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Netherlands for family of 5

We are hoping to travel to the Netherlands in June or July 2017 with our 3 kids, ages 9, 12, and 16. We are visiting friends near Amsterdam for a couple of days/nights and then would like to travel to either Germany or Paris. Our itinerary is in the early planning stages. I think we will be in Europe for 10 nights (not including fly time). We will fly into Amsterdam and fly out of another country to maximize our travel. I am going to ask our Dutch friends for suggestions, but would like to have some suggestions. I was thinking the Corrie TenBoom House. I heard the Anne Frank house is difficult to navigate with all of the crowds .

Would it be best to go to Germany or Paris? I know it would be easier to travel without the kids. But we want them to experience the culture of our Dutch friends.

Posted by
3948 posts

What a great plan to take your teenagers to Europe and especially to visit family friends. With only 10 days and many places to see in and near Amsterdam, I'd pick only one other destination. See what your family is interested in and show them some travel information about these two "nearby" areas: a castle laden Rhine River (fly back from Frankfurt) OR a Normandy D-day tour followed by a 2-3 nights in Paris (fly back from Paris). Each of these 2 options is a 5-6 hour train ride or drive from Amsterdam.

BTW I would still visit the Anne Frank house. With three pre and teens. You must have times tickets to help minimize crowding. Enjoy your planning and trip!

Posted by
4299 posts

Your kids will relate better to teenaged Anne Frank than to middle-aged Corrie Ten Boom. I was surprised that even my second visit to AF still brought tears to my eyes. As long as you order advance tickets online far in advance, the crowds are not a problem. Corrie Ten Boom's house is on my bucket list for my next visit to Netherlands.
You didn't say the gender of your kids, but if mostly girls, I would not waste my precious travel time on D-Day sites(sorry WW II veterans). We have taken our daughter to France twice and she and I have told my husband (who saw these sites when in France alone on business) not to even think about making us go there. I think there is a Resistance Museum in Amsterdam. We have not been to that one, but loved the one we saw in Scandinavia-I think Denmark?
Have you considered London? Castles, British Museum, Imperial War Museum if you want to learn about the World Wars. So much to interest everyone!

Posted by
115 posts

You are going to have a wonderful time! We just traveled to the Netherlands and France this past June with our kids (ages 8 and 10 at the time). You are right that it would be easier to travel without them, but I love the memories we created together and the kids still talk about our experiences at least once a week. It made an indelible impression on them. My youngest claims that he is now Dutch! (" mom, there is no bad weather just bad clothes, so I am going to ride my bike in the rain") If you click on my name, you will see the travel reports I wrote about our experiences in the Netherlands and France and they might help you get some ideas. My boys loved the Corrie Ten Boom House, but they were slightly younger than your kids. One idea is that you could go from Amsterdam, stop in Arnhem, NE for the amazing open air museum and Kroller Muller Museum on your way to Germany. Or you could do our trip in reverse and go from Amsterdam to Paris by train and then spend time there. You can't really lose. Ask your kids what they are interested in. Mine love military history so we had to see the D-Day beaches. Our trip was not perhaps the most "efficient" but was saw what we were interested in and that makes all the difference when traveling with young people. Examples of this: My husband and boys love comic books so we found an amazing comic book shop in Haarlem and not only bought some Dutch comics but had amazing conversations with the patrons about the differences between European and American comics and our favorite series. We also love sports and we happened to be in Europe during the Euros. We didn't get tickets to the games, but we certainly went to some local pubs to watch games with the locals while we were in France. Going to Europe is amazing because you can see/ experience things that are totally unique but it is great for young people to see/experience things they already love through the lens of a different culture. So if anyone in your family loves cars you have to go to Germany and see the Porsche and Mercedes museums!