This week’s hidden gem is an Archaeology Museum displaying historical finds of a lovely country in northwestern Europe.
Bébé Voyage’s hidden gem series is designed to show you local hidden gems around the globe from our members and family travel bloggers.
This little museum with kid-friendly activities was discovered by club member Lisa. Lisa blogs about her family travels at FlipFlopGlobetrotters. She has been traveling with her little one since March of 2015 and we are so excited for her to share this unique find.
Any guesses where we are headed??
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Location: Grote Markt 18k, 2011 RD Haarlem, Netherlands
Discovered by: Lisa decided to check it out after reading about it on various parenting blogs from local bloggers.
Why We Love It: It is in fact a true hidden gem. If you speak English, you likely wouldn’t be able to find this through a google search and if you saw it, its in an old building so you wouldn’t think it was kid-friendly. It’s not a large museum, but it displays a lot of the archeological finds from Haarlem. It was amazing for Lisa and her family to discover their hometown has such a long and interesting history.
Why It’s Kid-Friendly: For such a small museum, they offer plenty of activities to keep kids occupied. It’s a fun place where kids can play archeologist in the sandbox, piece together a puzzle of pottery shards and find out about people’s eating habits at the determination table. The displays are all pretty low, so kids can see what’s inside. Her 4-year old loves it! You can see him running around the museum having fun here.
Tips & Important Details: It’s definitely not stroller friendly. You have to go down a set of narrow stairs. Quite appropriately, this museum is underground. Be sure to check the opening hours, as it’s only open in the afternoons. The museum is located at Haarlem’s central square, so there are lots of other shops and cafe’s nearby to visit too.
When coming by train, just go to Haarlem’s main train station and walk to the city center (5 minutes). By bus, you can either disembark at Verwulft or the train station and walk to the square. Parking in Haarlem is expensive, but if you do decide to come by car the nearest parking garage is De Appelaar. If that’s full, you can also try De Kamp.
Cost: Entrance is FREE!
Kids are always hungry! Know anywhere to eat nearby?: Yes, there are lots of places! Popular kid-friendly cafes with play areas are Pippa’s (opposite the train station) and Meneer Paprika (Koningsstraat).
About Lisa: She is mum to a four year old son and calls Haarlem, The Netherlands home. Her dream travel destination as a family? They traveled for 10 months around southeast Asia with their toddler and would love to go again! She writes about their travels on her blog, Flip Flop Globetrotters. You can check out their Facebook page and Instagram feed.
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We are continually adding to our list of Hidden Gems, so, if you have a favorite secret spot that we need to know about, please fill out our form and it will be written about for the Bébé Voyage community.
And be sure to let us know how your trip goes if you’re able to make it to this secret location! We love to see where our members go and hear about new and exciting places to travel with bébé. Use the hashtag #bebevoyage on any social media to share your trips or tips with us too. Happy travels!
