buildings and characters built entirely from blooms, with music between them.

Find a spot along the road and you smell the hyacinths as each float passes. It suits families happy to wait at the roadside in a big crowd.

On King's Day, Vondelpark fills with blankets laid out by kids selling the toys they've outgrown and clothes that no longer fit. Children set their own prices and do the haggling. The bolder ones perform for passing crowds instead.

It suits kids old enough to count change, and younger ones happy to browse with a little pocket money. Expect crowds, orange everything and a lot of bargaining.

Meneer Monster theater group performs this physical slapstick adaptation of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler's classic picture book. A clever mouse outwits three hungry forest animals through imagination and trickery, but faces unexpected consequences when his inventions become real. The production features live actors, winter-themed staging, and hot chocolate service.

A mole pops up to see if the sun is up, and something lands on his head. Poop. He sets off to find the culprit, quizzing a parade of animals who all swear it wasn't them, until two clever dung flies crack the case.

Meneer Monster (the makers of the Dutch stage Gruffalo) plays the Holzwarth and Erlbruch picture book as physical slapstick with almost no words, so kids need no Dutch.

Once a year, windmills and watermills across the Netherlands open to the public at the same time, and the millers who run them show visitors around. Kids can climb up inside, watch the sails turn and the gears move, and learn how mills once ground grain and pumped water out of the low land. It suits curious kids who like machines and big moving parts.

The Canal Parade is the big public moment of Pride Amsterdam. Decorated boats from LGBTQ+ groups, companies and public institutions sail through the canals with music and dancers on board, while huge crowds cheer from the quays and bridges.

Kids who can handle crowds and loud music get a colorful, high-energy afternoon. It suits toddlers less, and some boats and sponsors are aimed at adults.

A pancake restaurant on a boat that sails a loop on the IJ, past the A'DAM Tower and the EYE film museum. Bacon, apple and plain pancakes come from a self-serve buffet with sweet and savory toppings, and you go back as often as you like.

Below deck there is a big ball pit and coloring sheets, and the outside deck is the spot for photos after eating.

Playhood is a roleplay play space built as a child-sized neighborhood: a bakery, a supermarket with shopping carts, a fire station, a theater and more, all stocked with props and dress-up outfits. Kids run the shops while parents play along or sit in the Good Hood Café on site.

At the Good Hood Pizza shop, kids put on a chef's hat and apron, pick their ingredients and top their own pizza.

Club Abbey is a family café and indoor playground in one, inside the car-free Oostpoort shopping center. The wooden, Scandinavian-style play area is built for toddlers and preschoolers, with a separate baby corner in the conservatory, a big train table and a dress-up box.

Parents get good coffee and fresh sandwiches while the kids play, and almost every dish on the menu comes in a kids' version.

Candy Castle is an indoor play paradise inside a restored historic church, with climbing frames, slides and tunnels set under the old church interior. The main play structure is for bigger kids, and a separate toddler zone keeps the youngest apart.

Play zones are laid out so parents can watch from the seating, and a café serves food with halal and gluten-free options.

Ten Katemarkt is a neighborhood street market that has run along Ten Katestraat since 1912, on both sides of Kinkerstraat. During market hours the street is closed to traffic, so kids can walk the stalls on foot.

The Hannie Dankbaarpassage leads straight into De Hallen, a former tram depot with a food hall, cinema and library, handy for lunch or a rainy-day break.

Dappermarkt fills Dapperstraat with stalls from Mauritskade to Wijttenbachstraat, and the street has been an official market street since 1910. Kids can wander past heaps of fruit and vegetables, fresh fish, flowers and bright fabric rolls.

Many stalls cater to the area's Surinamese, Antillean, Turkish and Moroccan residents, so the produce and food go well beyond Dutch staples. It suits a slow browse more than a quick errand.

Noordermarkt is the market square in front of the Noorderkerk in the Jordaan, where traders have set up since 1623. On Saturdays an organic farmers' market sits alongside stalls of antiques, vintage clothes, books and handmade goods, with the Lindengracht fruit and flower market around the corner. Mondays it is the general goods market alone. Kids can browse the toy and bric-a-brac stalls and snack their way through the food stands.

