Hey. This is AmsterDads. The newsletter for spontaneous international Dads in Amsterdam.
It’s for Dads who want to keep having adventures. With their kids. Plus: tips for escaping them sometimes!
In this week’s email:
With Kids:
🎟 Weekend Events: Amsterdam Light Festival kicks-off
⛳️ Activities: Mobility Experience & more
🚗 Day Trips: Christmas Markets... are they worth it?
Without Kids:
👩❤️👨 Date Night Tips: Amsterdam-inspired cocktails
⚽️ Man Time: The World Cup continues!
And…
🤔 (New section?) Eat Out: Where to eat out with kids in Amsterdam? Help!
🎟 Weekend Events
It’s hard to keep up with kid-friendly happenings in Amsterdam.
💁🏻♂️ Don’t worry - I spend the week scouring, so you don't have to…
🤩 Amsterdam Light Festival (by Boat). The Amsterdam Light Festival is an annual event featuring light sculptures placed in and alongside the canals. The lights are on daily from 5:00pm from this weekend, until late Jan. The sun sets around 4:30pm these days(!), so it's both dark enough to see the light art, and early enough to take the kids. 👍
⛵️ The best way to see it is by (heated) boat! The festival recommends some cruises, but for a more local and intimate experience I'd instead check out Airbnb Experiences, as a lot of them are offering Light Festival cruises right now (watch the video of one).
😋 Winter Wonder (food) Walk. Get outdoors with the whole family for a (chilly) foodwalk. The Winter Wonder Walk is on for the next three Saturdays in the Museum district.
⚓️ Ahoi! A fun theatre show for children aged 2 to 6. At Ahoi, they build a ship, hoist the sails, and make a journey to an unknown destination, discovering funny sea creatures along the way. After the performance, kids can play with paper boats, the ship and the fish.
⛳️ Activities
Tired of the same old playground? Here’s some other fun things to do with your kids:
🏎 Mobility Experience. An interactive and challenging exhibition for kids. At the Mobility Experience you can race in a life-size F1 simulator on the Zandvoort track, jump on an energy floor, tour Amsterdam in a self-driving car, and watch a drone deliver medicine. Plus quizzes, games, running and more.
🥤 Museum with a message. Plastic Crush is about our relationship with plastic. The exhibition at Tropenmuseum shows the different ways people around the world live with plastic.
🤸♂️ Vrog. This place looks like it was designed for my 7-year old son! With a vast freerunning zone, trampolines, a dance studio, demos and events. Plus a mezzazine café with great views for parents.
🚗 Day Trips
🎄 Christmas Markets… worth it? I read this Dutch News article about the ‘21 best Christmas markets in and near the Netherlands’. I dug further into each of these and others, and came to these conclusions:
The Dutch ones are all a bit… meh. 🤷♂️
If you want to experience real Christmas Market magic, you need to go to Germany. 🇩🇪
To me, the pick seems to be the world-renowned Cologne Christmas Markets. This requires a weekend trip, rather than day trip. We’re going to check it out next weekend, so I can report back!
🏨 Looking for a hotel this holiday season? Check out Vio, which compares prices across many different booking sites to find the best price, and get Plus member deals with this link.
🚘 Want to drive, but don’t own a car? I use MyWheels: convenient and affordable car sharing. If you book your first trip with my link, you’ll get €25 off.
👩❤️👨 Date Night Tips
🍷 Drinks. Rosalia’s Menagerie is a cocktail bar inspired by Dutch heritage. It’s a cozy little bar on one of Amsterdam’s oldest canals, with drinks inspired by the city.
🧀 Dinner. Overlooking the water in Amsterdam Houthavens, Bak is located on the third floor of a former warehouse. With high-quality local and sustainable products, the menu changes daily in line with the season.
👀 No one to watch your kids? We use Sitly to find good babysitters.
⚽️ Man Time
The World Cup is heating up, with some huge Round of 16 clashes this weekend.
🇳🇱 Netherlands v USA 🇺🇸 Sat 3, 4pm. Almost every bar in Amsterdam will be showing this game, so take your pick. Looking for some epic oranje action? Check out the Huis van Oranje at Amsterdam Arena!
🇦🇷 Argentina v Australia 🇦🇺 Sat 3, 8pm. Huge for my native Aussies to reach the knock-out stage! This will either be the biggest upset in World Cup History if the Aussies win, or Messi will destroy us. Either way it’ll be worth watching! Seeing as we can’t be in Melbourne (check video below from after the last match at 4am there), Coco’s is the place to go.
🤔 Best Kid-Friendly Restaurants in Amsterdam? Help!
This is a real bug bear of mine. Where (the hell) can you go out for lunch or dinner with (active) kids in Amsterdam!? In Australia we have a lot of big family restaurants and pubs with indoor and fenced-off outdoor play areas.
In Amsterdam I know couple of places near outdoor playgrounds that are decent in Summer. But when life moves indoors, most restaurants here are too small, too packed and/or really don’t appreciate kids being there.
So I need your help: what are your go-to kid-friendly restaurants in Amsterdam? Reply to this email, or comment below with your suggestions!
If I get enough responses, I’d like to start a new section in the newsletter each week featuring them.
That’s it for this weekend. Have a good one!
Cheers,
Dan