Days Out Experiences

We were wondering what to do this Half Term. We did not want to take the whole week off so we decided to visit some of the Amusement parks around Luxembourg. The vacation was first week of November and therefore we decided that an indoor park would be the best option.

So we booked one of the Indoor Plopsa Hasselt packages. We did not want to travel on the same day that we were going to visit the park and therefore decided to leave a day earlier and spend it in a city nearby.

We had to decide between Aachen and Valkenburg (we did not consider Maastricht as we’ve been there already). Each city offered different activities so the choice wasn’t easy.

ValkenBurg

Valkenburg has been a major tourist destination for decades mainly because of the town’s interesting historic sights. Here you can visit the castle of Valkenburg and tour the mines and caverns  . Of course there are many playgrounds and museums and other places to go with kids – check them out here.

An absolute not-to-be-missed is the Valkenburg Christmas Market. It is considered the largest and oldest underground Christmas Market in Europe. While there, you should also visit the Santa’s village or see the Christmas parade

And nearby you will find the Enchanted forest – also listed under our section Amusement parks .  sprookjesbos, Sibbergrubbe 2a, Valkenburg aan de Geul , Parkeerplaats Geulpark

Aachen

Aachen is one of eight municipalities in Germany with the certificate “Family-Friendly Municipality”. It is a very children and family-friendly city. There are so many things to do with kids there – check out this link with more info (you even can see where all the outdoor playgrounds are) !

Some of the things on our list to see were:

• Aachen’s historic Town Hall, located directly on the Market Place ;
• Urban Exploration rally – it is for both kids and adults (you learn what the city has to offer by answering different questions and following a route)
• The famous Dreiländerpunkt – a point where Germany, Belgium and Netherlands meet. Nearby you will find the Labyrint Drielandenpunt. This is a maze & observation tower near the highest point in the country, with a water play area & team games. Anyone visiting the Three-Country Point can claim to have been at the highest point in the Netherlands at 322.5 metres.
• Some of the museum in Aachen offer free entry to families with children on Family Sunday . Check out which ones here
• Peewee Children’s Play Village (Kinderspeeldorp Pee Wee, Heinsbergerweg 65 , 6061 AH POSTERHOLT): This 2400 square meters indoor playground that also has Europe’s largest air trampoline (415 m²), a petting zoo and 20 000 sq meters outdoor playground.
• Aachener Tierpark” Wildlife – Adventure & Amusement – From tiny exotic birds to huge Asian Camels and selected western European animals, the park has a colourful variety of interesting inhabitants(a home for more than 1,700 animals representing 250 different species). There is nearly 9 ha of space for the animals and about 3000 m of pathways for the visitors!
• Gaia zoo : In GaiaZOO, you can travel all over the world in a single day! Go to Africa and see the world’s most beautiful animals, like gorillas, rhinos, giraffes, and cheetahs. In the rainforests of the Amazon you can see all kinds of monkeys climbing trees and swinging from branches. In the squirrel monkey forest, the monkeys run around just above your head! And for KIDS – GaiaZOO offers a real play paradise with our giant DinoDome; Europe’s largest indoor Dino Play Park. In the JungleTour they can climb over exciting rope bridges and high climbing towers. At the petting zoo children can cuddle the animals as much as they like.

And between Vulkenburg and Aachen you can find Miljoenenlijn, Longest Museum of Limburg where you can take a memorable trip in a steam or diesel train and enjoy the beautiful Limburg Hills. Check out the website to see the various special events take place

We finally decided in Aachen’s favour (because we would be able to visit the Starbucks and try one of the not-so-healthy-but-oh-so-good PUMPKIN SPICE LATTES J.

We booked a night at Novotel that also offered play area for kids and kids menu. And if the city turned out to be boring we could always go and visit the Enchanted forest!

Useful website:

• http://www.visitlimburg.com/kids/
• http://tickets.holland.com/activity/248.html?