IJ-Hallen is a flea market in a former shipyard hall at the NDSM wharf, with up to 600 stands on a market weekend. Anyone can rent a stand, so the mix changes every time, from secondhand clothes to home furnishings and odd finds.

Kids with a little pocket money can hunt for bargains among the stalls. The floor of the hall and the wharf is uneven, so strollers bump along.

The nature playground at NoordOogst, an urban farm project, is built from what was already there: trees, shrubs, sand, hills and water. Kids splash along a water channel and a pond with small waterfalls, stepping stones and big logs, climb a course through the trees, hide in a willow hut and look out from a tower over the farm, all the way to the pigs. Getting muddy is encouraged.

A water playground on small islands in the Grote Vijver pond, next to the Openluchttheater. Kids reach the islands over wobbly footbridges, a rope bridge and a small ferry they pull across themselves.

In and over the water there are ropes, poles to climb, and floating nets and rafts. Between swims there is room to build huts, picnic or lie in the sun on the small beach.

De Natureluur is a nature playground on the edge of Sloterpark, built from trees, sand, water and wood instead of standard play equipment. Kids climb trees, cross a watercourse on floating tree trunks, dig in the sand and get muddy along the water's edge.

The playground also runs nature activities, where kids learn about the plants and animals that live in the park.

Het Landje is a staffed adventure playground where kids build huts from pallets with real tools and nails, adding to an existing hut or starting their own. Seven ponies live on site, and kids in the pony club also groom them and muck out the stalls.

Not up for building? There's football, table tennis, foosball and board games, plus crafts and cooking on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

A former rose nursery turned pick-your-own flower garden on the Amstel dike. Visitors get snips and a bucket of water, then cut their own bouquet from the outdoor field or the covered greenhouse.

Spring brings tulips pulled up bulb and all, summer fills the beds with zinnias, cosmos and sunflowers, and autumn has dahlias and a pumpkin field. A garden terrace serves drinks and snacks.

Graffitifun runs graffiti birthday parties led by professional graffiti artists at its Hall of Fame wall on Flevoparkweg, next to Flevopark, with the NDSM wharf in Noord as a second spot.

Each kid learns a bit of graffiti history, sketches a design on paper, then sprays it onto a panel to take home. Afterward the group tags a real graffiti wall and walks past the surrounding pieces.

Wind 'n Wheels is a land sailing park on a big open field on the IJdijk at the eastern tip of Zeeburgereiland. Kids wear a helmet, get a short lesson from an instructor, then steer a small wind-powered cart around the track.

Four kid-size carts suit younger riders, and a tandem cart lets a grown-up take a sibling too young to sail. Restaurant KAAP sits on the same grounds.

Backspace runs a set of themed escape rooms near Sloterdijk. The Time Machine is built for children: 8 to 15 kids play as one team, splitting into small groups to crack puzzles and fix a broken time machine, with a game master in the room giving hints.

Families can also book Budapest Express or Mindcrime, where staff turn the lights up and the sound effects down for younger players.

The Park Playground is a free-roam virtual reality arena in a business complex at the Houthavens. Groups put on wireless headsets and walk around a shared play field together, solving puzzles in an Egyptian pyramid, cracking an escape room or teaming up on a space mission. Hosts brief each group before play, and a bar serves drinks and snacks afterward. Younger kids get fewer choices, since most games include mild scares.

Kickbase is an indoor soccer hall with 12 interactive activities under one roof. Eight solo skill stations test shot speed, precision and jumping, and a wristband tracks every score for the leaderboard. Group games include Foot Pool, Subsoccer and foosball. Staff explain each station at check-in and walk the floor during the session, and a self-service bar sells drinks and snacks. It suits soccer-mad kids of any level.

Knijn Bowling has 18 lanes with automatic scoring. Every lane has bumpers, and ball ramps let even the youngest kids send a ball down the lane. Bowling shoes run from size 28 to 50.

The kids party package is 1.5 hours of disco bowling with fries, snacks, unlimited lemonade and an ice cream at the end. The kitchen also serves a full menu and group buffets.

At the west end of the Vondelpark, Het Kinderkookkafé has let children do the cooking since 1981. At the Help-jezelf-Bar, a self-serve counter at kid height, young kids follow photo cards to bake cookies, decorate cakes, build a pizza or cut vegetable shapes, then eat at the family table. Staff handle the oven. Parents get coffee, toasties and homemade cake. Older siblings join in too.

