Scheveningen is The Hague's city beach, and one of the easiest family destinations on the Dutch coast: trams to the door, sand four minutes from the front step, and just enough rainy-day backups to save any holiday. With Ocean House Scheveningen as your base in Oud Scheveningen — full apartments with a kitchen and dishwasher (except the Superior Suite), air-conditioning, and the sea around the corner — these are the six things to do in Scheveningen with kids that our family guests keep coming back for.
1. Beach mornings: have the Scheveningen sand to yourselves
The single biggest tip for a family holiday in Scheveningen: be on the beach before ten. The light is soft, the wind is calmer, the crowds haven't arrived, and the kids have the entire shoreline to write their names in. Bring an empty bucket — half the fun is filling it.
From Ocean House Scheveningen it is a four-minute walk to the sand via the quiet end of Oud Scheveningen, so you can do beach-breakfast-beach without ever loading a car. Pack a thermos with hot chocolate, a bag of croissants from the bakery on the Keizerstraat, and stay until the first families with parasols start to arrive — that's your signal to head home for a long shower and a slow lunch.
2. Scheveningen Pier and the Ferris wheel at sunset
The Scheveningen Pier is the postcard image of the city beach: a long wooden boardwalk reaching out into the North Sea, with shops, terraces and a Ferris wheel right at the end. For kids it feels like a tiny floating town. For parents it's a ten-euro picture they will keep forever.
Go just before sunset on a clear evening. The wheel turns slowly enough for the little ones, the view from the top spans from Kijkduin to the harbour, and the colour change in the sky does the rest. Time it so you walk back along the boulevard as the lights come on — every kid will ask for an ice cream, and you should say yes.
3. Lunch in your own kitchen on the Keizerstraat
Restaurants with three children are a sport. The reason we built the Scheveningen apartments around full kitchens is exactly this: skip the queue on the boulevard, pick up fresh bread, cheese, fruit and a stroopwafel for dessert at the corner shops on the Keizerstraat, and eat on your own clock.
Every apartment at Ocean House Scheveningen (except the Superior Suite) comes with a real kitchen, a dishwasher and air-conditioning. Let the little ones nap in a cool, dark bedroom while you finish your coffee at the kitchen table. It is the part of the day most families say they didn't know they needed.
4. Sea Life Scheveningen for a rainy hour
Dutch weather will, eventually, hand you a grey hour. Sea Life Scheveningen sits right next to the pier, a five-minute walk from the apartment, and turns a wet afternoon into the highlight of the trip. There are sharks, rays, a tropical reef tunnel, and a turtle rescue that the kids will talk about all the way home.
Book tickets online the night before to skip the queue, plan around the daily feeding times printed on the website, and pair it with hot chocolate at one of the boulevard cafés. By the time you walk back, the rain will (probably) have stopped.
5. Cycle through the Westduinpark dunes
Half an hour south of the apartment lies the Westduinpark, the protected coastal dune reserve that turns Scheveningen into a proper nature destination. Rent two adult bikes and a child bike on the boulevard, follow the signposted family route, and within ten minutes you are on quiet paths between sea buckthorn, wild rabbits, and dunes that climb high enough for a view.
It is flat, it is safe, and the sea is always one turn away. Pack a picnic from the bakery, find a bench at one of the lookout points, and let the kids run. A morning here is the kind of slow Dutch holiday memory that tends to stick.
6. Pannenkoeken for dinner, ice cream on the walk home
End a Scheveningen family day the Dutch way: a pannenkoek the size of the plate at one of the kid-friendly pannenkoekenhuizen near the boulevard. Plain with sugar for the small ones, apple and bacon for the parents, a glass of cold beer because you've earned it.
Walk home along the sea as the light goes out of the sky, stop for a stroopwafel ice cream from a kiosk on the Keizerstraat, and the kids will be asleep before you reach the front door of the apartment. That is the rhythm Scheveningen does better than almost any other Dutch coastal town with kids.
Where to stay in Scheveningen as a family
Ocean House Scheveningen sits in the heart of Oud Scheveningen, the old fishing-village neighbourhood around the Keizerstraat, four minutes on foot from the beach. The 31 studios and apartments are sized for families and groups, come with a full kitchen and dishwasher (except the Superior Suite), and stay cool all summer thanks to air-conditioning in every unit.
Cots, high chairs and baby baths are on the house — just ask. Dogs are welcome too, at no extra cost. It is, in short, the easiest base for a family weekend (or a longer week) on the Dutch coast.
