Vakantiepas

You can try to get a vakantiepas for your children. It is a booklet  which contains discounts for all kinds of fun summer activities in The Hague and surroundings, a sort of “passport to the summer holidays”. You can also buy a vakantiepas “for friends and family members up to the age of 12 who live outside of The Hague”.

Activities for children and play areas

On this site you can find plenty of activities for kids. If you are looking for guided activities where your children can learn some outdoor skills, like building with wood (small houses, castles etc.) there are several buitenspeelplaatsen (outdoor playgrounds). There is always an EHBO (Erste Hulp Bij Ongelukken: “First Aid Helper”) present on these playgrounds. – Unfortunately I couldn’t find an english translation for this page (some vocabulary: “dagelijks”: every day; “behalve”: except; if you need more help on this site, just let me know and I’ll translate it for you). You can sign them up (“aanmelden”) on the same page.

The Hague has more than 400 play areas throughout the city. Please find some of them highlighted here.

The biggest attraction and outdoor playground is the beach. On the 11 km coastline between Kijkduin and Scheveningen you can also have beautiful walks through the dunes. The beachclubs between Kijkduin, Scheveningen , Wassenaar and Noordwijk you can chill, relax and eat the whole day until the sunset.

Please check out this article, published after this post on DutchNews about the beaches in the Netherlands.

The Hague has also 17  parks and recreational areas where you can walk, play and just relax. On the Dutch municipal homepage you can find more informations about the beautiful parks.

Park Clingendael, Den Haag (Photo credit: ekenitr)

And if you like your children to play in the nature and you don’t mind to go a bit outside The Hague area, there are  Speelpolders, where your children can play for free during the whole year (as there are some canals etc, be sure to stay close to your children).

Camps for children

If you are looking for camps for children from 4 to 14 years, you’ll find multi-sportcamps, surfcamps, tenniscamps, a 5 extreme camp and dutch learning modules on this site. The first is from July 22nd until July 26th and the second from August 19th until August 23rd.

Outings in The Hague area

If you are just looking for some outings in The Hague and surroundings, you can find some hints in my post A few cultural outings in The Hague area and a list with the actual exhibitions here.

Kids Tour in The Hague

The Hague offers also two tours for kids. One tour is a cycling tour through the city of The Hague and takes you to the Peace Palast, Humanity House, Plein and Lange Voorhout. The other tour is a walking tour through The Hague’s International Zone. You can find a new version of the Kids Tour on the site as downloadable pdf file.

“The Kids Tour was developed on behalf of The Hague Bridge, a programme initiated by the City of The Hague. The Hague Bridge project brings together local residents (Hagenaars) and expats and better acquaints local residents with the international city.”

The Peace Palace in
The Hague, Netherlands, which is the seat of the International Court of
Justice. Français : Le Palais de la Paix, siège de la Cour
internationale de Justice à La Haye (Pays-Bas). (Photo credit:
Wikipedia)

And if you are looking for more cultural outings in The Hague in Summer 2013, please check this site.

Related articles

• “Everyone” Goes To Amsterdam, Why Not Try The Hague? (lowoncalories.wordpress.com)
• Fifth city: The Hague (zomerschoolnayaab.wordpress.com)
• 10 Things I Love About The Hague, South Holland (elizabethjoss.com)
• Introduction to The Hague (shanza13blog.wordpress.com)

1) First of all, I love my Dutch friends. This is probably the main reason I feel at home here and why I feel very uncomfortable when others complain about anything Dutch.

2) Another thing I like here is the tolerance.

I mentioned the tolerance before (in part 1) and the fact that in the Netherlands people need to be tolerant because of the population density. In my experience, neighbours tend to be more tolerant here than in the other countries I’ve lived in. During the yearly burendag, initiated by Douwe Egberts in 2006 and since 2008 joined by the Oranje Fonds, neighbours get together in order to get to know each other. In our neighbourhood we celebrate this with a big BBQ and games for the children.