A treetop rope park in the Amsterdamse Bos, with 10 courses strung between the trees at different heights. Kids stay clipped to a safety cable from start to finish while they cross rope bridges, a slackline and ziplines.

The easiest routes start 2.5 meters off the ground; the hardest ends with a free fall. Parents who don't climb can walk the paths underneath and cheer.

An indoor trampoline park with nine jump attractions and Valo Jump, trampolines linked to a projected video game. Younger siblings have You Kids, a separate indoor playground, while older kids can book JumpScool lessons to learn tricks from the staff. The café serves coffee, drinks and toasties, so parents can sit down while kids jump.

Sarphatipark is a 4.5-hectare rectangle of lawns, ponds and paths in De Pijp, around the corner from the Albert Cuyp market. Kids head for the playground and the play forest, and there is space for basketball, volleyball and table tennis.

Marsh plants keep the big pond clean, berry bushes and herbs grow along the paths, and an 1884 pumping station keeps the sunken park dry.

Museumplein is the big open square behind the Rijksmuseum, with the Van Gogh Museum, the Stedelijk Museum and the Concertgebouw concert hall around its edges. Most of it is open grass and paths, so kids can run, kick a ball or picnic between museum visits.

The long pond facing the Rijksmuseum is turned into an ice rink in winter, and the square hosts festivals and public celebrations.

Albert Cuyp Market runs the length of Albert Cuypstraat in De Pijp, with about 260 stalls trading on this street since 1905. Kids can buy a bag of fresh stroopwafels, try a herring from the fish cart, and point out flowers, plants and fruit along the way.

Past the food there are fabrics, clothes, leather goods and jewelry, plus old-style coffee houses and modern cafés along the street.

Nxt Museum shows new media art: room-sized light, sound and video installations that visitors walk through, sit in or lie down under. The current show, Pioneers of Media Art, runs through 10 spaces, pairing early video art from the 1970s with works by present-day studios.

The rooms are dark, with flashing lights and loud sound, which some kids love and some find too much.

STRAAT is a museum of street art and graffiti in an industrial warehouse on the old NDSM shipyard. More than 180 works by over 170 artists fill the vast hall, and the display changes as new pieces join the collection.

On some days artists paint live, and workshops teach graffiti techniques so kids can make a piece of their own. It suits kids who like big, loud color more than quiet galleries.

NDSM Wharf is a former shipyard on the IJ, now a 10-hectare open site of artist studios, exhibition spaces, waterfront cafés and large public artworks. Kids can wander between graffiti-covered buildings, giant colorful sculptures and the old shipyard crane, and shoot hoops on the 3x3 basketball courts.

It suits curious older kids more than toddlers looking for a playground.

Jaap Eden IJsbaan is a 400-meter outdoor ice track where families skate laps together during public hours. First-timers find their feet in the beginners' area with a push-along frame, while confident kids can switch between long-track and figure skates.

Waterman Sport, just inside the gates, rents skates and helmets. The indoor ice hall is for clubs, except over the Christmas holidays.

Brediusbad is a heated outdoor pool on the edge of the Spaarndammerbuurt, near Westerpark, set in a quiet green spot behind two tall hotel buildings. It has a 33 by 25 meter deep basin for swimmers with a diploma, a shallow basin for younger children and a round toddler pool with a spray fountain. A lawn beside the pools has room for towels and snacks, and the whole pool is smoke-free.

Flevoparkbad is a heated city pool on the edge of Flevopark, surrounded by trees. It has a 50-meter pool for lap swimming, a recreation pool with a play island, and a shallow toddler pool.

Sunbathing lawns and play equipment ring the pools, so families can spread out on the grass between swims and make an afternoon of it.

The inner harbor of the Marineterrein, a former navy yard, has been an official swimming spot since April 2025. A floating boardwalk closes off the water for laps or floating around on hot days. Water quality and temperature are posted online. Swimming is at your own risk, so it suits confident swimmers.

Nearby, a Sup Sup Club box rents paddleboards and a fitness garden has monkey bars.

