A driving tour around Holland
We started our tour in Amsterdam, where we spend 2 nights in Holiday Inn Amsterdam Arena Towers, which was a great surprise. Generally in Europe Holiday Inn is a budget hotel but we did not feel that in Amsterdam. We were upgraded to an Executive Room which was very spacious, modern and has all the facilities we needed for our stay with the kids. Staff was really pleasant and breakfast was really good also. It was located 5 minutes walk from a train station with easy access by train to the city center (about 20 min). So, overall highly recommended as it offered really good value. Hotels in Amsterdam tend to be on the expensive side, especially if very centrally located. We did a 1 hour boat tour on the canals around Amsterdam (longer than that it would have been too much to handle for our kids) and then visited the Artis Royal Zoo which was absolutely amazing. Really big and offering a lot of animal species.
We left Amsterdam to visit Volendam, the country's best-known fishing village with a very pretty harbor with great restaurants offering a variety of fish dishes and lots of souvenir shops, as well as a cheese factory. Unfortunately it was raining quite heavily so we only spend a few hours in the harbor.
From there, we continue to Alkmaar, the city of cheese, that has so much more to offer. The famous cheese market was in full swing and it was overcrowded with tourists but we managed to take a sneak peak at their trading traditions. The city offers a few other museums also, like the Beer or Beatles Museum but we did not visit those as kids had no patience for such things. Instead we walked around the old city area which offer a lot of shopping opportunities, as well as nice terraces. We spent the night in an apartment in the city centre which was good because it was easy to access everything but a bit challenging as not much parking is available in the area. From Alkmaar, we continued north and did the crossing to Texel Island which ended up being the biggest surprise this country offered us. We spent a few nights in a private home but the island has many other opportunities for accommodation: a few B&Bs, private villas, hotels, camping. We rented bicycles with all the necessary equipment for the kids also and that was the best way to go around the island.
The weather was not great, around 15-18 degrees only but that did not stop us from discovering the beauties of this island. The beach is quite big and there were amazing restaurants on the shore offering a variety of meals which included a lot of fish of course. All the restaurants we saw around the island offered a kids play area next to it, making it easy for us to sit on the terrace enjoying our meals and drinks while kids were playing close by. Lots of activities for the kids: learn how to make ice cream at a local farm (the most delicious ice cream I ever had), horse riding, go karting, learn how to make bread rolls, soap or candles and of course lots of water activities which we could not do many because of the weather not being at its best. Overall we thoroughly enjoying our stay there and we would go back if we would have the chance.
We continued our adventure to Zaanse Schans to discover the famous wind mills. A beautiful little town offering authentic houses, windmills, a tinware factory, a cheese and dairy factory and other crafts. They have a few small museums, like the Museumwinkel (a grocery from the past, as they existed before the emergence of large supermarkets), the Bakkerijmuseum (Bakery Museum), the Museum Zaanse Tijd showing a collection of unique clocks, most of which still work, as well as a 20th-century chocolate factory.
We spent one more night before our departure in Zaandam, close to Zaanse Schans in a budget hotel, Bastion Hotel. It was ok for a one night stop being very basic but with easy access to Amsterdam and the surrounding areas.
The last day we decided to visit Europe's largest playground, Linnaeushof. The kids absolutely loved it. It's not an amusement park with long queues and roller coasters, it's a huge playground where kids can play for real on climbing areas, trampolines, slides, pedal boats etc. Different areas available for small kids also. Really entertaining and safe for the kids.
We did not visit the north of the country on this occasion as we wanted to do it during the flowers season so we left that for another trip.
Overall, we were very impressed with what Holland has to offer; people have been very nice everywhere we stopped and we thoroughly enjoyed their kids activities.