If your kid’s favourite part of any outing is getting close enough to a goat to smell its breakfast, the Netherlands has you covered. Kinderboerderijen, the Dutch word for petting farm, sit in nearly every neighbourhood and every province, and most of them are free to walk into. You don’t need a big-ticket zoo day for an afternoon of goats headbutting the fence and chickens wandering under the picnic tables.
We went through the petting farms in the Netherlands that our own kids have actually visited, or that we could verify ourselves, city by city and region by region, from central Amsterdam out to the Veluwe. No made-up counts, no farms we couldn’t confirm still exist. Bring old shoes either way. A farm is mud, whatever the season.
Amsterdam and Amstelveen: three petting farms you can reach without a car
Ridammerhoeve sits deep inside Amsterdamse Bos, at Nieuwe Meerlaan 4 in Amstelveen, and it’s the one we send visiting family to first. Close to a hundred goats roam the paddocks alongside chickens, pigs, cows, a horse and a pony, and the farm makes its own cheese, yoghurt and ice cream from the goat milk, sold in the on-site café. Entry is free, it’s open 10:00 to 17:00 daily except Tuesdays, and you can’t bring your own food in, but you can buy a bottle to feed the baby goats, which is the whole draw for anyone under six.
Closer to the centre, Kinderboerderij De Pijp at Lizzy Ansinghstraat 82 is the one we use when we just need forty minutes to kill between errands. It’s free, no booking needed, open Monday to Friday 11:00 to 16:45 and Saturday 12:00 to 16:45. It’s closed on Sundays, which catches out a lot of weekend visitors, so plan around that if Sunday is your only free day.
Over in the west, Boerderij Westerpark on Overbrakerpad keeps goats, sheep, pigs, chickens, pigeons and even a pair of golden pheasants, plus a neighbourhood café called De Hooikeet where the parents actually want to sit down. Worth knowing: Dutch petting farms occasionally pause direct animal contact for a stretch when avian flu measures are in effect regionally, so check the farm’s own site before you go if that’s the main reason for the trip.
Utrecht: worth the day trip on its own
Geertje’s Hoeve in Haarzuilens, a few minutes from Kasteel de Haar, is less a quick stop and more a half-day out. Goats and pigs wander the grounds, and beyond the usual feeding there’s butter-making, cheese-making, and a farm minigolf course that keeps older siblings busy while the little ones chase chickens. It’s open Monday to Saturday 10:00 to 17:00 and Sunday 11:00 to 17:00, with Monday and Tuesday closures in the quieter months from late October to early March. There’s a proper restaurant with a terrace on site, so this is one you can build a whole lunch outing around. If Utrecht’s already on your list, we’ve also rounded up more of the province in our guide to kid-friendly cities outside Amsterdam.
Rotterdam and The Hague: South Holland’s two best
Kinderboerderij De Kraal, tucked into the Kralingse Bos woods in Rotterdam, has been around since 1967, when it opened as the city’s first petting farm. Peacocks strut around alongside pigs, goats and a rodent house, and it draws well over 100,000 visitors a year without ever really feeling crowded once you’re inside the trees. Entry is free and it’s open daily 8:30 to 16:30, with seasonal events like a sheep-shearing festival and a pancake day that are worth timing your visit around.
Stadsboerderij Molenweide in The Hague’s Laak neighbourhood, at Stuwstraat 31, is one of ten city farms the municipality runs across town, and it’s the one we’d pick first. Goats can be brushed in the meadow, rabbits and guinea pigs have set petting windows through the day, and staff let kids help with the daily animal feeding at 16:00. It’s open Tuesday to Sunday, 9:00 to 17:00, closed Mondays, free, and the grounds are wheelchair accessible with a small playground built in.
Gelderland: Presikhaaf if you’re already heading for the Veluwe
Stadsboerderij Presikhaaf in Arnhem is a different kind of stop, less about baby goats and more about rare old Dutch livestock breeds you won’t see elsewhere: Lakenvelder cattle, helmet doves, and the distinctive black-and-white Bentheimer pig. There’s a small farm shop selling eggs, homemade jam, honey and seasonal produce, entry is free, and the site is largely wheelchair accessible with dogs allowed on a leash outside the pastures. Opening hours shift with the season, so check the current times on their site before you build a trip around it. It pairs well with a Veluwe day out, and if your family’s more into orchards than goats, our guide to apple and fruit-picking farms covers Gelderland’s picking season too.
North Brabant: Genneper Hoeve for a bigger day out
Genneper Hoeve in Eindhoven is a step up from a neighbourhood kinderboerderij, an organic city farm on the Gennep estate with red-and-white dairy cows, chickens and pigs, plus its own working cheese dairy. You can watch the cows being milked, taste the cheese afterwards, and grab lunch at the on-site ProefLokaal café while the kids wander the grounds and stalls, which are open to visitors daily. The farm shop and café run 10:00 to 17:00 daily, closed on Christmas Day, New Year’s Day and King’s Day, and there’s no entry fee. In summer they add Saturday afternoon music and puppet shows, which is worth checking if you’re planning a Brabant trip around the school holidays.
A few things worth knowing before you go
- Most farms sell feed bottles or bags of pellets at the entrance rather than letting you bring your own bread, and that’s on purpose, bread isn’t good for goats. Keep a couple of euros in coins or a card handy.
- Spring, roughly March through May, is lambing and kidding season. If your kids want to see actual baby animals rather than just the grown ones, that’s the window.
- Almost every farm on this list is free, but donation boxes fund the animal care directly, and it’s a nice habit to get your kids into dropping in a coin themselves.
- Check the individual farm’s website in the days before you go if avian flu measures are active in the region. Bird and poultry areas sometimes close temporarily even when the rest of the farm stays open.
- Wear boots or shoes you don’t mind getting muddy. These are working farms, not manicured attractions, and that’s exactly the point.
Petting farms are one of those outings that work whatever the weather is doing and whatever your budget looks like that month, which is why they’re such a reliable fallback during school holidays or any ordinary weekend that needs filling. If autumn is closer on your calendar, our pumpkin picking guide covers the seasonal farm circuit in more detail, and you’ll find dozens more family-run farms and animal spots listed in the AmsterdamKids places directory.
