A first trip here with kids goes further with a plan. These are the places we'd take visiting family first, the ones that hold a kid's attention and not only an adult's. The city runs on water and bikes, so a canal boat or a free ferry counts as an outing on its own. Here's what we checked, from the NEMO rooftop to the windmills at Zaanse Schans.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The museum fills the canal house where Anne Frank and seven others hid from July 1942. Visitors climb steep stairs, pass behind the bookcase into the Secret Annex, and see Anne's room with the movie-star pictures she glued to the wall, plus her original red-checked diary.
The annex stays unfurnished at Otto Frank's request. The story is told through quotes, photos and video, and some images are hard to watch.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A first trip here with kids goes further with a plan. These are the places we'd take visiting family first, the ones that hold a kid's attention and not only an adult's. The city runs on water and bikes, so a canal boat or a free ferry counts as an outing on its own. Here's what we checked, from the NEMO rooftop to the windmills at Zaanse Schans.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The museum fills the canal house where Anne Frank and seven others hid from July 1942. Visitors climb steep stairs, pass behind the bookcase into the Secret Annex, and see Anne's room with the movie-star pictures she glued to the wall, plus her original red-checked diary.
The annex stays unfurnished at Otto Frank's request. The story is told through quotes, photos and video, and some images are hard to watch.
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.
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.
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.
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.
