(This blog outlines our travel experience & references many products we bought, used, and recommend for your own trip. This entire trip was bought and paid for on our dime, as well as the products mentioned. You can find those products highlighted here (Canadian link) (American link), and I may earn a small commission if you choose to shop from my link – this is the sole way I monetize my content and keep my blog alive).
As a family, our number one leisure priority is traveling (and our budgeting reflects this). The world is our oyster, and we want to see as much of it as we can. Unlike many folks who yearn for a child-free vacation (rightfully so, parenting is hard work!), we love bringing our kids with us and experiencing the world through their eyes. We’ve traveled a few times a year since they were babies!
In early/mid-2024, we began planning out vacation options for 2025. We settled on San Diego. While Disneyland is *not* our jam (too crowded, too expensive, too many lines, etc), we still saw so much value in what San Diego could offer. We booked a gorgeous air bnb with a pool and a hot tub in Escondido, booked our rental car, set up direct flights from Calgary to San Diego, bought tickets for Legoland and the San Diego Zoo, and planned a whole day in La Jolla.
Then…November 2024 took place. Yes, we’re Canadian. However, when your country’s largest ally and closest geographic connection elects Mango Mussolini, you begin to have reservations about spending money in that country on leisure. You have major reservations about supporting tourism there, about keeping your children safe there.
So – we canceled it all. Everything. We canceled our flights (refunded to flight credit to be used within one calendar year), canceled the air bnb (full refund), and we forfeited our tickets to Legoland and San Diego Zoo (about $1,000 USD for the four of us). Air travel is a privilege, canceling our plans based on our personal beliefs is a privilege, and being able to forfeit the cost of experiences we had prepaid for is a privilege – I will be the first to admit that. For us, it was necessary.
With only 3-4 months until our intended vacation time frame (decided a year prior based on work schedules), I began to look overseas. We’ve loved our beach vacations to Mexico, Hawaii, Cuba, St. Lucia, Jamaica (read more about how we beach vacation with kids here) but were looking for something different. Our daughters are 10 & 8, and we’ve finally left the stroller/car seat/nap era in our rearview mirror – we’re ready to explore.
Enter – Amsterdam. With an 8hr and 15 minute *direct* return flight from Calgary with KLM (official Dutch airlines), it was an ideal set up for us. The Netherlands use the Euro as their currency, and 1 Canadian dollar equaled 0.62 Euros. We just did the mental math of adding 35% to the posted prices for us to know what it was going to cost us in Canadian dollars. At a quick glance, a week and a half in The Netherlands was close to on par with what San Diego was going to cost us….what!
When pricing out flights, KLM was by far the cheapest for us – but your mileage may vary. I always opt for direct flights when I can with kids. If you’re flexible on travel timing and options, you can score some awesome seat sales!
Landing in Amsterdam was seamless. The Schiphol airport was clean, beautiful, and all communication was in English and Dutch so we felt confident navigating on our own. There were plenty of transportation options – public transit was clearly marked and buses came by every few minutes. Taxis and ubers were also plentiful. Our hotel offered a free airport shuttle service so naturally, we chose that option. They offered pickups every 30 minutes which worked for us.
As I mentioned, travel is our number one leisure priority. With this in mind, we are always looking for ways to stretch our dollars further. Credit cards that offer travel perks and benefits, points system, aeroplan/sky miles for free tickets, hotel stay programs – we do it ALL. All 4 of us. And it adds up! For this reason, we tend to start our search with Marriot for accommodations.
Some of the reasons we chose this hotel:
- Centrally located to almost all of our intended activities and excursions
- Very safe, quiet area. Walkable and nestled in a park
- European hotel rooms are smaller than what we’re accustomed to in North America. This one offered family rooms that had a separate bedroom with two twin beds for kids, offering the separation and space we all wanted
- Bike rentals on site
- Free airport shuttle both ways for guests
- Located 12km from the Schiphol Airport and approximately 12km from Amsterdam proper.
We LOVED it. The only con (if I had to call it that) was that there was no pool on site (again, not common in this area) and that would have been perfect when the kids needed some downtime to expend energy. It in no way would impact our desire to stay there again.