3) Related to 1) and 2) is this feeling of gezelligheid and the freedom that I really like. In an interview I once said that I consider the Dutch mentality as refreshing: “Dutch people are happy people, they enjoy their lives and value the life outside of their career.” Some may not agree, but having lived in Switzerland and Italy before coming here, I must say that the way to live here and to enjoy the free-time is much relaxter and people are much more easy-going.

4) They know how to party! Yes, in the Netherlands people know how to party, how to have fun! At Birthdayparties it is custom not only to congratulate the birthdayboy/girl, but also everyone else in the family! “Gefeliciteerd met de verjaardag van je zoon/dochter/man/moeder/vader…” And generally speaking about parties, I have to say that I’ve never felt uncomfortable or bored at a party here. There’s always something going on and people know how to make you feel comfortable. – I know that at this point some of my British or non-European friends would mention the greeting with three kisses because they feel very uncomfortable with kissing and shaking hands with people they barely know (and sometimes even friends), but for me it’s nothing special. I’m used to kiss and shake hands, hug. – I’ll write a post about the different greetings in Europe soon.

5) I like that I can take my bike to go almost everywhere here. We all have bikes, my children since a very early age. With my bakfiets I used to do my groceries with all three children in it (I can load up to 100 kg). Not anymore, as they all can ride their own bikes now, but I still prefer doing my shopping with my “favourite car”. The fact that everything is so close makes this aspect of the daily life very easy. What I really appreciate here is that people rides the bikes in a different way: In Switzerland or Germany, people usually have road bikes  (or mountain bikes) and they ride in a bent position, face down, whereas people here sit up straight on their bikes.

6) The Netherlands is not such a big country. Everything is relatively close. In The Hague area, if you’re interested in culture, you can visit musea in Rijswijk, The Hague (Mauritshuis, Gemeentemuseum, Meermanno, Kinderboekenmuseum, Museon, Fotomuseum, Escher in het Paleis, Beelden an Zee, Gevangenenpoort, Letterkundig Museum, Haag Historisch Museum etc.), Leiden (Botanical Garden, Naturalis, Museum Volkenkunde, Rijksmuseum van Oudheden etc.) and of course Amsterdam and Rotterdam etc. The Museumkaart enables you to have free or reduced access to about 400 musea in the Netherlands and even in some places in Germany.

In The Hague you can visit Madurodam. You can visit the Zoo: Diergaarde Blijdorp in Rotterdam or Sealife in Scheveningen.. If you visit the Netherlands in May-June, the Keukenhof is a must. The Haagse Markt is an incredible market! You can find fresh fish, spices, nuts, grains, and loads of items from Asia and Middle East. For children there are plenty of in- and outdoor playgrounds, but the best “playground” is the beach. The coast is beautiful. You can have long walks and bikerides in the Dunes. Also the Veluwe (in Gelderland) is worth a visit! You can find precious informations about what to do with kids here  and here.

7) If I should ever have to leave the Netherlands, I would terribly miss the closeness to the sea! Probably because I grew up next to the Alps (I could see the Monte Rosa from my room window) but going to the beach always feels like holidays to me. And the beach is huge! We have great strandtenten on the beach where you can spend a whole day, the children can play and you can have a coffee or a meal. You are free to walk for miles and in the winter months people are even allowed to walk their dogs.

8) And the vast sky… I like the vast sky. Every time we come back from Switzerland, we take a deep breath and enjoy this Dutch sky! I know that some people complain about the weather, but honestly, I’ve never lived in any country here in Europe where people were happy about the weather. What I like here is the generally milde climate. Generally because we just had a few very cold and long winters. – You can see the sky almost every day. While I lived in Zurich I remember that in the winter I barely saw the sky for months. We had to go up in the mountains to find some sun in the weekends, but in the valleys etc. it was quite sombre.

9) They love children. I’ve experienced having a child in Italy and thought that there can’t be another country where children are as much loved as there, but I was wrong. Here in the Netherlands I found the same kindness towards children that I was used to in Italy. I always got help to lift the stroller in a bus or tram (where is always space to leave a stroller) and children are welcome in all the restaurants and public places.

