days out, tried and tested
The big-ticket days out: the ones you plan a week ahead and talk about afterwards. Eight are listed. Five are in Amsterdam, where ARTIS is the anchor — zoo, aquarium, planetarium and botanical garden on one site — and the Amsterdam Dungeon is its opposite number for children old enough to enjoy being frightened. Beyond the city there is Artisklas in Haarlem, billed as the smallest zoo in the Netherlands, the Avontuurfabriek adventure factory at Loosdrecht and a fort at Beverwijk. Five are wheelchair accessible, four have an accessible bathroom and three do food.
16 attractions in the Netherlands
Attractions
Every town with something in this category has its own page. The number is what is listed there today.
It is officially for eight and up, and that is about right — the show relies on live actors, darkness and jump scares, and it is genuinely frightening for younger children. ARTIS, the fort at Beverwijk and the mini-zoo in Haarlem are the better choices under eight. Each listing carries the venue's own guidance.
Yes, and more than you would expect — the site is large, flat and shaded, the buggy paths are good, and the butterfly house and the farmyard animals hold a two-year-old's attention better than the big cats do. It is also one of the few attractions here where a whole day is realistic rather than optimistic. Five of the eight listings are wheelchair accessible; ARTIS is one.
One of the eight is free, and the smaller places — Artisklas in Haarlem, the fort at Beverwijk — cost a fraction of the big city attractions. Dutch attractions also price children by height or age band rather than a flat family rate, so it is worth reading the venue's own page, which every listing links to.
