From Harry Potter to Tiptoeing Through Tulips: A Unique Kind of Eurostar Family Vacation

This ten-day trip to London and the Netherlands is a perfect spring break / holiday break-sized trip for parents looking for an adventure with their kids. Our kids are aged eight and four, though this trip easily could work for kids up into the early teens.

Broken into three main chunks—we spent four nights in London, four nights in Utrecht, and one night in Amsterdam. Our key goals for the trip were to do things that were both kid-friendly and adult-friendly, have excellent food be central to our daily life while not feeling awkward with young kids (avoided Michelin stars in favor of Bib Gourmand), and to ensure our kids got some of the key highlights while not shying away from doing things a bit off the beaten path and adding a bit of spice to the trip.

London

Starting in London: I highly recommend the Marble Arch area in London for its value and location. Right off Hyde Park, you get a central location easily accessible by Tube to anywhere you want to go while being walkable to the food and shopping on Oxford Street / Marylebone, and an easy pop into Hyde Park if your kids just need to run free for 30 minutes.

We stayed at one of “The Apartments” at the Thistle Park Lane hotel. This is a perfectly sized room for a family of four with two small kids—it offered a king and a pullout couch. One warning: this is part of a three hotel chain right at Marble Arch (the other two being the Cumberland and The Marble Arch). While the room fit well, was quiet and spacious, and was a nice basic option, many service elements are staffed out of the other two hotels. Thus, service at the hotel was a bit slow—even for European basic mid-tier.

London food & drink

London provides so much for family-friendly ideas for travel. We did not hold back. Especially on the food. Most people don’t think of Afternoon Tea as a kids activity, but the Mad Hatter’s Afternoon Tea at the Sanderson Hotel was a perfect way to do it with kids. Right from the beginning—with a flourish of bubbling drinks and a “Drink Me” sweet starter—this environment welcomed kids and grabbed their attention. Another spot that proved popular with the kids was a stop at Harrod’s food court. Doubling as an excuse to tour this gorgeous shopping mecca, the food court offered a cornucopia of options that drew in the kids. The Egyptian escalator didn’t hurt as well.

Food in London does not require kid oriented gimmicks to be kid friendly though. ROVI, chef Yotam Ottolenghi's live-fire cooking-focused restaurant, was the restaurant highlight of the trip. Michelin star quality service and food in a setting and staff completely supportive of kids.

Honey & Co (an Ottolenghi alum-inspired mini-chain) is both a sit-down and to-go Middle Eastern style deli/bakery. We boldly walked in (you can always take to go), but ended up grabbing a table in prime time. This more casual stop is also Michelin Guide recommended and does not disappoint.

London activities

We mixed in some of the big hits with some less expected finds. Big Ben and the Tower of London (with their crown jewels) were unsurprisingly big hits with the kids. Taking the included Yeoman Warder’s tour at the Tower is highly recommended—both for kid entertainment and for a unique perspective into the history. We visited the British Museum (or Mummy Museum to our kids), the one museum stop in London. We spent about 1.5 hours—about the max for our kids, but still worth it for the adults.

A less-suspecting find of the trip was a visit and tour of Parliament. We happened into this at the recommendation of friends and kids and found it to be surprisingly engaging. Visually stunning, an audio guide with accessible history, Parliament allows the kids to wow at being in the building that houses Big Ben while the parents wow at the immense history of the place.

Hint: Uber Boat by Thames Clippers is not a gimmick and is a great alternative to moving from one part of London to another. We rode it from Big Ben to the Tower and the kids loved it.

The self-guided audio tour of Parliament was a surprise hit with the kids.

Harry Potter Studios

The big highlight of London for the kids (and perhaps the adults as well) was the day trip to Harry Potter Studios, booked months in advance (you have to). This lived up to our expectations. Set about an hour outside London in Watford, you can either book a bus from Central London to the Studios (through Studio affiliated bus tour companies) or take a train from London (typically Euston or Shepards Bush stations) to Watford Junction where you can pick up the “Knight Bus” to the studios. We chose the train and Knight Bus option and highly recommended that route for its flexibility.

Once at Harry Potter Studios, you are immersed in the Harry Potter world. Unlike Universal Studios, these are the real sets and props. You can walk into the world of Harry Potter, see live demonstrations of how the film was made, and completely geek out. A great way to spend a full or half day.

The entrance to Harry Potter Studios definitely makes an impression.

Utrecht—a second city in the Netherlands—is a mini Amsterdam with none of the tourists.

Utrecht

Next we hopped onto the Eurostar and headed to Utrecht (via Rotterdam), our second city base of operations in the Netherlands.

