Amsterdam with kids - your best tips please!

[juneau]

We're going to Amsterdam for a long weekend in July with our kids and another family and a friend of theirs. The children are 8, 7 and 4 and there will also be five adults.

DH and I have been to Amsterdam several times and done all the usual stuff - Anne Frank House, Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh museum, canal boat trip, etc. However, having visited Paris twice with our DC we know that the key to a successful city break is to find things that the kids love! So if you visited with DC of a similar age, what would you recommend? We're up for anything really - active, cultural, playgrounds, museums, boats - you name it.

Will you have use of a car? ( can train also I think). But the kroeller- mueller museum is about an hour outside of Amsterdam and is great. It's sculptures are set in the national park and you cycle in between them ( they have hundreds of free bikes you use). It's a lovely way to spend few hours in the countryside and can picnic there

Oooh that sounds fabulous - thank you! My friend is actually an artist, so I'm sure she would be up for that. My kids can't ride bikes, however, and we'll be on public transport so it might take a bit of planning. Definitely worth looking into though.

Def try them on bikes at home first then. If you can get some and take them in a park they should learn fairly quickly. Don't add stabilisers! The bikes are the small one a that look like foldable ones ( or they were), so you just adjust seats up or down and handles to fit virtually all sizes. they have kids seats on some bikes that the 4 year old could probably fit in still if needed

This article is good about it
www.classic-play.com/traveling-with-kids-kroller-muller-museum-hoge-veluwe-national-park-netherlands/

The science museum was amazing - dh had the most fun! Can't remember the proper name for it (nemo?) but it was near the main train station. Great rooftop area too with water play and cafe etc. a great place we ate in was called Bazar in Albert Cuypstraat; amazing food and very child friendly.

We enjoyed a diamond museum tour and playing around the I Amsterdam letters and canal boat tour. And geocaching. And eating pancakes! Heard Nemo science museum great.

Thank you for all your suggestions - I'll save them up for when we take the kids, because I'm now going on my own, while the kids stay with my DH at home Only for one night though!