The Gaasperplas is a lake dug for sand to build the Bijlmermeer, now ringed by beaches, lawns and paths. The main sandy beach on the south shore slopes gently into the water.

On the north side, by the Bastion in Gaasperpark, a newer beach has a non-slip mat running into the lake for wheelchairs, near a water playground. Sailboats and canoes use the open water.

Strand IJburg is a wide sandy city beach on Strandeiland, the largest island of IJburg, facing the IJmeer lake. It is an official swimming spot: buoy lines mark a shallow zone at 60 centimeters for small kids and an outer line at 1.4 meters.

Beyond that, currents and cold water make swimming a bad idea. On the sand there's beach volleyball, skating, soccer and SUP or surf lessons.

Fabrique des Lumières is a digital art center in the Zuiveringshal, a former gasworks hall on the Westergasfabriek site by Westerpark. Famous paintings and photographs are projected across the walls and floor of two rooms, set to music. Kids can wander through the images, sit on the floor or the tiered seats, and watch the pictures move around them.

The program rotates, with each show in its own daily time slot.

WONDR is a play attraction built for adults that welcomes kids with a grown-up. Fifteen themed rooms across 1,200 square meters hold what it calls Europe's largest ball pit, a pool of pink marshmallows, a confetti shower, a room of disco balls and fluffy karaoke booths. Cameras in each room send photos and GIFs to your inbox. It suits kids who like to jump and pose.

De Mirandabad is the city-run pool complex on the south side of town. Its best-known part is the subtropical wave pool under a glass dome with palm trees, where kids go down the high slide and climb on floating toys.

There is also a 25-meter lap pool looking out on the garden, and an outdoor pool with a small playground and picnic tables.

The city's central library fills 10 floors of a 2007 building by architect Jo Coenen, a short walk east of Amsterdam Centraal. Kids get a dedicated children's book section, and the building has 1,200 seats, rotating exhibitions on design, art and books, and a Library Museum.

The seventh-floor restaurant has a south-facing terrace.

Monk is a bouldering hall: short climbing walls with no ropes or harnesses, over thick crash mats, with routes for first-timers up to strong climbers.

On Saturdays an open youth training takes non-members of any level, and trainers give each kid tips. Parents who don't climb can watch from the café, which looks onto the walls. Changing rooms, showers and free lockers are on site.

Klimhal Amsterdam opened in 1996 near Sloterdijk station and calls itself the biggest climbing hall in the Benelux. Its walls rise 21 meters and cover 3,300 square meters, with about 300 routes and 300 boulder problems indoors and out. A bar with indoor and outdoor seating sits beside the walls.

An indoor trampoline park with 18 attractions, including a ninja course, a trapeze, an Airtrack arena and Valo Jump, a two-player gaming trampoline. Parents can jump alongside their kids, and the café serves coffee, drinks and toasties.

Kids who want more can join JumpScool to learn stunts and tricks from the park's Jump Masters.

VROG fills a 3,000 m² former pedestrian tunnel under Mr. Visserplein, next to the Portuguese Synagogue. The space holds a trampoline field, a jump tower with an airbag for practicing flips, a bouncy basketball and soccer court, an indoor parkour park and a dance studio.

Kids can drop in to jump or sign up for parkour, trampoline, K-pop and breakdance classes. Parents wait in the café bar overlooking the hall.

Monkey Town Amsterdam Noord is an indoor play center at Sportpark Kadoelen. Bigger kids climb the Funhouse, a large frame with tunnels, slides, an elastic climbing tower and a ball pit, and bounce in the trampoline zone. Toddlers get a separate zone with soft mats, mini slides and their own ball pit.

Parents can watch from the café, which serves halal, gluten-free and healthier food.

An indoor play center inside the Akerpoort shopping center, with play zones parents can watch from the café. Kids from 4 climb and slide through the Fun House, everyone bounces in the Trampoline Zone, and under-4s get a Toddler Zone with soft mats and mini slides.

There are also ball pits and a laser game arena, and the hall is climate controlled, so it works on wet or cold days.

Ballorig Gaasperplas is an indoor play center where kids climb, slide and tumble through soft-play frames, ball pits and inflatables. Children up to 4 have a separate play area of their own, away from the bigger kids.

Parents can sit in the restaurant, which looks out over the play equipment. It suits a rainy afternoon best, and older kids near the top age limit may find it young.

