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In Summer 2024, my family and I took a ten day holiday to The Netherlands!
We started in Amsterdam and continued to Efteling and Beekse Bergen!
Please find below an account of our family's travels!
After arriving from Manchester airport with EasyJet, we took a taxi from the airport to our hotel. We stayed at the Marriott, Amsterdam. We had a lovely room and such comfy beds! We opted for bed and brekafast as this meant we didn't really need lunch.
The breakfast included fruit, cereal, full English, yoghurts, meats, and pastries!
One our first day we went to the Royal Palace and enjoyed a scavenger hunt with the kids. The palace was beautiful.
We saw Anne Franks house but were not able to go inside.
NOTE: buy tickets to enter Anne Franks house when they are released, 6 weeks in advance, as it gets booked up very quickly.
We continued to walk to Westerpark so the children could have a run around and a play. There was a small but nice park.
We ate at Ama Sushi and Ramen (perfect for our kids who love dumplings and ramen and safe for my son's allergies!)
We walked back to the hotel via another park which a huge play "treehouse" type structure which the children really enjoyed (Frederik Hendrikplatsoen Garden)
On our second day in Amsterdam we took the no.5 tram to go and explore Amstelpark! There were loads of activities for the children here including...
Play areas to explore
Small petting zoo
Mini golf
Little train ride round the park
We managed to spend about 4 hours here!
We found another Vietnamese restaurant (Co Ba Sai Gon) for dinner and the food was tasty and everyone felt refuelled!
We then carried on walking back to the hotel via the beautiful Rijksmuseum and the museum quester.
I felt that 2 full days was plenty to see the main sites of Amsterdam. If you wished to go to the Museums (art museums included) you would need afew more days and definitely book in advance as tickets were sold out once we arrived,.
From Amsterdam we rented a car and drove to Efteling!
We picked up a car rental in the centre of Amsterdam, just 5 minutes walk from the hiotel! The drive out of Amsterdam was straight forward and it was a quick 60 minute drive to Efteling.
Efteling is a fairy tale theme park and despite not being able to check into the Efteling hotel until 4pm, we are able to use our tickets to the park straight away! We picked these up at reception and off we went! From the Efteling Hotel it was just a 3 minute walk to the park and you can go in and out all day if you wish to/ need a rest etc (perfect if you had littles ones still needing naps etc!).
The park itself is lovely. Very well set out, clean and plenty of (clean) toilets and eateries. We managed to get a large portion of chicken and roast potatoes and a drink at Kashba Restaurant, for about £10 each (the kids could easily share 1 portion). The staff were also really helpful regarding my son's allergies (big tick!)
The park App was really helpful as it gives you the ride wait times so you can plan what you want to do and when. The majority of rides are suitable for all over 1 meter tall with only a few larger rollercoasters for those over 1.2 - 1.3 meters. This was perfect for my family, as my daughter is 7 and my son is 5 years old, so it meant we could all go on the same rides and all enjoy the park.
I also really loved that there were play areas mixed inbetween the rides, which the children loved. We kept finding surprise play areas also, just like the great indoor play area after the Fabula 4D film whixh was perfect as the rain had suddenly arrived (always bring a rain coat!).
Our room at the Efteling hotel was lovely. 2 big double beds, large bathroom with walk in shower, tea and coffee facilities, 24 hour reception, tv, and a fairy-tale board game!
Breakfast at the Efteling hotel is included in your overnight fee. There were plenty of pastries, juice, cereal, ham, cheese as well as eggs and bacon. For my son, they kindly created his own special breakfast that was free from dairy and nuts so we didn't have to worry about any contamination He had enough for about 3 people! His breakfast included ham, vegan cheese, chicken, two types of bread, alpro chocolate milk, alpro yoghurt and vegan butter. He was very happy!
We spent a full day at the park. In the summer it is open 10am - 9pm with 30 minutes early entrance for those staying at the hotel (not all rides are open early but you can see which ones are on the website). There is an amazing show at the park which we ended up watchign 3 times, with knights and horses! I highly trecommend getting there about 15 minutes before the performance to get good seats. Again, all the information is helpfully on the Efteling App.
On our second night we had dinner in the hotel restaurant, mainly as we knew it would be dairy and nut free and it was good. The kids shared a bolognase pasta and some crispy chicken and Yu Hin and I ate steak which was very tasty. It wasn't cheap, but it was a good standard.
On our second full day we were able to take our time going around the Fairy-tale Forest and read all the stories. The children loved all the stories and displays and I think we were in there about 2 hours!
We tried the virtual queuing for one ride which worked really well. You use the App and it generates a time slot for you so that you don't need to queue. We then used the spare time to go on more rides and at your time slot, you are notified via your phone and given a QR code. You then enter a separate virtual queue area where we skipped the whole queue and went straight to the front!
After 3 nights, we checked out of Efteling but were still able to use the park tickets! So we made the most of this and went on our favourite rides again and also my daughter went on her first big rollercoaster. It was even in the dark and she went on twice !
I would definitely recommend at least 2 days at Efteling and staying on site meant we could go in and our of the park as needed but also the park tickets were included in our hotel price.
From Efteling we drove 30 minutes to the Safari park, Beekse Bergen!
It was just a short 30 minute drive, just south of Tilburg to Beekse Bergen safari park. We were here for 4 nights and had a wonderful time!
There are many different accommodation options here including safari tents, lodges and a safari hotel. We stayed in the Safari hotel. The room was really big with a separate bedroom for the children and we had a huge balcony overlooking the zebras, rhinos, ostriches and giraffes! The lions were also living behind the hotel and every night we could hear them roaring! The Lions are fed 3 times a week so make sure you check the App for feeding days and times on the safari resort!
Not only does Beekse have a safari park, but also a swimming pool, (Maji Springs), indoor play areas, outdoor play areas, restaurants and it is adjacent top Speelland and Lake Resort, which your tickets allow access to.
Breakfast was included in our stay at the Amma restaurant. We also ate here for dinner as it was the safest option for our son as all the buffet food was allergy labelled. We booked our table at the Amma restaurant via the Beekse Bergen App which was really easy to do. I admit, it was rather pricey but for the safety of my children, I will happily pay a high price tag.
On our first full day at the park we spent 6 hours in the safari park and still didn't see it all! They have the "big five" and a huge selection of very healthy looking animals in amazing open enclosures. There were also multiple play areas for the children as you go round, obstacle courses, eateries selling snacks, ice cream and drinks and a few restaurants.
On our second day we explored more of Beekse Bergen and also Speelland at the Lake resort. We then went swimming at Maji Springs which was a great size for my children.
I have to admit, personally, I prefer the safari side of Beekse. The Lake resort does have a huge beach area, with a large playground, little peddle cars, peddle boats and trampolines so if that's your vibe, you will love it. My kiddies love bouncing and playing at parks but aren't the best with sand, so for us, I am pleased we explored it but we have enjoyed seeing the animals more.
On our final day we were able to revisit our favourite parts of the park.
The following morning we drove back to the airport, dropped off the rental car and flew back to the UK. You could drive over to Beekse in about 7 hours so if we go again, I would definitely take our own car and explore more of this wonderful country!
Would I recommend The Netherlands as a family holiday destination?
ABSOLUTELY YES!
The Netherlands is so family friendly and I would love to explore more of Northern Europe with the family over the coming years.
Please let me know if I can be of any help planning your next escape!
I would be delighted to help.
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