Regular readers will no doubt be familiar with our yearly trips to the holiday and amusement park Duinrell in the town of Wassenaar. In 2025, instead of staying at an additional location in the Netherlands as we had done for a number of years, we’d arranged to spend the full two weeks at Duinrell.

So in July 2025, we made our way to Duinrell for what would be our twelfth visit, meeting up with family, as we’d done in recent years. As before, we’d be staying in a Eurocamp holiday home, a Comfort XL and we’d be driving over with our bikes.

In and around Duinrell

We arrived on the Sunday, after taking the Eurotunnel across from the UK, then driving up through France and Belgium. As it was the afternoon by the time we’d arrived and checked in, we emptied out the car and took the bikes off, then made our way into Wassenaar, to catch Jumbo supermarket before it closed.

After a long drive getting to Duinrell that day, I took the opportunity after doing the shopping to stretch my legs for the first proper ride of our trip. Where did I go for the first ride? Across the dunes, to the beach at Wassenaarse Slag of course!

While we’d end up returning to the beach multiple times, we weren’t quite as lucky as we’d been on our recent trips to the Netherlands, when it comes to the weather. We did have a fair amount of nice weather, but it was definitely cooler than previous trips and there were a few downpours during the two weeks.

At Duinrell, we’d make the most of the access to the amusement park. The kids especially, though even I’d venture on a few rides, which is unusual for me! We’d also visit the fantastic and increasingly expensive Tiki Bad swimming pool, going on many of the brilliant water slides they have.

Having been to Center Parcs with the family a couple of times since our last trip to the Netherlands, it’s interesting to compare the Tiki Bad to Center Parcs’ Subtropical Swimming Paradise there.

While the Tiki Bad certainly has the edge in terms of facilities and the sheer number of slides, it has become increasingly expensive since the pandemic. It also used to be the case that you could buy a reasonably priced day ticket for the indoor pool, giving you full access to the whole day.

With completely free access to Center Parcs’ Subtropical Swimming Paradise, you can come and go as you please, which massively changes how you use the pool. This means you can nip in for a quick go on the slides, or maybe hang round for a while and grab some lunch in there, without worrying your time is running out.

As you can freely wander into the amusement park at Duinrell, and with the kids being older, they’re able to come and go as often as they like, unsupervised. Plus, as it’s peak season, some of the rides can be used in the evening on a couple of nights each week (usually Tuesday and Friday between 7-9pm), which is great.

In Wassenaar

We didn’t just go to Wassenaar for supermarket shopping during our stay. The town where Duinrell is located is a very pleasant place to wander, with a small selection of shops, as well some pleasant cafés and restaurants.

During our 2025 trip, there was lots of construction happening to improve the public realm in Wassenaar. While the existing public realm was perfectly good and probably better than most UK towns, I guess you could say it was starting to look a little dated.

Work on Luifelbaan, where Jumbo is has already been completed. In addition to new paving, a new sloping kerb has been added to the side where the cycle parking is, I’m guessing to stop cars encroaching on this.

Unfortunately, the same amount of car parking exists on the opposite side, which is a bit of a wasted opportunity. The look and feel of the street could have easily been improved with reducing the number of parking bays and introducing some greenery.

Disappointingly, the changes to the cycle parking are definitely for the worse. Previously, there were perfectly decent Sheffield stands, which were actually reasonably new (installed less than ten years ago) and had horizontal tapping bars.

The replacements don’t have the horizontal bars and are a funny shape, making them more difficult to lock to. Though the biggest issue is they’ve been installed way too close to each other, significantly reducing the number of bikes that can be parked.

The previous stands were well spaced and included sections with large spaces for cargo bikes. Altogether, it was a much better setup.

While the majority of Langstraat, the main shopping street has been already been resurfaced, work is still being carried out on the small square, where Kerkstraat and Van Hogendorpstraat meet the street.

It’s good to see large planters with informal seating around them is being installed, which will introduce some much needed greenery to the square, to soften the public realm and brighten things up.