An indoor playground on the Johan Cruijff Boulevard, a short walk from the Johan Cruijff ArenA stadium. Kids climb through a labyrinth, race down the big slides and dive into the ball pit, while children under 5 have a separate play area of their own.

A café serves meals, snacks and drinks, and the venue also hosts kids' birthday parties and school trips.

A small public city farm in Amsterdam-Noord with ponies, goats, sheep, a pig and many smaller animals. Kids can pet the animals and play outside, and the farm often runs activities. It is a neighborhood meeting spot as much as an animal visit.

A city farm on the edge of Bijlmerweidepark with cows, donkeys, pigs, goats, sheep, rabbits, ferrets, peacocks, chickens and bees. Several are rare old Dutch breeds, such as Lakenvelder cows, Bonte Bentheimer pigs and Zwartbles sheep.

Beyond the animals there's a large playground, a visitor room, picnic tables and a canteen selling ice cream, toasties and the farm's own eggs and honey.

Speelboerderij Elsenhove is a city farm run by the municipality of Amstelveen, on the edge of the Elsenhove recreation area. Kids meet rare old Dutch breeds such as belted cows, spotted goats and North Holland Blue hens, then climb in a large adventure playground and a natural play area. The Peat Barn tells the area's peat history, and the farm sits on cycle routes near the Amstel river.

An organic goat farm in the middle of the Amsterdamse Bos, with about a hundred milking goats plus lambs, chickens, pigs, cows, a horse and a pony. The stables are open, so kids can watch the daily work up close and bottle-feed the young goats.

A playground sits by the big terrace, and the farm shop and restaurant serve cheese and ice cream made from the goats' milk.

Kinderboerderij De Werf is a small city farm on the edge of Watergraafsmeer, run by about forty volunteers and two part-time caretakers. Kids can see goats, ponies, rabbits, chickens and guinea pigs, then ride the farm's little bikes around the yard or play in the playground.

The canteen sells coffee and soft drinks. Visitors may not feed the animals, but staff gladly take a bag of fresh-cut grass.

De Uylenburg is a children's farm inside Rembrandtpark that has welcomed families for more than 50 years. Kids can get close to sheep, goats, a pony, a donkey, pigs, rabbits, cats, chickens and ducks, then head to the playground on the farm grounds. A terrace and small shop sell drinks and snacks. Volunteers help care for the animals, and the farm puts their welfare first.

A neighborhood city farm on the Kostverlorenvaart canal in Oud-West, open since 1996 on a plot locals still call "het landje van Ome Kick". Kids meet six goats, two Gasconne pigs that hunt for hidden nuts, sheep, rabbits, guinea pigs and chickens that roam a long mesh tunnel through the garden.

Boerderij Westerpark is the city's largest farm, run by staff and volunteers in the middle of Westerpark. Kids meet Kunekune pigs, Dutch spotted and Frisian milk sheep, pygmy and Nubian goats, several breeds of chicken, golden pheasants, pigeons and the farm cat.

When the meadow is open, families can walk in among the goats and sheep. De Hooikeet, the farm's neighborhood café, serves coffee, tea and apple pie.

A small city farm on the water on Bickerseiland, one of the Westelijke Eilanden, with views of boats and old warehouses. Kids walk among the animals: two pigs, two pygmy goats, three sheep, rabbits, guinea pigs, ducks and chickens.

There are no cuddle sessions or animals on laps; the team shows kids how to approach each animal at its own pace. The farm shop sells drinks, ice cream and fresh eggs.

A neighborhood petting farm with goats, sheep, ponies, donkeys, pigs, rabbits, guinea pigs, poultry, an aviary, cats and a bee colony. There are also terrariums, aquariums and a tortoise, plus a small native-plant garden (heemtuin).

Volunteers run short drop-in sessions where kids brush guinea pigs and rabbits, and a craft table where the project changes every week.

A neighborhood playground in the middle of the Henrick de Keijserplein, the biggest of the squares in De Pijp and closed in on all sides by housing. Small kids get swings and a sandbox, while older ones use the soccer and basketball court and the ping pong table. The wooden Amsterdam School clubhouse, now a community center, dates from the 1920s; the playground opened in 1916.

