The Netherlands for a family holiday - where? What is there to do? Recommendations?

[CocktailQueen]

We're thinking about the Netherlands for a 2 week holiday this summer. Has anyone been to the Netherlands with kids - ours will be 5 and 8 - and what did you do? Where did you stay? any advice/recs would be fab. Thanks!

Hi

We went to the Netherlands last year and had a fabulous time. My kids are 8 and 10 .

We stayed in a house in Monnikendam which is a 25 minute bus ride from Amsterdam. The house is attached to a farm and run by really laid-back lovely farming couple - and their daughter runs a b and b for guineapigs and rabbits in a barn closeby. The views were fabulous but I would say that you must take insect repellent as this is a problem generally in Netherlands because of the proximity to water everywhere. As long as you wear repellent is is not a problem.
The website is www.derietbroek.nl. The lady to contact is called Jantine and she speaks very good English . There is plenty to do - Monnikendam itself is a quaint old-fashioned town with a few restaurants, a chocolaterie, a laundrette, a postoffice , some gift shops and bike hire. Worth hiring bikes - there was a lovely teashop near to our house by a river which we cycled to.

We went by car , crossing dover to calais and broke up the journey by staying a night in Bruges. Any questions just ask. The Netherlands was a fabulous family friendly place and we would heartily recommend it.

Duinrell / wassenar. Holiday park with huge indoor swimming complex and themepark on site. within reach of amsterdam, dresden. Near wide, sandy beaches.

Not the classiest of holidays, but heaven for kids.

Look at www.landal.com - they have parks all over the country with a range of facilities. We have stayed at Hoog Vaals a couple of times. South Limburg is lovely - rolling countryside, close to the borders with Germany and Belgium - and the Drielandenpunkt where you can go and stand in all 3 countries at the same time. Monschau, Aachen, Maastricht, Valkenburg are all worth visiting. There are lots of castles, various theme and adventure parks, here

My 7 year old DD could have spent and entire 2 weeks playing in Nemo the science museum in Amsterdam. When I did finally prise her out she loved the canal bus, she was very interested in Anne Franks house and she loved the hot chocolate in the Amsterdam cafes.

Efteling!

Charming and fabulous - just a lovely place for fun time with kids. We've been 3 times!!

We stay in the attached holiday village. Have been very impressed with how nice the properties are, and the little touches are great (tree trunks carved into faces, 'Sandman' character comes round sometime at nightfall and all the kids tumble out of the houses and follow him around the village, Archimedes screw to play with by the lake and lots of 'natural' playgrounds).

We also did the flower place one year (forget what it's called now). Second Landal. I'd avoid centreparcs. Worse and more expensive than Landal.

Agree that Efteling is lovely - especially for smaller children. We went a couple of months ago with my 7 yo and she loved it.

Footprints - have just googled Efteling and it looks lovely - do you stay here - Efteling Village Bosrijk? Sounds great.

What else is there to do in the area? And how many days does Efteling take? Thanks! :)

thanks all- will google the websites mentioned and reply if I have any more queries! :)

Agree with duinrrell, kids loved it. They love Amsterdam too, it's a fab city for kids. Mine love the van goth gallery, the canals, the Anne frank house, etc. theres a great aquarium for younger kids too.

It is nicer in spring really, the kids loved koningshof.

We used to go every year to Centerparcs. There is so much to do in the parcs and lovely children's clubs. Also a lot cheaper than the UK ones.
Have also been to Eftling and Duinrell and they are delightful.
We went to a couple of zoos which were excellent.

You can do De Efteling easily in one day.

Hopstheduck Van goth

You can do Efteling in a day - but that can end up as a bit of a 'attraction checklist' kind of day. We prefer to stay in Bosrijk, and go at a much slower pace. Both Bosrijk and Efteling are very nice to just 'hang out' in and discover all the little surprises for yourself, The rides are really pretty good, but not the entire point of the experience iyswim.

ROFL I hadn't noticed that til you pointed it out! It was my iphone autocorrecting, honest!

Have been to Eftling 3 times, the first time was back in 1987 when I met DH but have taken the DCS twice and the last time was the the last weekend in August and it was heaving.

We stayed at Duinrell (lot smaller than Eftling) for a week and it was really nice to be able to go in for an hour or so each day.

We usually did 10 days in Centerparcs, but one year did 5 days in CP (belgium) followed by 7 days in Duinrell.

The last time we went we did CP for a week up near Amsterdam then two nights at a hotel near Duinrell

Efteling

I haven't been for .................. er 30+ years, but I loved it :)

Bruffin - I find that Efteling is well supported by the locals - so tends to be very busy on weekends and local holidays but very quiet at other times. Check out the bike-parking on a summer bank holiday!

We get round it by staying near by - so removing the pressure. We spend more time doing theme-parky things on the quiet days (e.g. three consecutive 'gos' on the Pirahna water ride always gets a laugh!). If we are there on the weekend and it gets busy, we'll do the theme park in the morning, and then chill out a bit in the afternoon, for example in the pool in the holiday village.

Much lighter than Disney, in any case!

Rotterdam Zoo is fabulous!! And theres a campsite near it which you could stay at for a couple of nights either side of a zoo trip

Dutch beaches are great (but very crowded if hot weather).

Nice zoo in Amsterdam too.

Agreeing with Duinrell and Efteling (25 years ago for the Efteling though!!) my kids adore Duinrell and want to go every year!