Take the Family holiday rating
| Capital City | Amsterdam |
|---|---|
| Flying Time | 2.00 hours  |
| Carbon Footprint | 0.44 tonnes CO2 |
| Timezone | GMT +1 |
| Local Currency | Euro |
Because there's much more to this small country than its infamous capital Amsterdam – although the latter can be surprisingly family-friendly if you approach it in the right frame of mind, even with younger kids. The Dutch landscape, though highly industrialised in parts, is also unique – much of it lies at sea level or even beneath, having been reclaimed from the water, so dunes, unspoilt beaches, canals and other waterways, and flat fields stretching into the distance, punctuated only by the occasional windmill, predominate.
Such areas make the Netherlands a great destination for outdoorsy families, especially those who enjoy cycling – indeed, you'll feel out of place if you don't hop aboard a bike while you're here. That counts for the towns and cities too, where babies, toddlers and older kids hurtle around in various contraptions affixed to their parents' bikes, or on family tandems. The cities and towns themselves are characterful, with interesting histories and architecture for those who care to seek them out, while the people are generally extremely friendly and with few exceptions speak excellent English.
Though Dutch cities offer family fun year-round, the warmer months from May to September are generally the most pleasant time to visit the Netherlands, with the landscape and beaches coming into their own, plenty of scope for cycling through the countryside or the cities, and heaps of outdoor festivals and other events. That said, good off-season offers are available at holiday villages, whose indoor waterparks can be enjoyed whatever the weather.
For family-friendly events in the Netherlands, including the Maastricht carnival in February, see What's on When.
The most environmentally friendly way to reach the Netherlands is by ferry, with P&O Ferries taking you overnight from Hull to Rotterdam, an hour and a half southwest of Amsterdam. The family-friendly operator also sails from Hull to Zeebrugge in Belgium, which is very handy for those visiting South Holland, or from Dover to Calais in France, which is 4hrs from Amsterdam by road. Alternatively, DFDS Seaways sails from Newcastle to IJmuiden near Amsterdam and Zandvoort.
Travelling by ferry gives you the chance to take your own wheels and avoid having to hire a car. It also means you can just load your boot without having to worry about airport baggage allowances or being weighed down by too much luggage. If you do drive, we heartily recommend investing in a GPS – Dutch motorways, especially around Rotterdam and Europoort, can be Spaghetti-Junction-like, and there is scant signage in English. They also allow you to easily locate out-of-town Park & Ride facilities such as P&R Zeeburg, which lets you park outside Amsterdam for just 6 Euros a day, including free shuttle in and out of the centre. For more tips on driving, see our Taking or Hiring a Car page.
If you do fly, Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, 2hrs from London, is one of Europe's largest, with excellent rail connections into the capital itself as well as Rotterdam and Den Haag. It's served by both regular and low-cost airlines. Alternatively,Ryanair serves Eindhoven and Maastricht. See our flight deals and car-hire pages.
It's worth noting that a new high-speed line to Amsterdam has made train travel to the Netherlands a very viable option, taking as little as 4hrs 16mins (count on 4hrs to fly centre-to-centre). This involves taking a Eurostar from London to Brussels, then a fast train from Brussels to Amsterdam. For details of this and other train/train and ferry routes, see the Man in Seat 61.
Centerparcs holiday villages first appeared in the Netherlands more than three decades ago, and Centerparcs Europe currently has eight parks in the country, which may be booked as a ferry package with DFDS Seaways (see right-hand column). The parks include De Eemhof 50km from Amsterdam, the ‘action resort’ of De Huttenheugte in the rural north, and De Kempervennen in the southern Netherlands, which has year-round real snow permitting skiing and snowboarding.
Similar to Centerparcs, Sunparks has two holiday villages in the Netherlands – the coastal Sunparks Zandvoort aan zee 30km from Amsterdam, and Limburgse Peel in a nature resort to the east of Eindhoven.
A step down from a holiday village in terms of accommodation, Canvas Holidays' mobile-home campsite Camping Duinrell within a nature reserve at Wassenaar just north of Den Haag and Scheveningen also offers a tropical waterpark, and even an adjoining themepark.
