When we found out our kids had off the entire week of Thanksgiving, we decided to embark on the adventure of a lifetime. As an airline family, we have the perk of getting to travel on standby at little to no cost. On top of having a hotel credit card, our ultimate goal in life is to be able to travel the world with our family at minimal cost. We took advantage of both and played standby roulette for our daughter’s first European trip.

Our ultimate goal was to take the girls to London and Paris for the week but as the time got closer, the London flights started to fill and we knew we had to adjust. The best part about this trip was our flexibility. We knew we wanted to travel but weren’t locked into a location. A true adventure. So we started researching other flights that had more open seats. Amsterdam was the first flight out of Newark, NJ for the evening so that was our first goal. There were also more open seats to Portugal and Dublin as the evening went on. Our decision was to try to get on the first available flight and if we didn’t make the cut, then try for the next one.

Amsterdam was a winner! We boarded the plane, buckled in and got to work.

My youngest daughter and I were sat together towards the back. My oldest daughter and my husband were probably ten rows up. Once we reached altitude and it seemed like the flight wasn’t going to have any issues, we started booking hotels, trains and tickets for events. It honestly felt badass. We’ve never boarded a flight with nowhere to stay or a true plan in place. For two pretty Type A individuals, this was CRAZY, especially traveling with kids!

We decided once we were on that we were going to stay two nights in Amsterdam and two nights in Paris before trying to head home on Thanksgiving day, which had the most open seats for our return. My husband got on top of booking all the hotels we needed with points. I focused on getting us a train ticket to Paris and finding us one night at an Airbnb that was closer to what we wanted to do. I had already come up with itineraries before we left for two days at all possible locations, so I just had to pull those up and fine tune them now that we knew where we were going!

My two biggest pieces of advice for traveling standby are to only bring backpacks and carry-on. Checking bags on flights that you don’t have a ticket for will just bring an extra level of stress. We each had a backpack and two carry-on suitcases for this 4-5 day European adventure for all four of us. You can do it! My second piece of advice is to make sure you have an idea of where you would stay and what you would do when trying to plan your trip. You can fine tune details on your flight but you don’t want to be starting from scratch!

Two-Day Family Friendly Amsterdam Itinerary

Day 1: Breakfast, Nap & NEMO Science Museum

We landed in Amsterdam around 6:30am very tired but excited! We grabbed an Uber to our hotel and thankfully our room was ready for us. We got some breakfast at the hotel and knew we needed our girls to get a quick power nap to survive the day. It hurts to wake up but we needed to make it to local bed time hours!

We all slept 3-4 hours, grabbed a snack and headed to the NEMO Science Museum, again by Uber. We chose this our first day because it was POURING, cold and the girls just tackled their longest flight. We knew they needed to move their bodies and explore.

NEMO has five floors of interactive exhibitions that range from chain reactions, water power, chemistry experiments and even the human body (which was what my youngest was MOST interested in – ha!). They especially loved the bubble section which was right by the cafe (win-win for Mom and Dad). The tickets are based on entry times which allows the museum to not get so crowded, but they recommend coming after 2pm, which is around when we entered and we easily played until closing!

We found a small pizza cafe in the Nieumarkt Square for dinner, walked across the street for some gelato to finish our first full day in Amsterdam with hopes of less rain and more walking for day two!

Day 2: Pancakes, Canal Cruise and Vondelpark

The weather finally broke and while it was still cold, there was no more rain and it was our final day to explore! First we hit Pancakes, a popular pancake house that has several locations throughout the city! They have a variety of Dutch pancakes, American pancakes, and some speciality pancakes.

My husband and I shared one sweet and one savory Dutch pancake so we could get a bit of both. Yes, the Stroopwaffle pancake is as good as it looks!

I knew with the girls we had to keep it simple and to what they knew so we went with American pancakes for them. My only mistake was saying yes to bananas, thinking they’d be on top or on the side, but they were baked in, so they didn’t love that, but we powered through!

After we fueled up, we decided to walk along the canal to explore. The city was beautifully decorated for Christmas, lights strung down the streets and trees in every square.

Our next goal was to find a canal cruise to warm up and the most recommended one we found was Blue Boat. Blue Boat provided a 1-hour cruise that was covered and heated. Both girls received kits with little paper binoculars for seeing sights, coloring supplies and their own kid-friendly headsets. My husband and I each got our own informational headset as well.

This was my favorite experience of our trip! We got to see so many sights, learning the history of the buildings, the canals and how the city operates that I never would have known otherwise!

After the cruise we found a stand that was selling waffles for a snack before we finished the day exploring in Vondelpark.

We had an early train to Paris the next morning for our next adventure so this concluded our time here in Amsterdam. We wished the weather had been better but we know that we want to return in the spring or summer to explore all the things we missed!

What We’re Coming Back For

48 hours is hard to squeeze it all in, but we truly loved our time in Amsterdam and can’t wait to come back and explore more of what we missed! If you’re planning a longer trip to Amsterdam, make sure these make your list!

• Anne Frank House: I’ve heard this is a MUST-SEE! It is recommended for children 10 and up due to the sensitive nature of the visit. There are also a lot of stairs so be mindful of that when planning!
• Van Gogh Museum
• Rijksmuseum & Family Trail: Had the weather been better, we would most likely have tried to fit this in!
• Day Trip to see Tulips: While there aren’t specific tulip gardens within the city of Amsterdam, you can still see them bloomed throughout the city in the spring! I would take a day-trip to Lisse and Keukenhof to rent a bike or get tickets to explore one of their many gardens!

I still have pinch-me moments over this trip, especially when one of the girls casually mentions Amsterdam or Paris, like that isn’t the most ridiculous way of explaining a Thanksgiving break. And we can’t wait to do it again!

Thanks for stopping in! Let’s stay connected and see the world together!