Zuid is home to the city's big museums and concert halls, and plenty of them run sessions made for kids. Expect family workshops in the galleries, children's concerts in a grand hall, and library shows where kids get pulled into the story. Check this list before a trip to Museumplein and a walk past the museums can turn into an afternoon out.
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.
On Sint Maarten, Dutch kids carry lanterns through the dark and sing the saint's songs. This walk loops through the Vondelpark behind Toeters & Bellen, an Amsterdam street band playing in costumes strung with lights.
Bring a lantern, homemade or not, and join in. Kids who want to make one first can start at OCCII, a cultural center by the park, and walk over with the musicians.
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.
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.
Sinterklaas is nearly having his birthday, and he heads to Het Concertgebouw with the Pieten to celebrate with a sing-along concert in the Grote Zaal, the city's grand concert hall.
Pianist and band leader Cor Bakker plays with bass and drums while three actors carry the story: will Sinterklaas and the Pieten make it to the hall on time again this year? Kids sing along throughout.
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 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.
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.
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.
Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker, staged as a children's edition. A narrator, Madame Rose, introduces the ballet from the stage and explains the story as it goes, so kids who have never seen a ballet can follow along. Prima ballerina Iryna Khandazhevska dances with dancers from the ballet of the National Opera of Ukraine, keeping the classical steps, with full sets and costumes. Suits kids who like music, dressing up and fairy tales.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Zuid is home to the city's big museums and concert halls, and plenty of them run sessions made for kids. Expect family workshops in the galleries, children's concerts in a grand hall, and library shows where kids get pulled into the story. Check this list before a trip to Museumplein and a walk past the museums can turn into an afternoon out.
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.
On Sint Maarten, Dutch kids carry lanterns through the dark and sing the saint's songs. This walk loops through the Vondelpark behind Toeters & Bellen, an Amsterdam street band playing in costumes strung with lights.
Bring a lantern, homemade or not, and join in. Kids who want to make one first can start at OCCII, a cultural center by the park, and walk over with the musicians.
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.
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.
Sinterklaas is nearly having his birthday, and he heads to Het Concertgebouw with the Pieten to celebrate with a sing-along concert in the Grote Zaal, the city's grand concert hall.
Pianist and band leader Cor Bakker plays with bass and drums while three actors carry the story: will Sinterklaas and the Pieten make it to the hall on time again this year? Kids sing along throughout.
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 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.
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.
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.
Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker, staged as a children's edition. A narrator, Madame Rose, introduces the ballet from the stage and explains the story as it goes, so kids who have never seen a ballet can follow along. Prima ballerina Iryna Khandazhevska dances with dancers from the ballet of the National Opera of Ukraine, keeping the classical steps, with full sets and costumes. Suits kids who like music, dressing up and fairy tales.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
