What to do in the fall vacations

Publish date 3 October 2025
Read time 6 minutes
Written by Ester
Ester
Herfstvakantie

Fall break is upon us again! Region South starts on Oct. 11 and the Central and North regions follow on Oct. 18. Not on vacation? No worries! We’ve gathered the very best tips for a fun fall break from home.

When the weather is nice

Fun playgrounds

Despite lower temperatures and occasional showers, hiking remains delightful. Children soon entertain themselves with a stick or searching for nature’s treasures. End your hike with apple pie and hot chocolate – it doesn’t get any more autumnal! Some fun nature playgrounds to enjoy playing in the fall are:

Speeltuin in de herfstvakantie

Experience nature with OERRR Wild Outdoor Days

Does your child love mud, is a real Freek Vonk fan and prefers to be outside all day? Then the OERRR Wild Outdoor Days of Natuurmonumenten are perfect! Go mushroom hunting, join a scavenger hunt with forester Ruben or go boating. A visit to the beach is always good too: put on your boots, bring a bag for shells and play tag with the waves! Nature playgrounds are also great – the kids have fun and you can relax on a bench.

Art and creativity for children with The Enchantment

During the autumn vacations, The Hague turns into a magical playground for children with the international art festival De Betovering. From Oct. 17 to 25, children aged 4 to 12 can immerse themselves in theater, dance, music, visual art and film. There are workshops, interactive performances and pop-up festivals throughout the city. In this way, children playfully discover their creative side, learn to cooperate and experience a day full of fun and wonder.

Discover your city in a new way

Walk the City is a super handy walking app that guides you from A to B without a map with colorful photos. Perfect for an autumn exploration! Do you have older kids who can take a beating? Then try a dark walk from The Little Walk of Horrors. These 100% offline walks reveal the dark history of several Dutch cities.

The Little Walk of Horrors Delft

Adventure on the streets with Geocaching

Create a free account, download the app and go on a treasure hunt! Geocaching takes you to the most beautiful places in your area as you solve puzzles and search for treasures. It’s basically a global treasure hunt where GPS coordinates lead you to hidden “caches” – small boxes with logbooks and sometimes even small gifts!

You get to places you would never otherwise go and discover stories about your own neighborhood you didn’t know before.

Castles and knights

Does your child fantasize about knights, princesses and medieval adventures? The Netherlands has beautiful castles where history comes to life! From exciting treasure hunts to real knight tournaments. The following castles organize fun activities every year during the autumn vacations:

Kasteel De Haar

Spectacular trips

Do you have real daredevils in your house? Then Adventure City Rotterdam is a real winner! With climbing courses, ziplines and for daredevils: the free fall! And besides the climbing park you can also enter the Tubing and Netpark, full of climbing, jumping and sliding fun.

When it rains

Indoor tinkering

Did you collect chestnuts, leaves and acorns in the weeks before the vacations? Perfect!!! Then now you have enough material for the cutest craft projects. Pinterest is full of autumnal ideas: from dried leaves between thick books to chestnut dolls and paint splatter art using leaves as templates.

Baking together

Get the baking supplies ready and get to work together! From simple apple turnovers with ready-made puff pastry to homemade apple pie. Afterwards, organize a cozy tasting – fun for young and old alike!

Bakken met kinderen

Escape rooms for kids

Not in the mood for another indoor playground? Try an escape room! This is the perfect way to let your kids rack their brains while experiencing the adventure of a lifetime at the same time. Working together, solving puzzles and escaping from exciting situations – they won’t soon forget this!

  • Escaperoom Time: For children aged 6-10 years in search of Davy Jones’ treasure
  • Backspace Escape Room: Here children from 9 years and older step into the Children’s Escape Room Time Machine
  • At Escaperoom Schagen you walk into the world of Willy Wonka (from 8 years)
  • And at Ruby Escape Room in Alkmaar you can participate in the Wizard School (from 8 years)

Fun museums for children

Forget boring museums with ‘do not touch’ signs! We searched for you for museums that are made precisely to be touched, explored and experienced. Here children learn by doing, feeling and discovering. Perfect for curious kids who want to know everything about the world around them.

GeoFort Museum

Halloween & autumn scares

October is also dedicated to Halloween in many places. This is also reflected in various amusement parks. Walibi is best known for this in the Netherlands. They organize Halloween Fright Nights every year. And this is ultimate horror and less suitable for children. You may be scared to death, but you must have experienced it once!

Fortunately, Walibi also organizes enough in the autumn vacations for the kids during Halloween Spooky Days: especially for tough monsters from 6 to 12 years!

But there are more amusement parks that organize fun activities around Halloween. For example, you can go to Julianatoren in Apeldoorn, Drievliet in Rijswijk and Toverland in Sevenum for a fun day of horror.

Halloween herfstvakantie

Credits photos: OpstapmetLisa, GeoFort and Canva.com

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