Dutch cities have hotels for all budgets, B&B ‘inns’ (usually in residential areas), apartments and canal houses, and sometimes houseboats. For accommodation in the capital, see our Amsterdam page. In Den Haag, the luxury Hotel des Indes is family-friendly; in Maastricht, the Hotel Derlon has its own underground museum tracing the city’s history from the 1st century BC, plus apartments with up to two bedrooms as well as guestrooms. Wackier options include the Controversy Tram Hotel just over 50km north of Amsterdam, with reasonably priced themed bedrooms in old city trams within a farmyard created from abandoned objects, or the newly opened, floating Cruise Hotel in Rotterdam, with a family package including entry to the city's zoo.
If you stray into the north, the inhabited islands each have a few small hotels, lots of holiday homes and apartments, and a campsite or two; their tourist office websites have details – texel.nl and terschelling.nl are the best starting points.
Discover the Amsterdam behind the sleaze and the weed. There's lots for kids to do, whether tots or teens – see our feature on Amsterdam with Young Kids if you're not convinced.
Take your aspiring knights and damsels to the medieval castle of Muiderslot, just 16km southeast of Amsterdam, or seek out one of the beaches within easy reach of the capital – Zandvoort (home to a Sunparks) is very hectic in summer, but there are some more family-friendly stretches north of IJmuiden.
Amsterdam is also a handy base for exploring 'picture-postcard' Amsterdam – the pancake-flat Waterland and Zaan region of north Holland (Noord Holland) with its windmills, wooden houses, battered fishing boats, dykes and tulips. Don't laugh, but some people even wear clogs here! You can get here from boat-trip from Amsterdam, with the focal point being the Zaanse Schans open-air conservation centre and museum, where you can admire working windmills and traditional Dutch buildings and watch artisans making everything from cheese or mustard to… uh, clogs. The venue has a great traditional pancake house, De Kraai, plus a bakery-museum selling sweet local bread and home-made sweets. If you have a bike, go for a spin along along the River Zaan, where you can see dozens of functioning windmills, some more than 300 years old, and other remnants of the area's industrial past.
Alternatively, head to the gorgeous National Park of Hoge Veluwe an hour southeast of Amsterdam, where you can help yourself to free white bicycles to explore the forests, trails, lakes and dunes, spotting wild boar, deer and moufflon as you cruise. Within the park you'll also find the Kröller-Müller Museum, with the world’s second-largest collection of Van Goghs (for those who didn't get their fill in Amsterdam, home to the largest collection), and the biggest sculpture garden in all Europe.
Venture into South Holland (Zuid Holland), where the village of Kinderdjik has earnt UNESCO World Heritage status for its large number of windmills (19), tour-able by boat or bike. Just 15km east of Kinderdjik lies Rotterdam, a major ferry port (see above) as well as the Netherland's second-largest city. Rotterdam's biggest attractions for kids are its world-renowned zoo, Diergaarde Blijdorp, and the Plaswijckpark with its go-karting ‘traffic garden’, boat trips, mini-train, adventure playground and animal park.
Venture just north of Rotterdam to investigate Den Haag (The Hague), the Netherlands' seat of government as well as home to Queen Beatrix. Its main attraction for kids is the miniature city Madurodam, where kids can feel like giants amidst scaled-down Dutch buildings, landmarks and canals, but there are also some beach resorts on the city outskirts – Scheveningen and the smaller, more low-key Kijkduin.
Stop off between Rotterdam and Den Haag, to explore historic, pretty Delft, famed for its delicate blue and white porcelain (there's a factory you can tour) and filled with gabled buildings, impressive churches and meandering waterways. The Vermeercentrum focuses on the town's most famous son.
Don't miss Leiden, north of Delft – the birthplace of Rembrandt, it has three superb national museums, the most kid-friendly being the Natural History Museum, plus a quirky windmill museum, De Valk. In spring the town makes a good base for visiting the celebrated Keukenhof tulip gardens.