Work is also being carried out near where IJssalon Luciano is based, on Van Hogendorpstraat and in the small square next to the ice cream shop. The mature trees in this location already make it feel quite green, but adding similar planters will definitely benefit.

Van Hogendorpstraat is quite narrow, with lots of parking and more traffic than it should have, based on what we’ve seen. It’ll be interesting to see if the improvements do anything to deal with this or not.

Food and drink

While at Duinrell, we returned to a few places in and around Wassenaar, which we’ve been to before. Some of these I covered in this post from our 2024 trip to Duinrell, so I won’t repeat myself here.

This included Beachclub BAIT at the beach at Wassenaar Slag and Restaurant De Zonnehof just outside Duinrell’s entrance. We ended up at both of these multiple times, including pancakes at Restaurant De Zonnehof.

We had tried and failed to get into Pannenkoekenhuis ’s-Gravesande for pancakes, I think because we were too late, but it can be difficult getting in there without booking. We also returned to IJssalon Luciano for ice cream multiple times, which we always do!

Lien’s Kitchen

While having a wander in Wassenaar one day with my partner, we stopped for lunch Lien’s Kitchen, which is in a small square on Kerkstraat, just off Langstraat, the main shopping street.

The menu at Lien’s is quite typically Dutch, including standards such as bitterballen, but also includes items and ingredients from further afield. We chose very Dutch meals, with my partner going for the soup and salad and myself going for Lien’s Lunch Break.

Lunch at Lien’s was really good, especially sitting outside in the sunshine, in the pleasant square on Kerkstraat.

Pops American Lunch & Diner

While in Wassenaar, we also stopped for coffee and a bonus doughnut at Pops American Lunch & Diner on Langstraat. We’ve stopped here before for drinks, but have never eaten here.

Again, it was a great spot to sit outside in the sunshine on a lovely pedestrianised street. The area around Langstraat is fantastic for this, it’s just so quiet and relaxed, with no traffic causing an annoyance.

Out and about

As you may expect, given the number of times we’ve stayed at Duinrell, we’d end up to many of the places we’ve been to before. In addition to the multiple trips to the beach at Wassenaarse Slag, we’d end up riding to Delft, as well as making repeated visits to Katwijk, Leiden and Den Haag.

As a group, we all cycled to Delft, parking at the fantastic underground cycle parking at the station. After enjoying lunch in Markt, we made our way up the many steps on the narrow staircase to the top of Nieuwe Kerk, with its amazing views of the city.

In Leiden, we’d tour the markets and quaint streets, climb up to Burcht van Leiden and enjoy some very tasty meals, as well as try out the fantastic underground cycle parking at Waagstalling.

In Den Haag, I’d take the family up to the top of Uitzichtpunt Binnenhof for the great views of Den Haag, visit the fantastic Kunstmuseum, wander round the city and enjoy more fantastic meals, which included some amazing milkshakes and waffles.

We returned to Rotterdam, where I cycled the 35 km each way on fantastic cycling infrastructure. We then ate at the Markthal, then toured the cube houses and the harbour, while I had a very interesting chat with a Dutch member of staff at the Maritime Museum, comparing Dutch and British cycling infrastructure!

We also went back to Amsterdam, making use of the excellent park and ride facilities and Metro from the Johan Cruijff ArenA. This was the day after the rest of group spent way too long getting to Rotterdam and back on seriously disrupted trains. So no one was in the mood for getting the train there.

The day in Amsterdam included a visit to the Tony’s Chocolonely Superstore, lunch in the Jordaan, then a meander through the city to Museumplein, before checking out the amazing work they’ve done to improve the streets around De Pijp.

More closer to Duinrell, we’d end up in Wassenaar multiple times, for trips to the supermarket, out for lunch and browsing round the shops, plus the obligatory pancakes and ice creams at Luciano Ijssalon.

I’ll be back with more posts in the Netherlands 25 series, covering some familiar places and hopefully bringing a few new experiences, so I’m not just completely repeating myself! Come back soon!