• Under 20 minutes from Amsterdam, so it works as a half-day trip without an early start
• Molen de Adriaan windmill on the Spaarne, with a guide, models and a view over the old city from the mill
• Dunes and beach nearby, with Zuid-Kennemerland National Park close enough for a second stop

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.