Amsterdam: a Great Place to Take Your Kids

Reasons why Amsterdam is an excellent place to take your kids:

1. Pancakes

Sadly, my kids do not go to new places to explore new cuisines. They are quite suspicious of any food that does not look and smell like what they're already familiar with. So one great thing about taking kids to Amsterdam is that they specialize in pancakes, something even my kids will eat, and you can find many restaurants that serve them all day. Here you can see we've wolfed down half our food before my head cleared enough to remember to take a picture. We tried the restaurant Pancakes!, a small place in a cute neighborhood, which was our favorite. 

We also tried The Pancake Bakery, which is on the Prinsengracht canal, right down the street from the Anne Frank Museum. It's fun sitting outside by the canal watching the boats and bikes go by, and they had excellent poffertjes, a Dutch specialty. Extra bonus, the kid's pancake comes with a stuffed animal surprise on top!

2. Van Gogh Museum

To say Anya was unenthusiastic about going to the Van Gogh Museum would be a bit of an understatement. So I couldn't have been happier to find that the museum gives out a treasure hunt for free to kids (in English or Dutch) with a promise of a prize for completion. Anya was thrilled with it. She independently made her way around the museum, completely engaged, giving my husband and me all the time we wanted to leisurely explore. Camille had a picture book when she was younger about Van Gogh and his time in Arles painting, so she was interested in seeing the paintings in real life and enjoyed the museum even without the enticement of a little prize. 

As a side note, the lines to get into the museum can be really long. We bought our ticket as part of the IAMSTERDAM pass. That, along with buying e-tickets, gets you into a shorter line into the museum. Also, we went ten minutes before opening time Monday morning and so were able to get right in. We went right to the room with our favorites, so we were able to enjoy the paintings by ourselves - no crowds at all. It worked out beautifully.

3. Vondel Park

I'm tempted to say that Vondel Park is one of the world's best big-city parks. O.k., so I realize there's arguments to be made for so many other parks, and we didn't even make it to Amsterdam's other, even bigger park, Amsterdamse Bos, to compare, but this is all just to say that I love Vondel Park. It's a beautiful park for anyone, full of mature trees, decorative ponds and streams, grassy areas and jogging, biking and walking paths. There's also a couple of outdoor cafes and an area where they have free concerts. But there's a few features that make it really fun for kids. 

They have a really fun, HIGH, climbing structure designed for older kids. It can be hard finding park equipment that's engaging for older children.

In another part of the park, in addition to a wading pool and play equipment for younger children, there is all this wood provided for children to build their own forts. It reminds me of some of the unstructured play I would do as a kid that isn't as common anymore.

In yet another part of the park is an enclosed play area, including this zip line that Anya absolutely loved, with a cafe where you can buy drinks and snacks and then sit and eat them at shaded tables along the lake while your children play. Genius!

4. Anne Frank Museum

This tour of the annex where Anne Frank, her family and others hid for two years during the war is really well done. It had just the right amount of display, video of people who knew Anne and her family, information and quotes from Anne's diary. By the time you've quietly worked your way through the cramped, dark rooms and reach the attic window where Anne and Peter would go to look at the sky, you have a small appreciation for what their experiences were like. After the tour of the annex, there's some videos of different scenarios where people's rights are at odds. Then you can vote for what you think should be done. Anya found that engaging. It's another museum with long lines. By coming ten minutes before opening time we were able to minimize our wait.

5. NEMO Science Museum

We went on a super-busy weekend day in August. It was a mad house. Still, it's another museum that was so engaging that it overcame my grumpy daughter's bad attitude. Everything is hand's on, and all the displays are presented in both Dutch and English. There's also a beautiful roof-top deck with great views of the city.

Sadly, we didn't get a great shot from the museum. We were too busy running around enjoying it.

6. Transportation

Amsterdam is a great city to negotiate with kids. If you like biking, there's designated biking paths EVERYWHERE, often completely separated from the road. I've never seen anything like it.

The tram makes it easy to get anywhere. And if you have a child who hates walking as much as mine, there's really a lot less walking involved with taking the tram than taking a subway. Anya counted riding the tram and train as one of her highlights of the trip.

And when you do have to walk, Amsterdam is a beautiful place to walk, with very few cars. You just have to manage not getting hit by the bikes.

7. Language

If your children, or you, are intimidated by going to a country where they speak a foreign language, The Netherlands would be a great place to start. It's possible not every person in The Netherlands speaks English beautifully, but we didn't find any evidence to the contrary. We even had a person who was soliciting us for money switch to English when he realized we didn't speak Dutch. (There are very, very few people soliciting for money by the way. I just had to include that as an example of how everyone seems to be fluent in English). A lot of signs and menus are in Dutch, but it can be easy to figure out just knowing English and very, very few words in German or French. If you're still stuck, there's always someone fluent in both languages close by.