Here we stayed at the Hotel NH Utrecht in their version of a family room: two connected rooms in a 1 King / 2 Queen configuration. In addition to being a perfect fit for our family and amazingly convenient to the central station, we found that NH proved to be exactly what we were looking for. Great value for its quality (in the mid-range tier), both NH hotels we stayed at in the Netherlands were high service, extremely family friendly, convenient, and comfortable.

The Dom Tower in central Utrecht is the tallest church tower in the country

Originally meant to be a transportation hub, we found Utrecht to be the most charming city of our trip. A mini version of Amsterdam—complete with canals, amazing food, and world renowned architecture—we ended up spending way more time in Utrecht than we originally expected. A morning walk through the center city for breakfast and tea (our favorite spot being Casa Ferreira, a Portuguese bakery) preceded each day trip we took and an amazing dinner each evening. Our two favorite spots were The Ruby Rose, a vibey French restaurant with share plates, and O’Panuozzo Napoli, a top 50 European pizza spot.

That said, we did use Utrecht as a transportation for our two main day trips: one to Gouda and one to Keukenhof and its tulips. Gouda is a quaint one-square town with a ton of history. Check out the cheese market on Thursday (for historic reenactment) or Saturday like we did for cheese, fresh veggies, and stroopwaffels. Fun fact: Gouda originated stroopwaffels in addition to being a cheese haven!

Gouda provided the opportunity to climb to the top of a functioning windmill—a hit for older kids.

Keukenhof

Keukenhof, one of the largest botanical gardens in the world, is worth the trip to the Netherlands on its own. This year-round attraction (enabled by several indoor greenhouses) is at its peak between April 1 and May 30, when the tulips and hyacinths are in full bloom. Our trip to the gardens was the first week of April and was one of the most spectacular days I have had as a tourist. Perfect for family visits, you can literally tip-toe through tulips by exploring the sponsored gardens, take a scenic canal tour of the tulip fields, and admire hundreds of unique flower species in the greenhouses. Our kids lasted seven hours at the gardens. The central kids playground did not hurt a bit.

In addition to the gardens, Keukenhof also provided a unique perspective of the surrounding Lisse tulip fields.

Amsterdam

Finally, we capped the trip with a night in Amsterdam, staying at the NH City Centre Amsterdam. Perfectly located on the inner ring canal, next to the Jordaan district, and walkable to just about everything, it is ideal for families. They have three + one rooms that can fit four. Upon arriving, they asked if we would like an upgrade to two connecting rooms (king and king) and we took them up on it! The service did not stop there with free ice cream for the kids before we boarded the train to fly home.

The manicured gardens—including hyacinths—were endless and amazing.

In 24 hours, we were able to see a lot of the city walking and a couple key sites: the Rjiksmuseum (mostly paintings, our kids lasted an hour) and a canal tour (we did the Blue Boat, great way to see the city, though some might prefer a more intimate tour).

We also ate a lot in 24 hours. Our two sit-down dining choices were Auberge, a French Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand spot by a restaurant group with a two-star and one-star that was very charming. Second was The Seafood Bar, also a mini-chain, focused on local fish and seafood dishes and very family-friendly. Two kid favorite stops were Hans Egstorf for stroopwafels (one of the originals) and The Happy Pig Pancake Shop—and it lived up to its name.

Seeing Amsterdam by water is a must.

For London, you can buy Visitor Oyster cards and have them mailed to your house so you have them before you leave. This touch-and-go system saved us so much hassle. Kids under 11 ride free with a paying adult, so you may just need two.

Download the train apps. NS in the Netherlands allows you to buy tickets in an instant and can be used for nearly all city-to-city trains. The UK has more train lines, but also super easy to use. Eurostar app is super helpful to keep your journey organized and remind you about arrival times and key step-by-step instructions leading up to travel. Helps keep your transportation in order regardless of whether you want to plan day of or have everything straightened out ahead of time.

Transportation in Europe is an attraction unto itself in Europe—particularly for the kids. Riding the Tube, a double-decker bus, the Eurostar and tunnel to Europe, canal boats, you name it—it is an experience for the kids. Lean into this and you will be rewarded immensely. Both with some down time to take a breath between destinations, but also with kids grinning ear-to-ear with stories for years to come.

Finally, kids are everywhere in Europe. Both tourists and locals. Don’t be afraid to stretch the boundaries of your kids a bit—whether it is a new form of transportation, a restaurant that you might think is on the edge for your kids, or a site that might be counterintuitive with children. Your kids will surprise you positively if you let them.

For more inspiration and insider recommendations, visit our London and Amsterdam pages.