My partner is traveling to Eindhoven in early February for work. I am trying to decide if I want to join him along with our 6 year old son. My son is well traveled, enjoys museums and sightseeing, and is accustomed to walking around cities and traveling by train (we live in Boston and walk and take the T almost every day). But are we going to have a good time in February? We would be there for 7 or 8 nights, and it looks like we can somewhat easily take the train to Amsterdam (~1.5 hours each way). Are there other towns in the area that would make for good day trips by train? Maybe Utrecht or Maastricht? Would it be crazy to take the train to Paris for a couple of nights?
I know it isn't an ideal time of year, but is it worth making the trip? We won't have to pay for lodging in Eindhoven, only our airfare, train fare, lodging for any overnight trips, and meals, so that is why I'm considering it.
Thanks for your thoughts!
The Netherlands in February?
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You can easily visit Utrecht, Maastricht and Breda from Eindhoven. Even somewhere like Delft is easily reached by train.
Your son may enjoy the Efteling, www.efteling.co.uk/?l=14645, or Beekse Bergen, both not too far from Eindhoven.
The weather could be cold and crisp, or warmish and wet, or anything in between. I'm afraid it isn't possible to say what it will be yet.
Carnaval in Eindhoven is 8 to 12 Feb 2013 The latter days are the best.
If you go then just do some fancy dress, anything simple will do.
In Utrecht there is a train museum. Plus there is a organ and street organ museum the noise (when played) is increasable.
Enidhoven has a DAF car museum.
There are several art museums in Enidhoven.
I also think you can have fun that time of year so long as you understand you must dress to be protected against wet weather not just cold weather -- it can rain sideways and be quite windy -- and plan most of your days with the idea that you will be doing indoor things. But there are many to do.
Rather than take the train to Paris for a few nights, I suggest you spend a couple of nights in Amsterdam rather than do it as a day trip. It is a very kid-friendly town. I realize the allure of Paris, but I think the long train trip for such a brief stay in freezing weather isn't a great use of your time.
Last year, the Netherlands had a record cold spell which lasted two weeks at the beginning of February with temperatures plummeting to -19C. That's -2.2F. December however was around 11C.
This year, the first two weeks of December were as low as -9C. No telling what February will be like yet, but generally speaking, it's usually the coldest month of the year.
I would stick to Amsterdam though if you do come. It's a beautiful city and because it's laid out in a horseshoe shape, it's easy to get from one place to another.
It also has a good transport system and a trip on the canals by longboat is a must. This link will take you to Google Street View of the Herengracht with one of the boats plying its route: http://goo.gl/maps/95Cqn You can move around the city with the same map. Just click the ground where you see a circle and then use the arrow keys to move in any direction.
There's also a good Wikitravel guide for the city here: http://wikitravel.org/en/Amsterdam
This is the Dutch weather forecast site which might be useful to you. http://knmi.nl/index_en.html
And this is the EU severe weather warning site: http://meteoalarm.eu/