annakarina

My husband and I will be traveling with our 8 year old son in late April to Amsterdam and Paris for 14 days. We are flying in to Amsterdam and flying out of Paris .We've been to Paris before but couldn't get enough of it...We intend to stay there for 6 days. What are the places to see in between the two cities and how many days do you suggest spending in them keeping in mind that we have a child with us. We plan to take the Thalys to get to Paris.

Also, has anyone stayed at the Mama Shelter before in Paris? We stayed previously at the Hotel Pergolese and it was wonderful. We just heard good things about the Mama Shelter..

Thanks for your suggestions.

NinaSearching

The Thalys itself will run Amsterdam --> Rotterdam --> Brussels --> Paris. Since it requires reservations, I'm not sure that you can hop-on/hop-off (versus just getting on and going straight the whole way there).

It might work better (and cost less) to take the local trains through the Netherlands. See here for various NL train ticket/pass types (your son can get a "Railrunner" ticket for only 2.50 euro: http://www.ns.nl/cs/Satellite/travel...ket-pass-types

I'm thinking maybe:
Local trains from Amsterdam --> Den Haag --> Rotterdam
Thalys from Rotterdam --> Paris

Don't have much experience with 8-year-old boys, but here's a few things I thought might keep his interest:

In & around Den Haag (The Hague)
List of activities for kids: http://www.denhaag.nl/en/residents/l...ities/kids.htm
Madurodam: http://www.madurodam.nl/ - some people love this and others hate it
Scheveningen: "beach resort" reached by tram from Den Haag
Children's Book Museum (can't remember the name - maybe just Kinderboek?)

In & around Rotterdam
Kinderdijk - tour the inside of a windmill (http://www.kinderdijk.com/)
Maritime Museum - http://www.maritiemmuseum.nl/website....cfm?itm_id=96
Pannenkoekenboot - eat unlimited pancakes on the boat. okay, that sounds awful but it's fun! (http://www.pannenkoekenboot.nl/locaties/rotterdam.html)
Euromast - up to the tippy top to look around (he can compare the view there to the Eiffel Tower!) (http://www.euromast.nl/en/)
Cube Houses - you'll be there only 20-30 minutes, but admission fee is tiny and it looks cool, and it's near (walking distance) to Maritime Museum. You can actually stay in one (StayOkay Hostel Cube House or something like that) - http://www.kubuswoning.nl/introkubuseng.html
Railz Miniworld - indoor model railway (http://www.railzminiworld.com/ENGindex.htm)

spaarne

Yes, definitely Madurodam in the Hague. Also, the Scheveningen boardwalk starts pretty much in the middle of the Hague. My 10 yo daughter thoroughly enjoyed Duinrell, a water amusement park in Wassenaar. It has super water slides and great rides. You can reach it by city bus from the Hague.

In Amsterdam visit the science museum NEMO. It is full of kids having fun and learning.

For day trips from Amsterdam the Zaanse Schans is great. A visit to Haarlem is a nice break from the hustle of Amsterdam.

hetismij

How late in April will you be in Amsterdam. if you are there for April 30th - Queens Day I would seriously consider going somewhere smaller for the day. Amsterdam is packed that day, and whilst it can be fun for adults it can be very scary for kids with so many people around.

Muiderslot, not far from Amsterdam is also worth a visit if you have time. you could combine that with visiting Naarden vesting, and old fortified town. http://www.muiderslot.nl/english http://www.vestingmuseum.nl/english
There is a wonderful zoo in Rotterdam - Blijdorp, which has a baby polar bear right now, which you may enjoy. Amsterdam also has a good zoo - Artis. They may even have a baby elephant by the time you visit.
http://www.rotterdamzoo.nl/?lang=EN www.artis.nl (in Dutch only I think)

You and your son may enjoy visiting Keukenhof for a morning and then head for the coast maybe in the afternoon if the weather is good.

Alternatively Antwerp, in Belgium also has a great zoo, and is an interesting city for you too. www.zooantwerpen.be

Brugge is the "normal" stop off between Amsterdam and Paris, but whether it offers anything of interest to your son is debatable.

annakarina

Thanks you, all, for all the wonderful suggestions..

NinaSearching, is there a map for the NL trains?

Spaarne, where can I find the city bus map?

Hetismij, is Antwerp a day tip from Amsterdam? We are interested in going there and also to Bruge. We can take the Thalys from Brugge to Paris, right?

spaarne

<i>Spaarne, where can I find the city bus map?</i>

On the internet I don't know. You can get one at either of the Hague train stations, probably free. As I recall each has a bus depot adjacent. The Falk Plan city maps show all bus and tram lines. In the city it is probably more convenient to use the trams. One stops right outside Madurodam. Another, maybe the same one, takes you to Scheveningen.

This TripAdviser post http://tinyurl.com/4p4kave gives bus 90 and 63 for going to Duinrell. It also has a great photo of the water slides. I'm a geezer but I loved those tubes. You could also take bus 90 from Haarlem and cross through the Dutch countryside and a few villages. Your timing is perfect to see the tulip fields in bloom. See my photolog of a bike trip from Haarlem to Keukenhof which just happened to follow the route of bus 90, http://tinyurl.com/y8hltjl.

I disagree with hetismij. I would bend my schedule to attend Queen's Day in Amsterdam. It is probably the greatest one-day city-wide party on the planet. Here is another of my photologs, http://tinyurl.com/yln3hrp. True, there aren't any 8 yo kids chugging beer, but there is the little enterprising artist. I bought her bug picture.

Ruby99

This is probably the next trip I'm going to take... I LOVE Paris but won't be able to convince my travel partner (my sister) to spend the whole vacation there. Last year we did Belgium (Brussels, Ghent and Bruges) and wouldn't mind going back.

Good luck figuring out logistics with trains and all that... We traveled by train quite a bit last time and it wasn't stressful, just bought tickets at the stations.

Have fun!

NinaSearching

Huge apology for the belated reply. Here's 2 links to zoom-able maps of the NL train stations/routes:

http://www.trein-kaart.nl/
http://www.ns.nl/cgi-bin/spoorkaart/spoorkaart


Re: Antwerp
Thalys lists travel time Amsterdam Centraal to Antwerp Centraal as 1 hour 12 minutes. Schedule here:
http://www.thalys.com/fr/en/timetabl...ate=25/04/2011

Re: Brugge:
Yes, you can take the Thalys from Bruge to Paris, but according to this timetable the train doesn't run very often:
http://www.thalys.com/fr/en/timetabl...ate=25/04/2011
If that doesn't fit your schedule you would probably need to take the train a local train from Bruge to Brussels Midi-Zuid and transfer.

There does not appear to be Thalys service between Antwerp & Bruge, but it sounds like you would be going back to Amsterdam after Bruge anyway.