If your kids love animals, what would be better than spending a few hours at the family-run farm Boerderij ‘t Geertje in the Netherlands?
Boerderij ‘t Geertje is a real organic production farm with goats, cows, and pigs. There are many fun activities for kids at this farm. And while young kids will enjoy, seeing, feeding, and petting the animals, adults will appreciate the store selling quality food products, many of them produced using goat milk and cow milk from the farm. Even though it is a small farm, there are many different types of animals present.
Things to do for kids
1) Feeding goats
Here your kids (and you) can feed the goats at the barn. At the restaurant, you can buy a bottle of liquid food for the young goats or bix (biscuits) for the adult goats. Your young ones will love this as they can pat the young goats, while the latter are preoccupied climbing all over you. Adult supervision is necessary. Protect your shoelaces, zippers, shawls, kid’s ears, and everything else that is an easy target.
2) Roasting marshmallows
Roast some marshmallows over a fire pit. Lots of fun in every season.
3) Watch (young) pigs
You can see the pigsty from the fire pit. This is no place to linger at unless you absolutely love pigs.
4) Play in the haystack
Let the kids jump and climb on the hay bales as if it is a regular playground with a slide.
5) Take a pony ride
Next to the hay barn are the ponies. For a fee, your kid can ride on a pony guided by someone from the farm.
6) Visit the cows
Pet the cows and watch them moo.
7) Sit on a tractor
Take a picture of your kid on a tractor while they beam with pride.
8) Wooden shoe adventure path
A small side excursion for the younger kids (fun until the age of six or seven I would say). For a fee of 50 euro cents per adult, you can walk on the wooden shoe (clogs) themed path over wooden bridges and balance beams through a small forest. With very young kids this could very well take you fifteen minutes, especially if they keep going back to walk on the wooden blocks and bridges one more time.
9) Restaurant and shop
At the time of writing this blog post, the restaurant is closed because of the coronavirus measures. When the restrictions are lifted you can once again enjoy a meal (mainly sandwiches and pancakes) at the restaurant. Until then, there is a less extensive menu for takeaway outside.
At the shop, you can buy all kinds of cheese and dairy products (homemade organic products from the very goats and cows you saw earlier), meat, and many other interesting products.
How to get to Boerderij ‘t Geertje
Boerderij ‘t Geertje is a 25 minutes’ drive from The Hague or a 45 minutes’ drive from Amsterdam. You can park your car for free at the farm or one of the other free parking lots nearby. If you don’t have a car, you can take the train to Zoetermeer Station and rent a bike from there (25 minutes’ bike ride).
Location: Geerweg 7, 2381 LT Zoeterwoude, Netherlands
If you’re looking for a fun family outing, then consider visiting Boerderij ‘t Geertje. Unless you live on a farm that is… then this might not be such a fun place to visit as it reminds you too much of home and work.