Head south-east of Rotterdam, to one of the world's oldest theme-parks, De Efteling. Little more than an hour from Amsterdam, it started out with a fairy-tale theme and though it has grown to become a major (and multiple award-winning) attraction, it retains its charm and whimsicality. The park also boasts a four-star hotel and a new holiday village with bungalows.
Make sure not to overlook the east of the country, for its historic cities and vast forests, and in particular, don't underestimate the appeal of Maastricht in its little pocket looping down between Belgium and Germany. Cosmopolitan by virtue of its location and its history, it's an ancient town of cobbled streets, medieval bridges, quaint churches and an appealing café life, with lots of tempting outlets catering to a large and vibrant student population, especially around the tree-lined Onze-Lieve-Vrouwe Plein. Sights here include the Bonnefanten Museum with both Old Masters and contemporary artworks, and the Natuurhistorischmuseum with local fossils and remains, including those of mosasaurs and giant turtles.
Thirty km north of Maastricht, Kasteelpark Born has a delightful kids' zoo and farm, bee colony, playground and café within the ruins of the old town castle. You might also think about nipping across the border into Germany to visit the film themepark Movie World (40 minutes from Maastrich), boasting a new Ice Age ride.
Lastly, if you're feeling adventuruous, consider making an excursion into the sparsely populated north. Sneek is a watersports centre from which you can a take family boating holidays (try Le Boat), while the West Frisian Islands offer relaxed, uncrowded beaches. The best way of exploring is to island-hop by ferry, stopping to explore Texel, Vlieland, Ameland and Schiermonnikoog by bike, on foot or on horseback, watch seals being fed at the Ecomare seal sanctuary on Texel, take a boat trip to spot the grey seal colonies resting on Richel, or even go seal-spotting aboard a shrimp-fishing boat, eating shrimps cooked aboard and listening to the fishermen’s tales. You can also swim, play on the dunes, and comb the beaches for for items from shipwrecks. Texel is particularly good for kids with a play pirate ship with a lookout tower, ropes and nets in Oudeschild harbour, plus stone gnomes dotted along a path through the woods.
Dutch cuisine is generally quite bland and filling: think meat, fish and potatoes in hearty stews. Most famous are the country's cheeses, which can be tried as part of a Bittergarnituur sharing plate also containing sausage, bitterballen (deep-fried breaded meatballs), breaded chicken and mini spring rolls, or at one of the summer cheese markets in the pretty little town of Edam in the Waterland and Zaan region (see above) or at Gouda's cheese market east of Den Haag. Local soused herring and mussels are worth sampling if you like that kind of thing.
In cosmopolitan larger cities, international food is widely available, often at prices to suit students and young backpackers, although quality inevitably varies. For something more exotic, the country’s colonial history has endowed the urban centres with lots of good, inexpensive Indonesian restaurants. And wherever you are, you're never far from an inexpensive pankoekenhuis selling the sweet and savoury pancakes for which the country is well known.
In the north, the cranberries grown on the island of Terschelling are a popular ingredient in dishes/products offered by local restaurants and bakeries, although Texel is the best West Frisian island when it comes to eating, with plenty of family-friendly restaurants and beach cafés serving dishes that often feature the renowned local lamb or fish, oysters and shrimps, and asparagus.
Dutch beer (including wheat beers) is justifiably famous, and the gin-like jenever is also worth a try. The coffee is generally excellent, while kids go a bundle for a Chocomel chocolate-milk, served hot or cold.
Accommodation can be expensive in Dutch cities, but holiday villages offer the chance to have a budget holiday in the Netherlands, especially if you take advantage of deals that include ferry travel and if you use such villages as bases for exploring the cities and surrounds. Food can be very cheap in the Netherlands, especially in Amsterdam with its backpacker-friendly fast-food joints, but use your discretion when it comes to hygiene and quality.
Overall Rating
This is a fantastic place. We want to move here.
Overall Rating
A fantastic family weekend break, we would definitely return. The river boat tour was great for all ages.
Overall Rating
I had a fantastic time and would love to go again
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