Amsterdam surprised us. We’d been putting it off for years, assuming it was all coffee shops and stag dos and not much for a family of four. Wrong. Completely wrong. It turned out to be one of the friendliest, most walkable, most genuinely enjoyable cities we’ve taken the kids to in Europe. The canals are gorgeous. The food is brilliant. The museums are world-class and mostly free for children. And it’s close enough to the UK that you can be there before lunch without anyone having a meltdown.
We went with a five-year-old and a nine-year-old, spent three days, and came home already talking about going back. Here’s what we learned.
Getting There
Flying is the obvious choice — an hour from most UK airports, cheap if you book ahead, and done before the kids have finished their snacks. Schiphol airport is excellent, well-connected to the city centre by train (about 15 minutes), and has those brilliant luggage trolleys that kids insist on riding.
But. There’s another option we didn’t consider until a friend mentioned it. The train. You take the Eurostar to Brussels, then switch to a Thalys or intercity train to Amsterdam. Total journey time is around five hours, which sounds like a lot until you factor in the airport faff — getting there two hours early, security queues, delays, baggage reclaim. Door to door, the train isn’t much longer. And there’s something rather lovely about watching the countryside slide past while the kids colour in and nobody’s telling you to put your seat upright.
We flew on the way out, trained it back. Both worked. If we went again, we’d probably train both ways.
How Many Days
Two is enough to tick off the big things. Three is the sweet spot. You get a museum day, a canal-and-park day, and a slower day for pancakes, wandering, and whatever the kids gravitate towards. We had three and didn’t feel like we missed anything major.
Four would be too many unless you’re adding day trips to Zaanse Schans or Haarlem, which are lovely but a different conversation.
Where to Stay
Three areas worth looking at, depending on your priorities.
Jordaan is our top pick for families. Quiet streets along pretty canals, independent shops, good cafés, and walking distance to the Anne Frank House. It feels residential rather than touristy. We stayed here and loved the pace of it — the kids could run ahead a bit without us panicking.
Museum Quarter makes sense if the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum are your main draw. You’re right next to Vondelpark too, which is a lifesaver for morning burn-off sessions. Slightly more polished, slightly pricier.
Amsterdam Centraal area is the most convenient for getting around. You’re right on top of the main train station, trams go everywhere, and there are plenty of restaurants. Less charming than the other two, but practical if you want to minimise transport time.
Getting Around
Amsterdam is small. Genuinely small. You can walk between most of the major sights in twenty minutes or less, and the tram network fills in the gaps. A GVB day pass costs €8.50 and covers all trams, buses, and metros — worth it if you’re doing more than a couple of journeys.
The trams are easy. Tap on, tap off. Kids sit by the window and watch the streets go past. No complaints.
One thing we weren’t expecting: the city is almost entirely flat. Brilliant for pushchairs. No hauling a buggy up and down metro stairs like in Paris or London. Just smooth, level paths along the canals. If you’ve got a little one in a stroller, you’ll notice the difference immediately.
Also worth knowing — Amsterdam runs almost entirely on card payments. We barely used cash the whole trip. Even the market stalls took contactless.
Vondelpark
Start here. Seriously. Before you do anything cultural, let the kids run themselves silly in Vondelpark. It’s Amsterdam’s version of a central park — big, green, free, and absolutely packed with families on sunny mornings.
There are several playgrounds dotted around, a decent café or two, and in summer there’s an open-air theatre that sometimes puts on free performances. We spent a good two hours here on our first morning and it set the tone for the whole trip. Kids were happy. We had coffee. Everyone was calm enough for a museum afterwards.
It’s right next to the Museum Quarter, so you can go straight from playground to Rijksmuseum in about ten minutes. That’s what we did, and the timing was perfect.
NEMO Science Museum
If your kids are between about four and twelve, this is the highlight of the trip. Full stop. NEMO is a massive hands-on science museum in a striking green building shaped like a ship, and our two practically had to be dragged out.
Everything is touchable. There are experiments with water, light, sound, electricity. There’s a section where they can build things. Another where they learn about the human body in ways that had our nine-year-old both fascinated and slightly horrified. It’s spread over five floors and you could easily spend two to three hours here without running out of things to do.
Tickets are €17.50 for adults, free for under fours. The rooftop terrace has brilliant views over the city and a café — even if you don’t go inside the museum, the rooftop alone is worth the walk.
One of the best children’s museums we’ve been to in Europe. Possibly the best.
Rijksmuseum
Here’s the thing about the Rijksmuseum: it’s enormous. Four floors, eighty galleries, eight thousand objects. If you try to see everything with children in tow, you will all be miserable by lunchtime. Don’t do that.
Instead, go in with a plan. Head straight for the Night Watch room — Rembrandt’s masterpiece is as impressive in person as you’d hope, and even the kids were interested for a few minutes. Then pick two or three other highlights. The Delft Blue pottery. The dollhouses (surprisingly popular with ours). The library, which is stunning.
Ask at the desk for the family trail — they have a printed route designed for children that picks out the most interesting bits. It turns the visit into a treasure hunt, which is exactly the kind of reframing that works with kids in art museums.
Tickets are €22.50 for adults. Under eighteens get in free. Allow about an hour and a half with kids, maybe two if they’re engaged with the trail.
Van Gogh Museum
Right next door to the Rijksmuseum, and a very different experience. Smaller, more focused, and surprisingly engaging for older children — particularly if they already know the sunflowers or Starry Night from school or books.
Our nine-year-old was fascinated. She’d seen prints of the paintings so many times that standing in front of the real things was genuinely exciting for her. The five-year-old was less interested, but he coped for about forty-five minutes before the fidgeting started.
