Continuing on our annual city break tradition (last year, Beziers and the previous year, Paris), this year we went on a city break to Amsterdam. A land filled with windmills and cheese. It may not seem like your usual family friendly vacation or be at the top of your ‘must-see’ cities, but surprisingly it provided enough entertainment to fill a week’s worth of school holidays.
Date Visited: Monday – Friday, 21st – 25th October 2024
Location: Amsterdam (and Zaandam)
Getting There: Flights from London City Airport to Amsterdam Schipol.
Cost: Flights worked out to be £70 for Cara and I thanks to a generous BA discount voucher from Cara’s school friend who travelled with us. It would have been about £180 for the two of us based on an initial Skyscanner check. Accommodation was £390 for twin share with Cara for the week (or about £77 per night for the room). Food, transport (mainly trains and trams) and entertainment extra.
City Break: Amsterdam – Day 1 – Pool and stay local
Flying out of London City Airport is under-rated. Quick and easy process through security in about 3 minutes. Unfortunately there’s not a lot of shops or ways to keep busy while waiting for your flight. We flew out around lunchtime and before we could finish our pack of crisps, we had landed in Amsterdam. The transfer on the train from Schipol to our hotel in Zaandam was a breeze. If you have contactless cards, you can touch-in and out while picking up a child’s railrunner ticket from the machine is cost-effective with unlimited train travel for the day. Note – a different ticket is needed for the city Metro, Tram and Bus network. We spent the rest of the day exploring the local Zaandam area (usual shops and restaurants) and enjoying the pool and spa facilities.
City Break: Amsterdam – Day 2 – Tony’s Chocolonely, Rijksmuseum and Albert Cuyp Market
The second day was filled with other activities other than the pool. After a light breakfast at the McDonald’s across the hotel, we made our way into the city. A short 12-minute train ride to Amsterdam Centraal. Our first stop was at the Tony’s Chocolonely superstore to design our own chocolate. You have the choice of a milk, dark or white chocolate base, then up to three extras before designing your packaging. Cara opted for sea salt, caramel and dippy dots in milk chocolate with yellow and pink packaging and ‘blobby fish’ written on the side. Although it says ‘superstore’, it’s quite a small basement so going early was the right call as there was a long queue when we returned to collect them in the evening.
While waiting for the chocolate (takes about 2 hours), we walked down to the Rijksmuseum. This was the only activity we pre-booked tickets for before arriving. We read positive reviews about the Family Quest option. This allows you to work as a team to solve puzzles and provide a code word to win a prize. The device and headset guides you through the museum, taking you to the more famous works, including Rembrandt’s Night Watch. It takes approximately an hour to complete it depending on the size of the group and how much you explore the other exhibits. It costs an extra €2.50 per player on top of the €22.50 adult ticket. Cara thoroughly enjoyed the quest, but was less enthused by the other exhibits once it was done!
Since we were a 10-minute walk away, we ventured to the Albert Cuyp Market for snacks and souvenirs. Cara purchased a tulip magnet before we waddled over to the famous stroopwaffle van for a sugar hit. After walking up and down, we Metro’d it back to Tony’s to collect the goods before a quick dinner and train trip back to the hotel.
City Break: Amsterdam – Day 3 – Van Gogh Museum and Vondelpark
Day three of our city break, we headed back into the city. After a quick post-breakfast frites, we headed to the Van Gogh Museum. Tickets do sell out for certain days, so do book ahead if you plan on visiting it. It’s a lovely museum showcasing his life and works. We previously visited the immersive experience in London which was fantastic, but it was great to actually see his famous works live. There is also a kid’s activity where you are guided around the museum, but we opted to walk around all the floors. Again, Cara picked up a Van Gogh magnet as a souvenir.
Afterwards, we made the short-walk to Vondelpark where we hired bikes for an hour. It was an overcast day, but it was still filled with other cyclists, runners, dog walkers and families. I can imagine this place being packed during the summer. As with the rest of the city, the park is very flat and easy to ride around.
City Break: Amsterdam – Day 4 – Zaanse Schans and Flower Market
A day we were looking forward to, a visit to Zaanse Schans to see the windmills. Located close to our hotel, but unfortunately the local bike hire didn’t have kids sized bikes. We ended up taking a bus there and with a short-walk across the bridge, we were greeted by numerous working windmills. It’s a lovely location with interesting architecture, very peaceful but with plenty of activities. From a clock shop, cheese making, farm animals, clog workshop and a climb up to a windmill. We highly recommend a trip here.
After spending most of the day there, we headed back to the hotel for a brief swim, before heading to the city again to have a final Korean BBQ meal. Luckily, it was next to the flower market so we were able to inspect the different plants and even pick up a souvenir bonsai seed pack and 60 bulbs of tulips!
City Break: Amsterdam – Day 5 – Final pool and home time
A full-on week meant Cara was more than happy to spend the rest of the trip in the pool and steam room. We popped out for lunch and walked around the shops in Zaandam. It’s surprising that she was able to spend about 2 hours having an ice cream, walking around the shops and visiting the two large toy stores without actually buying anything. The only downside was the flight home was delayed. Luckily, we landed back in London City and it wasn’t too much of a trek to get home.
Top Tips:
- If you know which days you’re visiting, pre-purchase an OV card for children for GVB travel (metro, tram and bus). Makes things easier and until 5th January 2025, they travel for free!
- Check with the bike hire place that they have kids bikes available before going as not all of them will have suitable bikes for them
- Where you can, visit the sites and attractions before lunch. They tend to be less crowded.
- If you’re staying at Inntel Hotel, Zaandam, there is a supermarket close-by where you can pick up snacks, water and food.
- Although they’ve copped some slack, we used Revolut throughout the trip without any issues. After transferring the budgeted spending funds to the account, it was easy to tap and track the spending once there. It incurs zero commission fees and attracts decent exchange rates (better than other cards from my personal research).
We definitely recommend Amsterdam as a city break for the family. You might not need a full 5 days – 3 or 4 days can do it. But there’s plenty of things to do, see and try!