10) Dutch people are very friendly. I rarely encountered people with a grumpy face on the street and usually, when I smile at people, they smile back. I tried to do the same at people in other countries and was frustrated because nobody did even notice my smile… I know that some people complain about the Dutch rudeness, but I would rather call it straightforwardness. To someone like me (who doesn’t like to pussyfood around), this directness seems actually refreshing.

11) I’m happy to see so many old and/or disabled people in the street! They can go really everywhere with their rollators and they do!

Do you live in the Netherlands and would like to add some positive things you like in this country? Please feel free to add them by leaving a reply!

Dankjewel!

Related articles

• What I like about living in the Netherlands (part 1) (expatsincebirth.com)
• Madurodam: a place where houses are tiny (tinierthings.wordpress.com)
• Hundreds of bicyclists pour through Dutch museum (sacbee.com)
• 10 myths about the Netherlands – debunked (netherlandsbynumbers.com)

This post has been republished on Expatica.nl on November the 26th 2013

There are several sites where to find tips about outings of every kind: the Haagsuitburo or Binnenstad Den Haag, Den Haag dagjes-uit, Uit met korting and the Underground help you to find plenty of “uitstapjes” (outings).

If you’re interested in culture, you can visit musea in Rijswijk (Museum Rijswijk), or Delft (with the Botanical Garden, Gereedschapsmuseum Mensert, Het Prinsenhof, Medisch Farmaceutisch Museum De Griffoen, Museum Lambert van Meerten, Museum Nusantara, Museum Paul Tetar val Elven, Royal Delft, Science Centre, Tabaks Historisch Museum Delft, Vermeer Centrum).

In The Hague, the Mauritshuis (closed at the moment for renovation, but will open again in mid 2014), the Gemeentemuseum, and the Museon (where you can visit the permanent exhibition Your world, My World and discover how life came into being on Earth, what your ancestors might have looked like; but also changing interactive exhibitions) are usually on top of the lists. The Book-Museum with a private collection Meermanno (Huis van het Boek) and the Kinderboekenmuseum, are for those who like books. In the Letterkundig Museum you can dive into the Literary world of 1000 years of literature. The museum of Photography (Fotomuseum), the M.C. Escher Museum (Escher in het Paleis), the museum Beelden an Zee with Man – the human image – as leitmotiv of the collection that holds nearly one thousand sculptures and several hundreds of medals are also advisable. In the Haag Historisch Museum you can learn something about the story of The Hague about its government and inhabitants. The Gevangenenpoort “tells the thrilling tale of crime and punishment in days gone by. Since 1882, the mediaeval prison has operated as a museum. It lies on the Hofvijver, close to the Binnenhof in The Hague.”

For those who like cars, there is the Louwmans Museum, the world’s oldest private collection of motor cars, compiled by two generations of the Louwman family.

In Leiden you can visit the Botanical Garden, the museum of Natural History, Naturalis, the National Museum of Ethnology (Museum Volkenkunde) is the world’s oldest ethnographical museum, or the The Dutch National Museum of Antiquities (Rijksmuseum van Oudheden), the national centre of archaeology where you can appreciate the cultures of ancient Egypt, the Near East, the classical world and the early Netherlands.

A Museumkaart (www.museumkaart.nl) enables you to have free or reduced access to about 400musea in the Netherlands and even in some places in Germany.

All these musea are great to visit with kids too (only the Gevangenenpoort is more suited for children of 8 years upwards). You can find precious informations about what to do with kids here: http://www.tips4kidsgids.nl/ and here: http://www.jmouders.nl/kidsgids.htm.

There is much more to add to this short list. Please feel free to suggest more!

Related articles

• Den Haag & Delft – Day Eight – Amsterdam, Netherlands (travelpod.com)
• The Farnsworth Art Museum and The Strand Theatre Kick Off Rockland Shorts 2013 (prweb.com)