A playground beside Groot Melkhuis, the café on the site of an 1874 dairy farm in Vondelpark. Toddlers get a big sandbox and a slide, older kids get swings, a seesaw and more play equipment, and there are electric kiddy rides (a horse, a clown, a helicopter).

Parents can watch from the terrace by the water, and in winter the grand café inside keeps a fire going all day.

A large outdoor playground inside Amstelpark, laid out around a small harbor with a lighthouse. Climbing frames, slides and a sandbox are free to use, and ten token rides run alongside: Thomas the Tank Engine, a swing carousel, disco boats, mini cars, real diggers and a firefighter splash ride. Picnic tables and lawns sit nearby, and the park's city farm is next door.

Jeugdland is a large adventure playground and kids' workshop by Science Park. Kids hammer their own huts from pallets in the hut village, cross a water climbing course, slide down a grassy slide hill and visit the city farm animals.

There's also a natural swimming pool, a food forest, a barefoot path and a bar with homemade cakes. In workshops, kids bake bread over a campfire or pizza in a clay oven.

Het Woeste Westen is a nature playground next to Westerpark, split by old ditches into themed islands. Kids pole rafts through the ditches, splash in a running stream, pump water into a play pond and build huts from loose branches. Over a hundred tall willows shade the woodland strip, where a rope course runs between the trees.

Best for kids who are happy to come home muddy.

Het Twiske is a 650-hectare lake and nature area just north of Amsterdam-Noord, and about a third of it is water. There are sandy swimming beaches, an adventure and water playground, a diving platform, a marina, day camping fields and the Twiskemolen polder windmill.

A 15 km loop of smooth asphalt circles the area, so kids can bike, scoot or skate it while parents walk.

Park Frankendael surrounds Huize Frankendael, the last of the 17th- and 18th-century summer estates that once lined the Middenweg. Its old garden later served as a city nursery and is now the neighborhood park of Watergraafsmeer, with ponds, garden paths and art set among the lawns.

Kids head for the playground by the Ooievaarsnest, with its slide and water pump, and the nature playground, where getting muddy is the point.

Noorderpark joins the old Florapark and Volewijkspark across the Noordhollandsch Kanaal. Kids head for the Speelbos, a patch of woods with a wooden zip line, slide, swing and balance course, plus fallen branches for building dens.

Near the pink Roze Tanker, a former pump station that now hosts shows and workshops, there's a new skatepark. The park also has a rose garden and the Noorderparkbad city pool.

Amstelpark grew out of the 1972 Floriade flower show, and its themed gardens and rose garden remain. Kids head for the hedge maze (330 meters of yew on an island, with a lookout to climb), the city farm's goats, donkeys and rabbits, and the Amsteltrein, a small train that loops past the windmill. Beside the farm, a ride park runs bumper boats and real diggers.

Beatrixpark dates from 1938 and is laid out around canals, a duck pond with a fountain, and wooded paths crossed by eight bridges. For families, the draw is the round paddling pool with concrete stepping stones and a mermaid statue kids can climb, beside a playground with a big sandpit. The Artsenijhof, a herb garden from the 1972 Floriade, sits along the canal path.

Sloterpark wraps around the Sloterplas, a large artificial lake at the heart of the western garden cities. Kids get a petting farm, a nature playground, a skatepark, a soccer field and a sandy city beach on the shore.

The Rondje Sloterplas path circles the water for walkers, bikes and skates. A water sports center rents canoes, surfboards and small sailboats and runs lessons, and the Sloterparkbad pool sits by the beach.

Flevopark is a city park and nature area on the Nieuwe Diep, at the eastern edge of the Indische Buurt. Big lawns, ponds and wooded paths along the water draw birds, foxes and hedgehogs.

The playground has a sandbox, slides, swings, a seesaw and a zip line. Jeugdland, an adventure playground where kids build huts, and the Flevoparkbad outdoor pool are also in the park.

Rembrandtpark is a 45-hectare city park laid out in the 1970s on the western edge of De Baarsjes, with ponds, wooded corners and long walking and bike paths. Kids head for 't Landje, an adventure playground where they build huts, look after animals and sail rafts, and for De Uylenburg, the oldest petting farm in the city. There are also several playgrounds and school gardens.

