Have you ever been to Amsterdam? If not, you will definitely have to put this city on your bucket list! We loved the city so much, we ended up extending our stay from four days to a whole week. It was my third time in Amsterdam, but I felt like I was able to see so many new things that it still didn’t get boring at all! We loved the mixture of old and new, traditional and modern, and it all being surrounded by the numerous channels.

We were lucky to have a few friends who lived in Amsterdam for a while, so they were able to give us some amazing tips, which I will be sharing with you as well. I’ll start out with giving you some general tips such as accommodation and transportation, then I’ll go into detail about places to see.

General tips

Transportation:

We first bought day passes for public transport in Amsterdam, which includes bus, tram, metro, and some boats. One day costs 8 Euros per person. We also had free bike rentals included from our hotel. On the second day we were brave enough to use them. We (especially I) loved it so much, we kept on travelling by bike. The traffic in Amsterdam is basically ruled by bikes. They have huge bike lanes and pretty much everyone rides their bike everywhere. The whole city is flat, so it was a pleasure to get around. We’d totally recommend the bike option to everyone, though most of the time we used a combination of the bikes and trams, which was perfect. One thing that needs to be said about the bikes, is that you probably want to mark your parking spot on Google Maps or so, just because the streets can look pretty similar and because of all the hundreds of bikes it can be hard to find your own.

Accommodation:

We stayed at “The Student Hotel Amsterdam City”. It is right next to a metro station which takes you directly to the city center. There are a lot of young people at the hotel and there is a very chill atmosphere, which we really liked. We also had a spacious, modern hotel room. My favorite part was that they had a free bike rental included.

Money:

The Dutch are part of the EU and use euros. They pretty much pay everything with card though, even before covid. On our entire time in Amsterdam we didn’t use a single bit of cash.

Coffee Shops:

If you’ve never been to Amsterdam you might not know this, but a coffee shop is a shop where you can buy weed and it is not primarily a coffee place. If you are looking for a cup of the black magic you might want to search for places with the words cafe or coffeehouse.

Places to go and things to do

I’ll first start out with some general more “touristy” information and slowly go more and more towards the inside tips.

On the first day I recommend just going to the center and walking around the streets along the channels. You will get a feel for the vibe of the city. Keizersgracht, Herengracht and Prinsengracht are nice streets with the typical buildings of Amsterdam.
Jordaan (a nice area, with lots of shops)
Rijksmuseum
Red light district (well, it is what you think it is. They practice “window prostitution”. If you walk through the area of “De Wallen”, you will see numerous girls waiting behind windows. There are loooots of tourists in this area, most of them just looking. There is also a lot of security around, so it seems to be a safe area. Red Light Secrets is a museum talking about the red light district in Amsterdam)
Boat tour (yes it is very touristy, and I’ve done it every time I’ve been to Amsterdam. I loved it every single time and I would recommend it to everyone! They can teach you a little bit about the history and you will be able to see the city from a different angle as you are on the rivers.)
9 straatjes (an area with lots of cute little shops and cafes)
Albert Cuyp Market (A street market in the city with food and non food goods) Open Monday through Saturday 9AM to 5PM)
IJ-Hallen (the biggest flea market in Europe, usually open the first weekend each month but I would double check the website to make sure)
Heineken Experience (The official Heineken Museum. They offer a tour and tell you lots about the history of the brand and the process of making beer. We were lucky to be there during Covid, which meant we had a tour with 6 other people which was very chill.)
Vondelpark (a beautiful, huge park in Amsterdam-Zuid, the perfect place to take a break, ride the bike through it or read a book.)
Amsterdam-Noord (on the other side of the harbour, you can see it from the main station. The ferries to Amsterdam-Noord are free, on the other side you’ll find an area that’s a little more green, the A’dam Look-out, the Eye Film museum and a watergate, which is fun to watch)
Food:
- Coffee and Coconuts (our favorite cafe in the city, we went there twice)
- De Bakkerswinkel (another cute cafe)
- Foodhallen (It is kind of like street food but in a huge hall. You will sit down and choose from a ton of different food. You can order on your phone and they will bring your food right to the table)
- Eye Film museum (A little pricier but on a sunny, warm day you can enjoy the food on the terrace with an amazing view on the harbour and the city)
Public Library (If you want to save money on the A’dam Look-out you can go on the very top of the public libary right next to the NEMO science museum. From there you will get an amazing view on the city. My friend also said all desserts are 1 Euro after 8PM. We never got to see if that’s still the case though.)

You might notice some stops I didn’t mention. That’s either because we didn’t end up going there or we thought it was not worth it (like the flower market or Dam Square)

Places just outside of Amsterdam:

If you are staying in the city for more than just a few days these places are just a couple minutes outside of Amsterdam and worth a trip.

Zaanse Schans (It’s a neighbourhood with historic buildings and windmills. There are several buildings with museums in it as well as shops. It is just 17 minutes away from Amsterdam Centraal. With normal travel conditions it can get a little crowded with tourists, but we enjoyed a great time because of Covid.
Haarlem (A city in the Netherlands which is worth a visit. Unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to go there but it was highly recommended by my friend. She also said the Corrie Ten Boom house (wich is in Haarlem) was better than the famous Anne Frank house in Amsterdam.

Before we went to Amsterdam we travelled through Germany by train. We explored Munich, Frankfurt and Cologne. If you’re curious about our experience there and our recommendations, click here:

Travelling Germany

Zaanse Schans

Amsterdam Must-Sees with Local Advice