I am looking at various trip ideas for my family for our April school break in 2026. This is one option that I am thinking about.
Traveling party would be myself and my wife and 2 kids ages 10 and 15. The kids have been to Europe a few times (Cotswolds, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia). We usually enjoy a mix of places on our visits - countryside and some city life. They are good with sightseeing and wandering on foot, climbing tall towers, rocky slopes etc. Museums as well, but generally only a couple of hours max to see the main highlights that will be most memorable, impressionable for them. They are not very picky eaters and will try new things. We generally don't need to get a bright and early start EVERY day of the trip, but we are happy to get up and get to a museum at opening time to beat crowds, or get to the station to catch an early train to get an early start on a day trip. Generally we get some sightseeing or museum done in the morning, followed by lunch somewhere neat. Then we would head back to hotel or AirBnB to chill out for a couple of hours before setting out for a late afternoon activity or dinner followed by an evening walk. (Outside of day trips, we tend to try to not push the kids on a full day of walking and sightseeing, they appreciate a bit of a break at some point, and we don't mind either).
I don't have a set number of days for the trip yet, but let's assume we arrive on a Saturday morning and depart the following Friday morning. (If I can or need to add a day to make the trip more worthwhile, I could do that). I would preferably fly open jaw, landing in Amsterdam and departing from Brussels. Below I am just spitballing some of the things that I would like to do while we are there. I can certainly put a better rough itinerary together, but I want to see if I am overlooking anything, or already trying to squeeze in too much.
Would love to do bike tours in both Bruges and Amsterdam, but I am unsure if they would be suitable for a 10 year old, or if they would even accommodate someone that young. ( I did the bike tour from Bruges to the border, Damme, back in 2000 and loved it, but I can't recall how long of a day it was).
I would really like to do a side trip to Haarlem. I missed it 25 years ago and have only heard great things about it.
Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh museums are a must, and likely the Anne Frank House as well. However I prefer not to do more than one of these per day so as to not overload or bore the kids. I want each visit to be fresh and memorable.
I am not concerned with spending any time in Brussels, it would be fun to show the kids the Manneken Pis, but aside from that I think we would all enjoy Bruges much better. I have read that it's possible to get a train from Bruges direct to the airport in Brussels - if the timing lined up to allow enough time to check in for our flight home, then I would do that and avoid spending a night in Brussels and the hassle of changing hotels for 1 night.
That's the gist of it for now, hoping to hear if I am over planning already, or if I should consider sticking to one country instead? Or any other advice.
Thanks!