Amsterdam isn't a large city and most popular places to visit and centered nearby city center. Therefore, it is possible to make a day trip to Amsterdam. When people think of Amsterdam, they might first think of the most popular red light district. However, this wouldn't be a great activity for children to join. Therefore, in this article, I will be planning a day trip for families with children to do in Amsterdam.
Where to stay?
On this trip, I stayed at the Lancaster Hotel.
It is quite a nice hotel and is only 10 minutes away from the city center by car. The rooms are relatively small compared to other hotels but were very comfortable. They had a double bed and a single bed, with a bathroom. Our room also had a great view of a big park right across the street, which is awesome. Keep in mind, they only serve breakfast in the hotel but we didn't try out the breakfast there. However, in the lobby, they have a shelf of snacks, drinks, and some groceries that are sold in the hotel for people who need them. Overall, I think it is a nice place to stay in Amsterdam if you are only planning to stay for a short trip.
Morning plan
Starting in the morning, it is important to have a nice breakfast at a local Amsterdam cafe. I would recommend the breakfast shop Coffee and Bites, this is one of the best breakfast cafes I’ve been to. They have great food, drinks, and seats. It is very busy in the morning and most of the seats were full so going earlier probably would be better if you don’t want to spend time waiting.
Address: Plantage Middenlaan 44-HS, 1018 DH Amsterdam, Netherlands
Next, After breakfast, visiting a zoo would be awesome. Amsterdam has a zoo near the city center named ARTIZ am Amsterdam Royal Zoo. From the breakfast shop to this zoo is only a one-minute walk, which is very convenient.
This zoo has a great diversity of animals and plants, so there is a lot to see in this zoo. For the locals, parents often bring their toddlers or children to the zoo on weekends so many people will choose to get a year-round ticket. However, for tourists, a day ticket would be more than enough.
The duration of the tour might take about 2 to 3 hours, as shown on the map, There are a lot of sections you could visit and there are also restaurants in the zoo with snacks and drinks. If you would like to buy this map in the zoo, it costs about 2 Euro. I think the need for the map depends on your own preference, but having one would definitely be clearer. Nevertheless, if you choose to not have a map, there also wouldn't be a problem in the zoo because if you simply follow the trial you would be able to take a full round of the whole zoo.
We visited the zoo in July and at that time there was still construction on having cheetah and other animals so it is definitely going to have more variety in the zoo.
After finishing the tour at the zoo, you could either choose to have something small at the zoo or go to the city center. From the zoo, it only takes 20 minutes to walk to the city center, and I would recommend walking because it is a great way to look around the city compared to taking public transportation or Uber. Once you get to the city center, there are all kinds of restaurants you can choose from.
Next, in the afternoon, you could take a canal boat and have a rest while watching the city. Amsterdam is a city with lakes all over the city and is below sea level, therefore, that boat is a great activity to experience. This activity will be perfect for people of any age, young couples, old couples, families with children, alone, or a group of friends. You can find all kinds of different types of canal boats for booking, for example, luxury ones with food and drink, indoor ones, private ones, etc.
For this trip, we booked a canal boat with drinks that could fit about 10 to 15 people. However, we were extremely lucky and there were only us on that boat. I would highly recommend having a trip like this because you can basically take a tour of the whole city. The driver would be telling stories about the streets, buildings, culture, and jokes about everything we see, and overall it was a very pleasant and relaxing experience. Additionally, the weather in Amsterdam is always a little bit chilly so I would also recommend bringing a sweater with you during the boat ride.
At night, a nice dinner in the city is also a must. There are two restaurants that I would recommend. Although they are not Netherlands food, I still think it is worth trying. The first restaurant is this Italian restaurant in the city center. This restaurant has great food and a romantic environment, but it is always fully booked so if you are planning to go there you should book in advance. The next restaurant is a Spanish restaurant, it has delicious seafood and is in a very busy neighborhood so it's really fun. The last restaurant is a Portuguese restaurant, with very nice big pieces of meat at seafood. You can choose a main dish with a side dish, and they also have smaller dishes for the table to share with. By the way, this restaurant has the BEST dessert ever, you have to try out the dessert if you are there. It is a bit outside of the city center, but lots of locals go to this restaurant. You guys could choose a restaurant try it out and end a perfect day with your family in Amsterdam!
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