Oosterpark is an English-style landscape park, the first large park the city laid out, with ponds, streams, a pond with a small island and long walking paths. Kids head for the wading pool and the natural playground by the Generator Hostel, where they dig in sand, swing, slide and climb through a pole forest.

The park also holds the National Slavery Monument, the focus of the Keti Koti festival each July 1.

Westerpark joins an 1890s city park with the grounds of the old Westergasfabriek gasworks, whose restored brick buildings now hold cafés, a cinema and Theater De Krakeling, a theater for young audiences.

The older eastern part has a pond with ducks; the newer western part has a shallow play pond where kids wade in summer. Wide lawns suit picnics and ball games, and there are public tennis courts.

Amsterdamse Bos is a 1,000-hectare forest park, planted by hand from 1934, with lakes, meadows and long walking and cycling routes.

Kids cross rope bridges and a self-operated ferry to the play islands, splash in two paddling pools, and pet goats at the Ridammerhoeve farm. There are canoes and pedal boats to rent, a Fun Forest rope course, and pancakes at Boerderij Meerzicht.

Live actors in period costume lead visitors through eight interactive shows covering 750 years of Amsterdam's darkest history, with full sets and special effects.

Groups of up to 30 move from room to room, and the actors pull people from the crowd into the scenes. It is dark and loud, with jump scares, so it suits kids who like a fright and laugh it off afterward.

A botanical garden founded in 1638 as a medicinal herb garden, now growing more than 4,000 plant species.

Kids head first for the Butterfly House, where tropical butterflies fly free and new ones hatch in a chrysalis cabinet. The Palm House holds ancient cycads, the Climate House runs from jungle to desert, and the carnivorous plant bed puts Venus flytraps and sundews at kid eye level.

A former cargo barge moored on the Prinsengracht, kept as the family home it was from 1967 to 1997. Visitors step down five steps at the stern into a 23-meter boat whose period rooms keep their original decoration, down to the living-room fireplace.

At the bow, kids can spot the rivets holding the steel plates together. Houseboat models, photos and a free audio guide in 18 languages fill in the story.

Eye is a film museum and cinema in a white building on the north bank of the IJ, opposite Central Station. The permanent exhibition downstairs has a green screen that puts kids into a scene from a film, a flipbook machine, private mini cinemas, and a wall that turns dancing into animation.

Families can pick up a discovery booklet for a mission around the exhibition. Upstairs, the bar-restaurant looks out over the water.

The Stedelijk is the city's museum of modern and contemporary art and design, with close to 90,000 objects from the early 1900s to now. Kids can spot Mondrian's primary-color grids, Karel Appel's wild CoBrA paintings, Warhol's Pop Art and Matisse, alongside design objects.

The entrance sits in the white wing locals call "the Bathtub", across Museumplein from the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum.

The Jewish Museum sits in the former Great Synagogue and covers Jewish religion, history and daily life through objects, art and personal stories, including the silver Rintel chanukiah, over a meter tall.

Off the lobby, Jewish Museum Junior is the Hollander family home, where everything can be picked up: kids bake challah in the kitchen, write their name in Hebrew and listen to Jewish music in the attic.

A wax museum on Dam Square with more than 90 life-size figures of pop stars, athletes, Dutch royals, DJs and Marvel heroes, spread over more than 10 themed areas.

Kids can touch the figures and pose with them, and try the interactive sets: a DJ booth, a catwalk, a karaoke café and a Van Gogh painting corner.

Body Worlds shows real human bodies preserved by plastination, a process invented by anatomist Gunther von Hagens, across seven levels on Damrak. The current exhibition, The Happiness Project, links what goes on inside the body to mood and health: hearts, lungs, nerves and muscles laid open, plus whole figures posed mid-movement.

The bodies are real, so it suits curious older kids more than squeamish ones.

Moco is a private museum of modern and street art in Villa Alsberg, a 1904 townhouse on Museumplein opposite the Rijksmuseum. Rooms show Banksy, Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Yayoi Kusama and KAWS, with works changing in rotation.

The digital and immersive rooms, full of mirrors and light, are the part kids tend to remember. Outside, the Moco Garden has sculptures by Banksy and KAWS.

