Recommendations for netherlands

[iamawoman]

Thinking of netherlands for family holiday, does anyone have any suggestions for a holiday village / eurocamp type place to visit. Would like it to have some activities, near a beach if poss and near to a nice town, within about 3 hours of amsterdam as would like to visit there and efteling . Have a teen and a 7 year old . Dont know if that is a unrealistic wishlist?

Center Parcs at Zandvoort fits all of those I'd say.

Thanks will look that up

Duinrell?

Can hire bikes and cycle short distance to beach then along coastal route into Den Haag (The Hague). Did this while kids still in primary, so can't be that far. Great model village there and MC Eschler house/gallery as well as the gallery/museum (can't remember) in which is The Girl in the Pearl Earring painting. Mini theme park onsite and great swimming facility. Nearby is Leiden with a science museum where you travel through the human body. 23mins Leiden to Amsterdam on the train.

Theme park bit more suited to 7yo, but some of the water features in the swimming park are more hairraising than I would go on, wo would suit teen well. Seem to remember there was v. good pancake house just outside the Duinrell complex and the town where it's located (Wasenaar) is nice too. Not far from Delft too, and 1hr 15 drive to Efteling.

Landal Greenparks has three resorts that are within easy reach of Amsterdam and on the coast. Ooghduyne and Julianadorp are just over an hour away and right on a sandy beach. Ooghduyne is larger and has more to offer, although I can't begin to name all of the activities as there are so many (think Centreparcs!) Both have lots to do in the local area.
www.landal.com/parks/beach-resort-ooghduyne
www.landal.com/parks/strandhuisjes-julianadorp

Dunimar is really handy for Amsterdam but I don't like the accommodation as much. Not quite as close to the beach but still a good range of things to do locally. The Kukenhof is just down the road! www.landal.com/parks/dunimar

Duinrell is great. Amusement park on site and fabulous fun pool. Pool is included if you book direct from the site. Lovely beach about 4k away. We went last year and loved it so much we are returning next year. It is a very large park though. We camped quite a way from the amusement park as we didn't want noise and it was a trek to the centre.

The village close by is very pleasant. Has supermarkets, takeaways (including Dominos) and some lovely deli type places. It's close to The Hague, Delft and Leiden (beautiful town). not too far from Amsterdam. We also did Kinderdijk (world heritage site of 20 or so 18th century windmills) and Efteling.

If you're looking for things to do in Amsterdam and around The Netherlands more generally I run a blog: www.amsterdamwonderland.com which is full of family friendly ideas. Let me know if I can help with anything x

Duinrell, definitely. Great waterpark, free rides in the theme park, across the road from the town centre, beach about a mile away, can hire bikes, bus from park to Den Haag, there's a steam train nearby. We went to Amsterdam for the day on one of the occasions that we stayed there. Perfect place to go, imo.

Efteling have their own cottages

I have been to both Duinrell and Efteling and enjoyed both stays. Duinrell is more basic accommodation ...the Efteling cottages are really wonderful such an amazing setting. Have you thought about combining them both? (Do Amsterdam from Duinrell). Both parts cater well for teen/younger child.

Brilliant thanks all for your ideas - will check them out and hope i havent left it too late for the summer😀

Check the French and Dutch school holidays. Admittedly we are Indie school but they all seemed to go back to school a week or so before us. I think Efteling might have got wise to this, but there used to be bargains.

Well worth splitting the trip. We find 2 nights at Efteling works well.

Centre Parcs are much better value in Europe than UK ones. There is also a cheaper chain called Sun Parks. From memory we weren't tied to 3 night weekends/4 night midweeks.

If you are travelling by ferry, De Haan Sunparks is on the Belgian coast and not too far from either Bruges or Dunkirk. It is worth taking bikes if you enjoy family cycling.

Beekse Bergen is fab. Safari park next door included and lots of day trips nearby