Vakantiepark De Toffe Peer

You don’t have to go far for a fun day out with the kids. Treat younger children to climbing courses and mini-tractor rides at De Drentse Koe (15 minutes’ walk) or the petting zoo and gentle carousel rides at Plopsa Indoor Coevorden. And at Wildlands (both 40 minutes), climb aboard a boat for jungle cruises past elephant and giraffe enclosures. There are more boat trips to be had in gorgeous Giethoorn (25 minutes), where you can chug down canals past thatched 13th-century farmhouses. If you’d rather be exploring on dry land, it’s a short hop to cycling and hiking trails in De Weerribben-Wieden National Park (half an hour). Two other parks are also worth a day trip: the Drents-Friese Wold (15 minutes) for cycling in woodland, while there are moorland walks in Dwingelderveld National Park (half an hour). There’s plenty of history around here too, with prehistoric dolmens at Diever (20 minutes), and you can learn about Drenthe’s role in WWII at the Herinneringscentrum Kamp Westerbork (half an hour), a memorial centre in a former transit camp.