Indoors and active, all year round
Interactive game park · Beverwijk
A day out with the kids
in Noord-Holland,
without watching the sky
An indoor game park in Beverwijk where you're on your feet the whole time. No screen, no controller, no reason to check the rain radar.
- 9 game rooms, all of them indoors
- 30 min drive from Alkmaar, Zaandam or Hoofddorp
- Free parking right outside the door
A day out that doesn't hang on the rain radar
Anyone looking for a day out with the children in Noord-Holland is looking for two things at once: something they'll genuinely enjoy, and some certainty. The second one is the hard part. Many of the best days out around here are outdoors, and between October and April that's a gamble every time.
PlayKinetix is on the Handelskade in Beverwijk. An indoor game park with 9 game rooms: light-up floors that react to your feet, walls with buttons that light up, challenges you only win together. Everyone gets a wristband that keeps track of the scores.
Indoors, then, but not sitting still. Children come out of it sweaty. That's the gap parents are trying to fill in autumn and winter: something active, with no coat on.
Why indoors isn't a compromise here
Indoor outings have a reputation: swimming pool, cinema, museum, ball pit. All fine, but mostly you're sitting still.
Here you're moving from start to finish. The rooms are called LAVA ARENA, STRIKE ZONE, SLAM COURT, FREEZE GAME, LASER INFERNO, OCTO STRIKE, PAD ROYALE, BUTTON BLITZ and APEX CLIMB. Going by the names, sitting quietly isn't an option. CUBE SPIN joins them in November, NEON GRID in December.
The weather plays no part. Rain, a storm, or the third grey Wednesday in a row: inside, nothing changes.
What you actually do there
For anyone who doesn't know the category, which is most people: not a playground, not an amusement arcade.
Every room is its own game
You go into a game room, play a round there and move on to the next one. Different room, different rules.
You're on your feet the whole time
No controller, no screen to hide behind. You play with your feet and your hands.
The wristband does the counting
The scores run along automatically. So arguments about who won don't last long.
Parents can join in
There's room for 70 people at once. Playing along is fine, watching from the side is fine too.
How far is it, honestly
Beverwijk sits in the IJmond: handy for part of Noord-Holland, less so for the rest. These are the driving times to the Handelskade, measured without traffic.
Draw a circle around that: from Alkmaar to Hoofddorp and from the coast to Zaandam you're here within about half an hour. From the far north of Noord-Holland or from het Gooi it's a fair drive; then this stops being a spontaneous Wednesday afternoon and becomes something for a day in the holidays.
One more note for Zaandam: on the map it looks shorter than it drives. The A8 stops at Westzaan and the link to the A9 was never built, so you take the provincial road.
You can manage without a car as well. Beverwijk station is an 8-minute walk from the door, and on the Kennemerlijn there's a direct train every half hour from Haarlem, Heemskerk, Castricum, Uitgeest and Alkmaar. From Heemstede and Bloemendaal you change at Haarlem, from Zaandam at Uitgeest. From Hoofddorp there's no direct connection; that station is on the Schiphollijn. IJmuiden has no station at all, but from there it's a ten-minute drive.
Not after a day out but a birthday party outright? We have separate pages for those: Haarlem, Alkmaar and Castricum.
- Heemskerk: under 10 minutes
- IJmuiden: about 10 minutes
- Haarlem and Bloemendaal: about 20 minutes
- Heemstede and Zaandam: about 25 minutes
- Hoofddorp and Alkmaar: about half an hour
Parking is free and right outside the door.
Mixed ages, and how long you stay
A preschooler and a teenager in the same group is normal here. The rooms ask for no reading skills and no experience: something lights up, you react. The youngest won't win every round, but they do play every round, so they aren't sitting on a bench after ten minutes.
Don't expect it to fill eight hours. For comparison: a kids' party here lasts two hours, with two half-hour rounds of play and a break in between. A child keeps that pace up comfortably, and by the end they're spent.
Watch the days. The park is closed on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday open from 12:00, with the last ticket at 18:00. Friday from 12:00, last ticket 22:00. Saturday from 10:30, last ticket 22:00. Sunday from 10:30, last ticket 18:00.
Questions parents ask us
What can you do with children when it rains in Noord-Holland?
The province is full of outdoor days out, and on a day like that they're no use to you. What's left is indoors: a museum, a swimming pool, the cinema, a climbing centre, and this. The difference is that here you're moving the whole time. When the energy has to come out and it's pouring down outside, that's precisely the point.
Is it an amusement hall or an arcade?
No. No cabinets, no tokens, and you're never sitting behind a screen. They're game rooms in which the floor and the walls are the game. You play standing up, usually in a team.
Does it work with a big age gap in the group?
Yes. It's about looking and reacting, not about learning rules. Older children score higher, but everyone plays the same round. If you'd rather have a group of the same age, have a look at the kids' parties or, for 12 to 14 year olds, the teen parties.
Do I need to book in advance?
Book a start time online, certainly on a Saturday and during the school holidays. Do bear in mind that we're closed on Monday and Tuesday; for the holiday dates see school holidays.
Also useful
If you're after something more specific than a day out, it has a page of its own.
- Family day out — if the grandparents are coming too
- Kids' party in Noord-Holland — if it's about a birthday
- School holidays — when it's busy and when it isn't
Line it up for the next rainy day
Pick a time that suits. From Alkmaar to Hoofddorp you're here within about half an hour. And if the day turns out sunny after all: inside, you won't notice a thing.