Weekend Leiden & surroundings, what to do?

Just seven kilometres from Leiden and the beach, you will find holiday park Koningshof. A beautiful green campsite with a central location for visiting the region. We spend the night in a pop-up regional cottage, which is normally not for rent. But at this holiday park Koningshof you will also find beautiful glamping tents for your overnight stay, should you not have your own camping equipment. The park is fully equipped and even has an indoor swimming pool.

Just 20 minutes by bike from holiday park Koningshof you will find Katwijk aan Zee with its beautiful sandy beach and nice beach bars. Here in Katwijk aan Zee you can go raw material jutten, on the site of Grondstofjutters you will find a list of all participating restaurants. Meanwhile, you can already go to eight municipalities to go raw material beachcombing. At the participating restaurants, you get a jute bag. Unfortunately, they were out of them when we arrived, but of course a rubbish bag will do as well.

We combine beachcombing with a lovely walk on the beach. For an hour, we collect all the rubbish we come across on the beach. This ranges from beer cups to PVC pipes and large pieces of plastic. When our rubbish bag is full, we return to one of the participating beach pavilions. In return for a full garbage bag, you get a free cup of coffee/tea or an ice cream for the children at the participating restaurants.

During a weekend in the Leiden region, you can immerse yourself in the history of the Netherlands.

On the Waalsdorpervlakte in Wassenaar, we attend a guided walk provided by the Waalsdorpervlakte platoon of honour. The son of a former resistance fighter accompanies our walk. He talks about what happened here during the Second World War. His stories give me goose bumps. Indeed, from the Oranje Hotel, about two kilometres away, more than 200 people were taken to the Waalsdorpervlakte to be executed during World War II.

On the advice of the guides, we visit the Oranje Hotel, which is now a national monument. This is the prison used by the Germans in World War II. Here you will now find an impressive exhibition on what went on inside the prison walls in World War II.

To this day, one prison cell remains intact, number 601. Here you will find the famous text:

There's no scum in this prison, just Dutch glory, for goodness sake!

A piece of history you don't want to miss when you visit Leiden.

Meijendel is a nature reserve located in Wassenaar and is part of the National Park Hollandse Duin. Here you will find Dunea's recently renovated visitor centre Tapuit, where you can play interactive games for children, but from where you can also start walks through the dunes.

We take a walk through the beautiful forest in Meijendel, the blue route. A three-kilometre route.

You can also visit the Kijfhoek and Bierlap in Meijendel, where you sometimes come across King Horses and Galloway cattle.

Voted the best museum in Europe, Naturalis. A place you must have visited. A true attraction for both young, and old. When you arrive at Naturalis you are already surprised by the beauty of the building on the outside, but when you walk into the hall of the museum you don't know what you see. The organic shapes of the windows and the incidence of light create an attraction in itself.

In Naturalis, you explore the natural world in themes; every floor and every room has its own theme. In each theme there are fun activities. You fall from one surprise into another in this museum. My favourite theme was still the dinosaurs, what an impressive exhibition that was! I totally understand why this museum was voted best museum in Europe.

In the Leiden area, you will find lots of catering establishments; during the weekend, we discovered three great places in the region.

The Koningshof holiday park also has a restaurant. A restaurant in a greenhouse, with all its cosy corners. Here you can warm up by one of the stoves in autumn or spring, while enjoying a snack and a drink.

In beautiful historic Voorschoten, you will find restaurant La Casita. A place where you imagine yourself in Spain for a moment. Here you can enjoy delicious tapas. So I order a surprise platter of tapas, and what a delicious platter I get. I really recommend this restaurant.

On the beach, atop the dunes, you will find restaurant de Badmeester on the Wassenaarse slag. What a beautiful spot and what a view of the setting sun you have here. Here you can enjoy delicious fresh fish overlooking the sea. For a moment you imagine yourself on holiday on a Caribbean island. Here we enjoyed delicious prawns. You have to work for it, but then you really have something!