A gift voucher for someone from Zaandam
Interactive game park · Beverwijk
Don't give a thing.
Give an afternoon
you spend together
A voucher for an indoor game park on the Handelskade in Beverwijk. About 25 minutes by car from Zaandam. 9 game rooms where you run, push and work things out together — and where whoever gave the voucher joins in as well.
- 25 min drive from Zaandam
- 9 game rooms, all of them indoors
- Wed–Sun open; closed Monday and Tuesday
The birthday where nobody can think of anything
At some point you run out of ideas. The wish list is three lines long and it was the same list last year. Whatever you turn up with, by March it's at the bottom of a pile.
A PlayKinetix gift voucher isn't an object that has to be found a place for. It's a plan for later: an afternoon at an indoor game park in Beverwijk, and you come along too. You're not giving a present, you're giving an afternoon together.
What you actually fill that afternoon with
PlayKinetix isn't an indoor playground and it isn't a hall full of cabinets with a joystick. The floor knows where you're standing. In one room you hit the panels that light up before they go dark again; in another, the four of you keep something moving that gets faster and faster.
Everyone gets a wristband that keeps track of the points, so there's a proper result at the end. That keeps the conversation going the whole way back to Zaandam.
You've got nothing in your hands and you're not sitting on anything. Every room has its own description of what you do in it.
A voucher the weather can't wreck
If your birthday is in July you've got it easy. Otherwise a voucher for something outdoors sits in the drawer until May, waiting for a dry Saturday.
That doesn't come into it here. Everything is indoors, under one roof. If it rains on the day you go, you'll notice in the car park and nowhere else. Parking is free, right outside the door.
Which suddenly makes November and February perfectly good months to have a birthday.
From Zaandam it's no motorway, but it is a straight run
Let's be honest about the distance, because that's the sticking point. There's no motorway to it: the A8 stops at Westzaan and the link to the A9 was never built. You drive on a provincial road.
In practice it isn't bad at all. Via the Nauernaseweg you join the N246, which runs in one go past Assendelft to Beverwijk. A little over sixteen kilometres, about 25 minutes.
By train it's a detour: Zaandam is on the Zaanlijn, Beverwijk on the Kennemerlijn. The two lines only meet at Uitgeest, so that's where you change. Allow half an hour to forty minutes, plus an 8-minute walk from the station.
What 'together' actually means here
Whoever gives it comes along
A grandad who says he'll stay on the sidelines is right in the middle of it ten minutes later.
There's a result at the end
The wristband counts everything. That gives you something to talk about afterwards, and usually a reason to come back.
The date doesn't have to be fixed yet
You can hold a date with no obligation first and only book it for real later.
What people from Zaandam usually still ask
Can we come on a Monday or a Tuesday?
No, the park is closed then. Wednesday and Thursday open from 12:00, last ticket 18:00. Friday from 12:00 to 22:00, Saturday from 10:30 to 22:00, Sunday from 10:30 to 18:00.
Isn't this just gaming, only more expensive?
The word gaming sends people down the wrong track. There's no screen and nothing to hold. You stand, you run, and you only win by talking to each other. Closer to dodgeball than to a games console.
Can I use it to pay for a birthday party?
You can. A kids' party costs €24.50 per child, lasts two hours and runs from five children, with lemonade, a table of your own and a bag of crisps per child. See what's included before you settle on an amount.
Does the recipient have to arrange the date themselves?
Yes, and that's usually a good thing. They pick a moment that suits them, instead of you choosing a date somebody else is then stuck with.
Other towns nearby
Is your group coming from somewhere else? The route and the journey time are set out separately for each town.
Give an afternoon instead of a thing
Just under half an hour in the car, and then an afternoon where nobody looks at their phone. Voucher now, date later.