My trusty old car may not have much time left on this earth which made choosing our summer holiday tricky.

My restless feet told me this was the year for foreign travel rather than a cottage in Cornwall but France seemed too far to risk with the old motor, flights for four seemed pricey and package deals would see me chasing the shade all day.

With that in mind, we took advantage of P&O's overnight crossing from Hull - a mere one-hour drive from our York home - to Rotterdam, and booked self-catering accommodation near Wassenaar, which is part of the Hague and close to the coast.

Armed with a car load of all-weather clothing, basic provisions, games, scooters, buckets and spades - and European breakdown cover, just in case - we relaxed into our journey.

As it was my children's first ferry experience, the journey was part of our adventure and the crossing was thankfully smooth. We wiled away part of the evening in the self-service restaurant (food ranged from curries to Schnitzel with gateaux, cheese and biscuits), and then watched the sun set from the piano bar before retiring to our cabin.

After an early wake-up and hearty full English, we disembarked and had reached our destination by mid morning. The journey could not have been smoother, or a more enjoyable way to start our holiday.

Wassenaar is a charming, affluent place complete with its own windmill, marina and small centre of shops with cafés, bars and restaurants spilling onto the pavements, not to mention Luciano's cafe where delicious ice-creams were just 1euro a scoop.

It is also home to a popular amusement park but we were drawn more to the nearby vast sandy beach, which was popular with bathers, sun worshippers, kite-flyers and wind surfers.

Our holiday coincided with glorious weather, and we were grateful of the sun shelters to hire (2.50 Euros all day) and refreshment stalls to help cool off.

My sons, aged five and eight, quickly got over their initial disappointment at the lack of rock pools, and were soon happy enough sculpting sand spaceships, searching for shells and chasing waves.

South of Wassenaar, is the more bustling seaside resort of Scheveningen which had a similarly expansive stretch of beach, along with a pier, shopping arcades, casinos and attractions, such as a Sea Life Centre and miniature world, Madurodam.

We wandered along the boulevard where we found the delightful, free-of-charge outdoor sculpture garden of bronze figures inspired by fairy tales and sea stories, by American sculptor Tom Otterness. The largest of these is the towering Herring Eater at more than 12 m high.

After tucking into take-away Kibbeling (battered chunks of deep fried fish served with a mayonnaise-based garlic sauce), we sauntered along the sand beside countless beach-side bars, each boasting their own distinctive lounge appeal.

For a taste of city culture, we ventured to Leiden (a 20-minute bus journey north of Wassenaar) for a day.

Described as "a little Amsterdam", the restored historic city centre is made up of picturesque waterways covered in lily pads, ancient alleyways and streets lined with old buildings. Landmarks included the impressive 12th century Pieterskerk in the heart of the university city, and De Valk, an original corn mill dating back to 1743. We also stumbled across a statue of Rembrandt who was born and lived in Leiden until moving to Amsterdam in 1631, aged 25.

Leiden has no shortage of stores and boutiques, while there were plenty of pit stops - including a delicious pancake house, offering us the chance to savour Dutch Poffertjes (baby pancake puffs) - when our children's patience waned.

Market stalls lined the canals, and on the day we visited, a band on a barge belted out Rolling Stones numbers to waterside drinkers, giving the place a real vibe.

Leiden has too many museums to mention, but would be ideal for a rainy day including Corpus - offering a voyage of discovery through the human body, and the oldest botanical garden in Western Europe, the Hortus Botanicus Leiden.

The town of Gouda was about 40 minutes drive and we visited on a Thursday morning when, in spring and summer, its traditional cheese market - one of the few true cheese markets left in the country - is held in front of the City Hall and the cheese weighing building.

While it is dressed up for tourists, it still provides an outlet for local farmers to get their cheese to market and we watched cheese being brought in, tested for quality, weighed, priced and sold.

In the weighing house you could also weigh yourself against amounts of cheese, and try samples.

To appease the boys, who were more interested in nearby food stalls, we purchased some Dutch waffles to keep them going on our short city walk along quiet, quaint streets with canals.

Holland was undeniably a holiday hit, from the hassle-free journey to the delicious Dutch delicacies, sandy shores and safe cycle paths and we vowed to return, next time with our bikes - if the car survives another year.

York Press:

Nadia Jefferson-Brown and family travelled from Hull to Rotterdam, staying in a four-berth cabin, courtesy of P&O Ferries.

For ferry crossing information and timetables visit www.poferries.com

For information about visiting Holland visit www.holland.com/uk/tourism.htm