Tickets are €20, free for under eighteens. You must book a timed entry slot in advance — they sell out, especially in summer and school holidays. Don’t leave it to the day before. A week ahead minimum, earlier if you can.
Best for kids aged eight and up, honestly. Younger than that and they’ll be bored before you’ve left the first floor.
Anne Frank House
This one needs careful thought. It’s an incredibly important place and the experience of standing in those cramped rooms where a family hid for two years is powerful in a way that’s hard to describe. But it’s heavy. The content is upsetting. The annex is small and claustrophobic. And the queues — well, there aren’t queues, because you have to book online in advance and it sells out within minutes of tickets being released.
Book months ahead. Set a reminder for when tickets drop. This is not an exaggeration — it’s one of the hardest tickets to get in Europe.
For children, we’d say ten and above. Our nine-year-old came with us and understood most of it, but some of the details were clearly distressing and we had long conversations afterwards. Younger children won’t grasp the significance and will find the experience confusing and uncomfortable. Under tens go free, but that doesn’t mean they should go.
Tickets are €16 for adults. No photos allowed inside.
Canal Boat Tours
You can’t go to Amsterdam and not get on a canal boat. It’s the postcard experience and, for once, it lives up to the image. Sitting at water level, gliding past those narrow houses with their gabled rooftops, ducking under low bridges — it’s lovely.
Various companies run tours, most lasting about an hour. Expect to pay around €15-20 per adult and €8-10 per child. Some boats have open tops, some are enclosed with glass roofs. On a warm day, open top every time. On a rainy one (which is likely — more on that later), the glass roof boats are fine.
Honest assessment: kids enjoy about forty-five minutes of it. The first half is all excitement and pointing at things. The second half involves increasing fidgeting and asking when it’s finished. An hour is the right length — any longer and you’d be in trouble.
Evening tours are prettier. The bridges lit up, the canal houses glowing, reflections on the water. Genuinely beautiful. But it gets cold on the water after dark, even in summer. Bring layers.
Pancakes
Dutch pancakes — pannenkoeken — are one of the great pleasures of visiting the Netherlands with children. They’re bigger than crêpes, thinner than American pancakes, and come with every topping you can think of. Sweet ones with chocolate and banana. Savoury ones with cheese and ham. Apple and cinnamon. Bacon and syrup. Our kids demolished them.
The Pancake Bakery near the Anne Frank House is the famous one. Yes, it’s tourist-packed. Yes, there’s often a queue. But the pancakes are genuinely good and the portions are enormous. Expect to pay about €10-14 each. Share one between two younger kids — they’re huge.
There are other pancake houses dotted around the city and honestly, we didn’t find a bad one. The Dutch take their pancakes seriously.
Cycling in Amsterdam
Amsterdam is a cycling city. Bikes are everywhere — more bikes than people, it sometimes feels like. The infrastructure is incredible. Dedicated bike lanes on every street, traffic lights for cyclists, multi-storey bike parking garages.
So should you rent bikes and cycle with the kids?
No. Probably not. We’re going to be blunt about this.
Cycling in Amsterdam as a tourist with children is genuinely dangerous. The locals cycle fast, confidently, and with an unspoken set of rules that you don’t know. Tram tracks cross bike lanes at awkward angles. Other cyclists weave past with centimetres to spare. The lanes are narrow. If you hesitate or wobble, you’re a hazard.
You can rent bakfiets — those cargo bikes with a box on the front where kids sit — and some brave families do this. But unless you’re a very confident urban cyclist, we’d steer well clear. Walk. Take the tram. Enjoy looking at the cyclists from a safe distance.
The Red Light District
Right, the elephant in the room. Yes, Amsterdam has a red light district. Yes, you’ll probably walk near it — it’s right in the old town, close to the central station.
During the day, it’s genuinely just a neighbourhood. Old buildings, canals, a few coffee shops, some restaurants. We walked through it mid-morning with the kids without them noticing anything unusual at all. In the evening, it’s obviously a different story — the windows are lit, there are groups of lads about, the atmosphere shifts.
Our advice: during the day, don’t worry about it. In the evening, stick to the main canals and the areas around your hotel. You won’t accidentally stumble into anything problematic if you stay on the well-lit, well-trafficked streets.
Practical Bits
Rain. It rains in Amsterdam. A lot. At any time of year. Even in July, there’s a decent chance of showers. Pack waterproofs. Don’t let it ruin your plans — the Dutch don’t let it ruin theirs, and neither should you. Museums make excellent rainy-day refuges.
Flat terrain. Already mentioned this but it’s worth repeating for anyone with a pushchair. Amsterdam is pancake-flat. Pavements are smooth. Ramps are everywhere. After the cobblestone nightmare of Rome and the staircase assault course of Paris, it felt like a holiday for our arms as much as anything.
Card payments. Take a debit card. Tap and go. Cash is increasingly unusual and some places don’t accept it at all. We used our card for everything from museums to market cheese.
Language. Everyone speaks English. Everyone. We didn’t encounter a single person who couldn’t communicate with us perfectly. The Dutch are extraordinarily good at languages and genuinely friendly with it.
Budget. Amsterdam isn’t cheap, but the free museum entry for under eighteens helps enormously. A family of four can do a full day of museum, canal boat, and pancake lunch for well under €100, which for a major European city is pretty reasonable.
Our Verdict
Amsterdam with kids works. It really works. The city is compact enough to manage on foot, the museums are world-class and free for children, there are parks and pancakes to break up the culture, and the whole place has a relaxed, tolerant atmosphere that makes travelling with small people feel easy rather than stressful.
Three days. That’s all you need. Pack a rain jacket, book the Anne Frank House early, let them run wild in Vondelpark, and feed them pancakes until they can’t move. You’ll come home wondering why you didn’t do it sooner. We certainly did.