We had planned some “must do” activities:
- Keukenhof Gardens, to see the tulips (we went April 18-27, peak bloom time)
- Linnaeushof, the largest playground in Europe
- Amsterdam Canal Boat Tour
- Kinderboeken Museum (Museum of Children’s Books & Literature) in Den Haag
- Bike the Formula One track in Zaandvort (rent bikes)
- Eat our way through the Albert Cuyp Street Market
- Visit Tony Chocolonely’s Chocolate Factory in Amsterdam
We had also wanted to get tickets for the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam for the guided tour, however tickets are only released in 6 week blocks and they sell out in minutes. Sadly – we missed out on this.
I’ll take you on our trip & share my thoughts in the upcoming photos!
There are also 12 trampolines, a train, a mini golf course, a huge sandbox, bumper cars, air karts, a huge water playground (on hot days) and so much more! Plan to spend a full day here. Tickets were 15 euros each for a dated ticket. Food is available for purchase, but outside food and drink were permitted.
Seeing the tulips at Keukenhof Gardens was on my bucket list and it did NOT disappoint. It was about 16 km from our hotel (a 20 minute uber drive, about $25 euro) and it was much smoother than public transit because when I say it was busy, it was BUSY. Thousands of people travel to Keukenhof to see these beautiful flowers.
Keukenhof is the international and independent showcase for the Dutch floricultural sector, with a special emphasis on flower bulbs. In the space of eight weeks, Keukenhof shows what the Dutch floricultural sector has to offer. The park’s focus is on the 7 million spring-flowering bulbs, which allow the 100 participating companies to show their living catalog. 500 flower growers present an enormous variety of cut flowers and pot plants at the over 20 flower shows.
Worth every damn penny to go & see this incredible floral masterpiece!
Traveling from Amsterdam to The Hauge wasn’t too hard as a non-Dutch speaking foreigner. Signage in Dutch and English was plentiful. We started by taking an uber to the train station (we could have used the bus service, but opted for ease and convenience for what we knew was going to be a full day of walking).
Once we got off at our train stop, it was only a short 5 minute walk to the Kinderboeken Museum. We were torn as a family on the enjoyment of this. Most of the adult content was in English & Dutch, but the majority of the children’s content was in Dutch (which our children can’t read). They lost interest quicker than if they could fully engage. That being said, tickets were super affordable, it was super quiet, and we didn’t regret going. I personally *LOVED* it.
Because influencer foodie moms are driven by food, we were constantly in and out of grocery stores to explore. We had dedicated an entire carry-on suitcase for souvenirs – cheese, flower bulbs, ceramics, sprinkles – you know, the usual.
After our canal boat trip, we headed over to Tony’s Chocolonely Superstore Factory. I had wanted to go here forever. The company was founded on a mission of long term health and sustainability for the chocolate industry, ensuring traceable cocoa beans, strong liveable wages for cocoa farmers, and putting human rights at the centre of business, allowing companies to source cocoa sustainably while still enjoying commercial success.
At this flagship location, you can custom design your own chocolate bars! Choose your flavours, design your wrapper, and return in 2-3 hours for your custom chocolate bar (costs about 9 euros a bar).
Again, we were there in late April – the busiest season of the year in Amsterdam. It was packed to the gills with chocolate lovers so sadly we weren’t able to make custom bars because we would have had to come back the next day to get them and we couldn’t swing that with our schedule. We tried lots of samples though, and bought a big bag of goodies to bring home as gifts.
The final stop of this day was the Albert Cuyp Street Market – like an outdoor farmer’s market of food vendors! It was torrential downpour, we were the dumb tourists with no umbrellas or rain jackets, and so it was a short lived experience. We still managed to sneak in some delicious bites. At this point in our trip, I was 63% pancake and I had no regrets. These little pillows of dough melted in your mouth and I could eat a million (or at least as many as my stomach could hold without combusting). Note to the reader: bring a packable travel umbrella. You will need it.
