As part of our four-day trip to the Netherlands, we spent two days in Amsterdam (read that post here) followed by two days in Den Haag / The Hague with kids.
The difference in the two Dutch cities is immediately noticeable. Amsterdam is just a lot – a lot of noise, people, cars, bikes, things happening in all directions. Which is exciting but also exhausting. The Hague is so much calmer. It feels comfortable. Somewhere you would live instead of vacation.
That said, it’s also probably not somewhere I’d plan a week-long holiday. But you can fill a couple days nicely, so a stop in The Hague with kids works well as part of a larger visit to the Netherlands.
The train ride from Amsterdam Centaal to Den Haag Centraal is under an hour. You can get a NS Railrunner ticket. It was 12.50 EUR per adult, 2.50 EUR for kids 4-11 and free for kids 3 and under. From Den Haag Centraal, we walked to our hotel for the next two days. Similar to our stay in Amsterdam, we had Hilton points to use so stayed at Hilton The Hague. It’s just outside of city center and an easy walk to various sites.
It was also a nice walk from the train station. The Hague may be smaller and calmer than Amsterdam, but it still has plenty of scenic views and all the typical Dutch touches.
Day 1
We spent our first day in The Hague at the beach in Scheveningen. We took the 1 tram from near our hotel to the Kurhaus stop, which lets you off very near to the beach. It’s about a 20-minute ride, so easy enough to navigate. We each bought a 2-hour ticket from the ticket machine on the bus; adults were 4 EUR, kids 4-11 were 1.50 EUR and kids under 3 were free.
Sea Life Scheveningen is also near the tram stop, but the weather was so nice that we didn’t want to spend the day indoors. De Pier is also right there, with its large picturesque ferris wheel over the sea. We opted to walk down the boardwalk that runs along the beach. There are a lot of fun statues on the boardwalk that the kids enjoyed climbing on. We then made our way to the sand and sea for the kids to play. While the day was very warm, it was only the beginning of June, so the water was too cold to swim.
After some time on the beach, we walked back down the boardwalk looking for somewhere to eat lunch. There are cafes on the beach that run along the boardwalk on the beach side, so plenty of places to chose from. I can’t vouch for the quality of the food in any of these cafes. However, many of them have outside play areas in the sand, which I absolutely loved.
We chose a cafe at random. The food was fine, but more importantly, there were toys and games inside and multiple play areas outside for the kids. (Side note: Before we went to Scheveningen, a Dutch friend told me that it wasn’t the best the Netherlands had to offer. However, she is in her 20s and doesn’t have kids, so I think we were looking for different qualities in a good beach!)
We continued walking down the boardwalk toward the port, where there are two small lighthouses located at the port entrance. If you walk out to the red-and-white lighthouse on the northern side of the port, there are great views of the Scheveningen coastline.
In addition to spending time at the Scheveningen beach, we also wanted to visit the old town area. From the port, you can walk up onto a road that goes back along the beach, but at a higher elevation. We eventually turned right off this road through some residential streets, and then popped out into the downtown of Old Scheveningen.
The town is really cute, and we walked down a brick pedestrian-only road lined with shops and restaurants. We stopped at the Italian ice cream parlor San Remo, which has nice outdoor tables to relax at. From here it’s about a .6 miles / 1 km walk back to the Kurhaus tram stop.
Once back in The Hague, we went to KUA Mexican Kitchen for dinner. This may sound like an odd choice in the Netherlands. However, the one cuisine we are desperately missing in Brussels is authentic Mexican. So I always look for Mexican restaurants when we travel, and KUA Mexican Kitchen had great reviews. The inside of the restaurant is cozy, but even nicer is the outside seating in a plaza across the street. We were able to enjoy the warm weather and late sunsets at this time of year, and the food was really tasty (as were the margaritas!).
Day 2
The Hague is of course known as the home of the International Court of Justice, the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. It is located in the Peace Palace, which also houses the Permanent Court of Arbitration. The Peace Palace is an imposing Neo-Renaissance style building and is the most photographed building in The Hague. You can make reservations to visit on the Peace Palace website.
Outside of the ornate gate of the Peace Palace is the World Peace Flame surrounded by the World Peace Pathway. It’s a small area just to the right of the front of the Palace, so make sure you don’t overlook it. According to the stone marker, in July 1999, seven flames from five contents were united to create the World Peace Flame.
196 nations (all countries, as recognized by the UN at the time) joined together in cooperation and solidarity to create the World Peace Pathway. The Pathway opened in 2004 and features unique stones from each of the 196 nations. It’s inspiring to look at the stones from each country and realize our shared endeavor for peace. Our kids also loved inspecting each of those stones, with so many different shapes, colors and sizes. Next to the World Peace Flame, there are also some brightly color mosaic benches that the kids enjoyed lounging on.
We had gone to the Peace Palace early since it was only a 10-minute walk from our hotel. So afterward we went to a cute cafe called Confetti that we had walked by the day before. The decor inside is bright and colorful, and there are great picnic tables outside perfect for family seating. The food was a little pricy, but also so so good. I can highly recommend the pancakes with fresh fruit & lemon curd ricotta topping.
Not far from Confetti is Paleistuin, or Palace Garden. It is located directly behind Noordeinde Palace, the site of the Dutch king’s offices. Paleistuin is a beautiful green space in the middle of the city. There is a large open space that was hosting a yoga class, and next to it a small playground area for the kids to run around. We easily spent an hour here, sitting on bench under the trees, and it was so peaceful.
After the playground, we walked .6 miles / 1 km to Het Binnenhof (Inner Court), located next to a small artificial lake. Het Binnenhof is a medieval building complex that has housed the Dutch parliament since 1446. We walked through the courtyard of Het Binnenhof and simply admired all the buildings, towers and archways.
Het Binnenhof was our last stop in The Hague. From there, we wandered around until we reached Den Haag HS for our train back to Brussels.