Wereldmuseum Amsterdam, formerly the Tropenmuseum, collects objects and stories from cultures around the world, from its colonial history to games and holidays. Its family program, Wereldmuseum Junior, is built for touching and trying. In Raad van de Raaf, kids test their balance in a kayak, step onto a Greenlandic dog sled and listen to melting ice caps. CELEBRATION! Worldwide is a party shop of festival objects from many countries.

A volunteer-run line where restored electric trams, the oldest from the early 1900s, run along the edge of the Amsterdamse Bos toward Amstelveen. Kids sit on wooden benches, hear the tram bell and watch the city give way to forest.

Riders can hop off and catch a later tram, which pairs the ride with the Fun Forest treetop courses or the Nature Play Trail.

Blue-and-white GVB ferries cross the River IJ from the docks behind Centraal Station to Amsterdam Noord. Kids walk or ride their bikes straight on board and watch the harbor go by from the deck.

The Buiksloterweg crossing is the shortest and busiest, landing by the Eye Filmmuseum. Longer routes run east to IJplein and west to NDSM Wharf, home to the STRAAT street-art museum.

A 75-minute canal tour on a covered, mostly electric boat, passing the canal ring, the Magere Brug and the Montelbaanstoren before heading out onto the open IJ.

Adults listen to the regular audio commentary. Children get their own pirate story, "Wanted: Freshwater Pirates", in English or Dutch, plus an activity booklet with pencils and a pirate spyglass. Kids 10 and up usually enjoy the regular commentary too.

Vondelpark is a 47-hectare park of lawns, ponds and winding paths, opened in 1865 and named after the poet Joost van den Vondel. It has playgrounds, an open-air theater, a rose garden with more than 70 kinds of roses, and cafés such as the Groot Melkhuis and 't Blauwe Theehuis. Kids can picnic on the grass, rent skates, or spot the storks that nest here most springs.

A'DAM Lookout fills the top two floors of the A'DAM Tower, 100 meters above the IJ. A lift with light and sound effects climbs 20 floors in 20 seconds to an indoor deck with binoculars and a rooftop skydeck with a 360-degree view over the canals and polders. Add-ons include 'Over the Edge', a swing that arcs out past the roof edge, and a 2.5-minute VR ride.

The National Maritime Museum fills a 17th-century naval storehouse on the Oosterdok with 500 years of Dutch seafaring. Moored outside is a full-size replica of the East Indiaman Amsterdam, where kids swing in hammocks, haul cargo and take the helm.

Inside, Doris the Diver is a story-led play exhibition for the youngest visitors, and The Tale of the Whale lets older kids step inside a life-size whale.

The Van Gogh Museum holds the largest collection of Vincent van Gogh's work anywhere, from Sunflowers to his self-portraits, drawings and letters.

Kids can pick up a treasure hunt sheet or a checklist of ten paintings at the Information Desk and tick each one off as they find it. Weekend painting workshops let them make a picture of their own afterward.

The Rijksmuseum is the national museum of the Netherlands, set in a castle-like building on Museumplein. Its 8,000 objects run from Rembrandt's Night Watch and Vermeer's Milkmaid to an airplane, dollhouses, hundreds of weapons and ship models.

Kids can pick up a Family Route booklet at the info desk or follow the Family Quest through the galleries, and on weekends there's a picnic area for packed lunches.

Micropia is a science museum about microbes, the living things too small to see with the naked eye. More than 40 species grow in a working lab inside the museum, and kids look at them through microscopes and watch the lab technicians at work.

Interactive exhibits like the Kiss-o-meter and the Bodyscan show how many microbes live on and inside a person, and a new microbe goes on show each month.

ARTIS is one of the five oldest zoos in the world, set in the Plantage area among 800 trees and 26 national monuments. Around 300 animal species live here, including an Asian elephant herd with two young calves.

The ticket also covers the new Aquarium and the Planetarium, where dome shows travel through the solar system. Zookeepers give talks every day about feeding and training the animals.

NEMO is a hands-on science museum where kids test things for themselves. Fenomena covers light, sound and static electricity, Technium the technology around us, Elementa space and lab experiments, and Humania the human body through games and tests.

In the daily lab workshop kids put on lab coats and safety glasses for experiments with everyday objects. The roof is the highest city square in the Netherlands, with wide city views.