Amsterdam has a reputation that makes some parents hesitate. The city that families find is canals, bikes, pancakes and a science museum shaped like a ship. The other parts are three streets you will not walk down. Here is the version I book.
Sleep in the Jordaan or near Vondelpark, not by the station. Both are quiet at night, both have a bakery on the corner, and both put you a walk from the museums.
NEMO is the first stop. A green copper building rising out of the harbor like a ship, and inside, five floors of things to push, pull, build and blow up. The roof is a terrace with a view and a water feature the kids will get soaked in. Three hours. Bring a change of clothes.
The canal boat is how the city makes sense. An hour, from the station or the Rijksmuseum, under the low bridges and past the houses that lean. Take the small open boat, not the glass one, if the weather is dry.
The bikes, and the rule
Rent bikes with a child seat or a cargo bike with a box for the little ones, and cycle in Vondelpark first before the streets. The one rule is that bike lanes are for bikes and a family standing in one taking a photo will hear a bell and a word. Keep right, look left, and the city opens up.
The Rijksmuseum has a children’s audio tour and the Night Watch, and an hour is enough. Anne Frank House is for kids over ten and needs booking weeks ahead. The Artis zoo is a walk from NEMO and has a planetarium and a butterfly house.
Pancakes at a pannenkoekenhuis for dinner, sweet or savory, the size of the table. Stroopwafels from the market, warm. Then Zaanse Schans for windmills, twenty minutes by train, on the last morning.
Planning Netherlands with kids? Start with the full Netherlands family travel guide, or send me the ages and the dates and I will come back with what is really available.
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