Netherlands with a 2 year-old?

[Anonymous]

We're heading to the Netherlands soon, and I'm wondering if anyone has any recommendations of what to do with my 2-year old, for instance in Amsterdam. What about in Den Haag or Leiden? We're pretty flexible time-wise, i.e. can do half-day touring here or there, and have someone who will be able to babysit if DH and I want to explore on our own. I'm thinking we should probably do any museums without her, but she might like the canals, tulips, windmills?

[Anonymous]

There's Madurodam - Holland in miniature. Pretty cool.

[Anonymous]

We took our daughter when she was 18 months. We were there during summer, and really enjoyed all kinds of strolling and taking the tram, renting bikes (easy to find rental bikes with the baby seat in back, but take your own bike helmets). It can be a little overwhelming, though, because it's a densely packed city and many of the tourists we saw were strung out college backpackers at the pot and hooker Holy Land.

Beyond Amsterdam, one of our favorite things was visiting Haarlem. It is so charming and you can rent a bike at the Haarlem train station and bike to the beach (about 20 minute ride?). Once at the beach, there is a level, car free bike trail that goes along the Atlantic for miles.

Food wise, aside from ristafel, dutch style pancakes and frites are very kid friendly.

[Anonymous]

Leiden has a natural history museum she might like if you are there anyway. Are you going to the Keukenhof flower exhibit? If so, that is like a giant park and she can run all around. There are is also at least one little playground in Keukenhof.

In the Hague (and Amsterdam too) there are tons of kinder boderei (children's farms) around the city. They are free and the kids can see and feed the animals. In the Hague, there is also Scheveningen (the beach). We used to put warm clothes on and go play at the beach even in winter. There is a Sea Life aquarium that is small but nice (pricey, so if you see a coupon, grab it). In the spring, there are tons of baby ducks in the canals, so you can always feed them.

Netherlands is VERY kid friendly. You will have a great time!

[Anonymous]

We took our toddler. Did not visit the cities you mentioned but that age will be fine on a variety of day trips b/c train rides to those places are 1 hr or less which is still fun for a 2 year old. Madurodam is perfect for that age. Wagamama is good. The famous pancake restaurant near the Anne Frank house has toys/play kitchen. We rented bikes with a toddler seat in the city and on day trips which was great too.