Day trips from de Vossemeren

[Sharonkh76]

Hi, we are flying into eindhoven and hiring a car in the October half term. We are at de vossemeren centre parcs, just into Belgium, from Monday until Friday, then two nights in a b and b near Beekse Bergen, from which we could do safari park and/or Den Bosch. Any suggestions of things to do with almost 5 year old and 7 year old. I thought Efteling for a day midweek, but what else do people recommend? Aachen is doable, as is Maastrict. Antwerp seems to be only an hour by train? Is that worth it? Lommel Sahara is very close. Any good? Haasalt? Vaals? We have lots of child oriented stuff at Centre Parcs and Efteling, some more grown up stuff might be nice, but that the children won't detest too much. Any suggestions or advice appreciated!
Also, how stressful is driving in that area?

Aachen and Maastricht are both interesting cities. Aachen has some great toy shops including one with an indoor slide if your children are younger. Antwerp is definitely worth a visit for the train station alone as it is quite a special building. Next to the train station is the zoo which has been refurbished recently and is quite good if you/ your children are interested. From the station you can walk down the main shopping street - Meir - to the cathedral and then to the river. To the north of the cathedral you can walk to the MAS - art museum in an interesting building and there is also the Red Star Line Museum about emigration. Hasselt is quite a nice smaller city to wander round.

We are also visiting Beekse Bergen next year (Brexit permitting ) and just today I've been looking at something to do for the day we arrive from the ferry. I've found a model village which also seems to have lots of things for kids eg playgrounds and water feature! It's called Madurodam, if you google model village Amsterdam it comes up.

Efteling will be really busy at at the beginning of October with the Dutch school holidays. next to Beekse Bergen is the fun park which my kids enjoyed. Valkenburg is nice and you can do the 3landse punt - Netherlands, Belgium and Germany in one step. a they have a great maze there, but pick a nice day because it involves water.

Madurodam is in Den Haag and is a fair bit away. You could try the open lucht museum which my kids loved.

Hi,
It will be between 23rd and 26th we went to efteling. Do you think there will be lots of queues then? Would rather not bother if the queues are going to be bad. It will be about 130 quid to get in! Would save it for future trip.

Thanks for all those tips. I was a bit worried there was nothing around to do. Probably won't go as far as den haag, but I will look up the other things.

We stayed at De Vossemeren a couple of summers ago after tagging along when DH wanted to go to the Spa GP. DD was 8/9.

DEFINITELY check the weather beforehand, but there is a great open air museum about 45 minutes (southish) away from you at Bokrijk. It is like a rural version of Beamish or the Black Country museum and there is an area of traditional games that families would enjoy. Next door to it is possibly the most enormous free playground we have ever visited (DD loved it so much when we visited by train without DH, we had to go again on the way to CP). The Bokrijk website understates how big everything is.

Lommel Sahara is an easy cycle ride. There is a big observation tower and lots of dunes. We had to drag our bikes for a while as we didn't have a map/plan!

Lommel itself has a great little skatepark and a nice playground off Sportveldenstraat. I would cycle there first if your children aren't used to cycling.

@Sharonkh76 we went to de Vossemeren last year but as it was at the end of a 3 week road trip we didn't do any days out. We had planned to go to Efteling but were just too tired in the end. Driving in both Belgium and The Netherlands was so easy, empty local roads, wide motorways and very few traffic jams. The pool, lake with beach and discovery bay were great (and free).

This year we were near Aachen en-route to Bavaria. There is a great place on the border of Germany, Belgium & The Netherlands where you can stand in 3 countries at the same time. There are 2 viewing towers (DH who is scared of heights even managed one), a good play area, a large maze and a couple of nice restaurants. It's also close to Tierpark (small zoo) and a large Lindt chocolate factory shop.

www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g187367-d2428641-Reviews-Three_Country_Border-Aachen_North_Rhine_Westphalia.html