Muiderslot Castle: A Day Trip From Amsterdam

Being from Ye Olde England, I love me a good castle. Much like zoos, they are the kind of places I seemed to spend way too much time at during my childhood, either through parental persuasion, or school trips. Luckily, despite this, I still enjoy visiting both. (Although, zoos more than castles because, hello, orangutans).

So when Scott told me there was a castle only 20 minutes outside of Amsterdam, I willingly agreed to go, but only if we could get brunch first. Because sometimes there has to be a plea bargain when you’re about to unwittingly do some edumacating.

Muiderslot Castle in located in a lovely quaint town called Muiden, which you can easily get the bus to from the centre of Amsterdam. Of course there is a canal running through the town and the streets seemed to be lined with cute bakeries and shops. It was a lovely day when we visited, which may have added further to its appeal.

We added ourselves to the guided tour via a fancy-schmancy TV screen and then waited for our allotted time in the gardens. Scott was hoping for a maze (apparently he’s seen mazes at castles on TV before?), but, as I pointed out, it was probably best there wasn’t one as we’d never have made it out in time for dinner, let alone the guided tour.

You don’t need to take part in the guided tour (instead, you can simply self-guide yourself around other parts of the castle), but you can’t go into the restored rooms of the castle if you don’t have a guide. Unfortunately we didn’t realise that the tour is only run in Dutch, which meant that we were presented with some laminated sheets explaining what the different items in each room were and pretty much left to our own devices. I was quickly transported back to my aforementioned school days when we would have to fill worksheets in as we walked around. Shudder.

It was nice to see inside the castle, but, had I known that the tour was in Dutch, I probably wouldn’t have wanted to pay the €13.50 entrance fee. However, we were already in and had already paid, so we made the most of it, doing what every normal couple would do and dressing up in period costume.

As it was a nice day, we enjoyed the views from the castle and walking around the gardens, but Muiderslot is a pretty small castle and so we quickly got bored. (This is what happens when there are no orangutans. Maybe I should suggest them on the feedback form.)

I’m glad that we visited, because it was a nice day out from the city, but unless you speak Dutch, have a MuseumKaart (for free entry) or really want to see a castle, then the entrance fee may be a little high to warrant the visit. Instead, you can always take the bus to Muiden and walk around the town, enjoy some freshly baked goods and a drink on a terrace and take photos of the castle from afar.

They do, however, hold bird of prey shows many days throughout the year, but not on the day we went, so I can’t speak for how much more that would add to your enjoyment.

• Muiderslot Castle, Herengracht 1, 1398 AA Muiden, Netherlands
• Entrance fee is €13.50 for adults, €8.50 for children
• The castle is open every day from April – October, and only on weekends from November – March
• You can take the bus, train or boat to Muiden or nearby Weesp
• muiderslot.nl