The Netherlands Family Holidays & Breaks

Take the Family is a travel agency specialising in active, adventure and luxury holidays. Your personal travel advisor will create the perfect The Netherlands holiday for your family, with expert advice and dedicated support throughout.

Places to visit in The Netherlands

Amsterdam

The Netherlands for family holidays

There's much more to the diminutive Netherlands than its infamous capital Amsterdam – though the latter can be surprisingly family-friendly if you approach it in the right frame of mind, even with younger kids.

The Dutch landscape is 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 predominate, along with flat fields stretching into the distance, punctuated only by the occasional windmill. The cities and towns are also characterful, with interesting histories and architecture, while the people are generally extremely friendly and with few exceptions speak excellent English.

Book a Netherlands family holiday with Take the Family and discover a great destination for active family holidays, especially if you 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.

As a specialist family travel agency, we can tailor-make the perfect holiday in the Netherlands for your family. Contact one of our travel advisors now and let's discuss your dream trip

For more about Netherlands family holidays, scroll down.

Things to do with kids in The Netherlands

What to Do with Kids in Amsterdam and Around

• Discover the many family attractions of central Amsterdam then take aspiring knights and damsels to the medieval castle of Muiderslot, just 16km southeast of the city.

• Seek out one of the beaches within easy reach of the capital – Zandvoort is very hectic in summer, but there are some more family-friendly stretches north of IJmuiden.

• Use Amsterdam as a base to explore the picture-postcard, pancake-flat Waterland and Zaan region of North Holland (Noord Holland): think windmills, wooden houses, battered fishing boats, dykes, tulips and, yes, people wearing clogs! There are boat-trips from Amsterdam, with the focal point being the Zaanse Schans open-air conservation centre and museum, with working windmills, traditional Dutch buildings, artisans making everything from cheese or mustard to… uh, clogs, a pancake house and a bakery-museum selling sweet local bread and home-made sweets. You can also bike along along the River Zaan to see dozens of functioning windmills, some more than 300 years old, and other industrial remnants.

• Head to the gorgeous National Park of Hoge Veluwe an hour south-east of Amsterdam, where you can help yourselves to free White Bicycles to explore the forests, trails, lakes and dunes, spotting wild boar, deer and moufflon. 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) and one of Europe’s biggest sculpture gardens.

Family Holidays in South Holland (Zuid Holland)

• Tour the village of Kinderdjik by boat or bike; it’s earnt UNESCO World Heritage status for its 19 windmills.

• Just 15km east of Kinderdjik, discover Rotterdam, a major ferry port as well as the Netherland's second-largest city. Rotterdam's biggest attraction for kids is Plaswijckpark with its go-karting ‘traffic garden’, boat trips, mini-train and adventure playground.

• South-east of Rotterdam, in Kaatsheuvel, check out De Efteling, one of the world's oldest theme parks, with a nostalgic fairytale theme plus two hotels and two holiday villages.

• Just north of Rotterdam, investigate Den Haag (The Hague), the Netherlands' seat of government and home to Queen Beatrix. Its main attraction for kids is the miniature city Madurodam, where they 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.

• Between Rotterdam and Den Haag, 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.

Family Holidays in East Holland

• 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 historical roles, this is 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.

• About 30km north of Maastricht, spend the day at Kasteelpark Born, with a 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 theme park Movie Park (40 minutes from Maastricht).

Family Holidays in North Holland

• Make an excursion into the sparsely populated north, including Sneek, a watersports hub and departure point for family boating holidays.

• Unwind on the uncrowded beaches of the West Frisian Islands, best explored by island-hopping by ferry, discovering Texel, Vlieland, Ameland and Schiermonnikoog by bike, on foot or on horseback. You can also watch seals being fed at the Ecomare seal sanctuary on Texel, take a boat trip to spot the grey seal colonies resting on Richel, and go seal-spotting by hitching a ride on a shrimp-fishing boat, eating shrimps cooked on-board and listening to the fishermen’s tales. Swim, frolic on the dunes, and hunt for items from shipwrecks that have washed ashore. On Texel, let the kids search for the stone gnomes dotted along the path through the woods, then take them to Oudeschild harbour to play on the pirate ship with its lookout tower, ropes and nets.

Windmills, Zaanse Schans

Eating in The Netherlands

Food in the Netherlands is generally quite hearty: think meat, fish and potatoes in rich stews, plus the famous cheeses, which can be sampled 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. Buy Gouda cheese at the market in the city itself, picturesquely laid out as ‘Golden Wheels’. Local soused herring and mussels are also worth seeking out.

In larger cities, global fare is widely available, often at prices to suit students and young backpackers, although quality varies. For something more exotic, the country’s colonial history has endowed the cities with lots of good, inexpensive Indonesian restaurants. And wherever you are, you're not far from an inexpensive pankoekenhuis selling the sweet and savoury pancakes for which the country is known.

In the north, cranberries grown on Terschelling are a popular ingredient in dishes/products offered by local restaurants and bakeries, although Texel is the best West Frisian island for food, with lots of welcoming, family-friendly restaurants and beach cafés serving dishes that often feature the renowned local lamb or fish, oysters and shrimps, and asparagus.

When to go to The Netherlands

The best time to go to the Netherlands with kids is May to September, when the landscape and beaches come into their own, giving plenty of scope for cycling through the countryside or the cities, and when heaps of outdoor festivals and other events take place.

That said, good off-season offers are available at holiday villages, whose indoor waterparks can be enjoyed whatever the weather. Family-friendly events in the Netherlands include the exuberant Maastricht carnival in February.

How to get to The Netherlands

There are direct flights from the UK to Amsterdam, from London and regional airports. The flight time from London to Amsterdam is just over an hour. Alternatively, you can fly from the UK to Rotterdam The Hague or to Eindhoven. We will include the most convenient options for you as part of the bespoke Netherlands holiday we put together based on your needs, as well as car hire if desired.

There are also ferries from the UK to the Netherlands, from Hull to Rotterdam, from Harwick to Hook of Holland, and from Newcastle to Amsterdam, meaning you can take your own car.

Or Eurostar runs passenger services from London to Rotterdam and Amsterdam, taking about three and four hours respectively.

The Netherlands

Renaissance Amsterdam