The last major “must do” on our list was travel to Zandvoort, rent bikes, cycle along the ocean, and then visit the Formula One track. This was about a 40 minute uber (with traffic) from our hotel, but we felt it was too complicated to navigate public transit on a busy holiday weekend. There were multiple bike rental stores, but children’s bikes went FAST – we got the last two from all the vendors we checked. Something to note for North American visitors – locals don’t wear helmets while biking. Adults or kids, helmets are rare. Hard to rent helmets, too. Locals identify the tourists based on who is wearing a helmet. This obviously feels pretty wild for most of us who are militant helmet wearers and enforcers. Thankfully, the vendor who rented our bikes to us had his granddaughters’ helmets in his car and allowed us to use them for our ride. Without them, we wouldn’t have ridden. Something to note for future trips if biking is on your itinerary.
The weather was gorgeous. 21 degrees celcius with a warm wind coming off the ocean. It was the perfect day. The whole loop from the town to Zandvoort to the track and back was a good 5km and the girls handled it no problem. A slight incline, but doable. I think we paid approximately 40 euros to rent the 4 bikes (and 2 gifted helmet rentals) for the day, but we only needed a few hours.
Some takeaways from our 10 day trip to The Netherlands:
- Mostly everywhere is cashless, but the places that do accept it all exclusively use euros. Before your trip, go to your local bank or credit union and order euros in advance. You’ll likely get the best exchange rate this way. We didn’t need much cash, but it was nice to have some for tips every now and again and street food vendors.
- The Netherlands electrical system uses E/F plug outlets and if traveling from North America, you’ll need adaptors for your tech. We bought two adaptor extension cords (one for the parents, one for the kids) and plugged those into the wall and then plugged all our tech into them.
- Check to make sure your hot hair tools are dual voltage. To determine if a device is dual voltage, check the label on the device or its power adapter. Look for a voltage range like “110-240V” or “100-240V.” If you see a range, the device is dual voltage and can be used with different voltage outlets worldwide. If you see a single voltage, like “110V” or “220V,” it is not dual voltage. Some people suggest you can use adaptors for your single voltage tools, but even more say you will blow them up (probably not literally, but you will fry them). I opted to use the hair dryer the hotel provided, and bought an alternative flat iron that was dual voltage for traveling.
- During our trip we learned that Canadians generally have a highly favourable reputation with the Dutch people. Having Canadian flag pins on your lapel, and maple leaf luggage tags goes a long way to identify where you’re coming from and will impact your experience positively.
- We didn’t find The Netherlands overly accessible for those requiring mobility accommodations. While we don’t experience any mobility issues ourselves, we noticed that wheelchair users would likely struggle with the cobblestone streets, narrow sidewalks and door frames, and prevalence of stairs in most shops. I think it’s important to share these things when sharing travel experiences so that others know what to expect when heading abroad.
- That being said, it was obvious that LGBTQ+2A folks are welcome here. Pride flags, “Love is Love” signage, and general demographics made it clear that it was generally a safe place for all.
- The Netherlands is INCREDIBLY child friendly. Every restaurant had child friendly meal options, child friendly seating, and were welcomed and valued everywhere. It was really safe, and we never ever felt like we were in a position to question whether an experience would work for our kids – everything did. In the Schiphol airport, airport staff handed out coloring books, crayons, and little sleep masks for all young travelers – it was so sweet.
- Fries come with mayonnaise everywhere. It’s a thing. The fries though, they’re handmade and delicious.
- Food is less processed, and the processed options are a fraction of what you’d find in North America. There are maybe 8 cereal options in the grocery store, but the produce? Oh my goodness. The abundance and taste of the local produce was second to none.
- Pro-tip: download a translation app before you leave (we liked and used Google Translate). Whenever we found signage in Dutch only, we’d open the app and scan the sign – and we’d get an immediate English translation. This saved us from wrong turns MANY times. It had the unintended extra benefit of quickly helping our kids learn a ton of Dutch words on their own!
Overall, this was the trip of a lifetime. We all agree it was our best family vacation to date, and we’re already in the planning stages of our next European adventure (Ireland & Scotland, we’re coming for you!). If you’re hesitant to head overseas with kids or worry about the language barriers – don’t be! It’s easy, and you’ll never forget the memories you’ll make.
(This blog has outlined our travel experience & referenced many products we bought, used, and recommend for your own trip. This entire trip was bought and paid for on our dime, as well as the products mentioned. You can find those products highlighted here (Canadian link) (American link), and I may earn a small commission if you choose to shop from my link – this is the sole way I monetize my content and keep my blog alive).
