The most awesome attractions in Amsterdam

For about 4 years Amsterdam has been at the top of my travel list and finally time and cheap airplane fares made it happen.

3 tips as a starter:

• book your stay with booking.com (I think their main office is in Amsterdam or I can’t otherwise explain why I received an e-mail full of huge discounts for Amsterdam from them after I booked my hostel)
• Do a canal boat tour
• rent bicycles or buy a 48h public transport ticket (buy it at any big tram stop or even some supermarkets, but don’t buy it at the airport. In the city it only costs $12.70)

From the airport into the center

It’s very easy to get to the city center. Just catch a train for $4.50 and 11 minutes later you will be at Central Station. Which by the way is quite a nice building from the outside. There are also several buses that take you from the airport to various areas of Amsterdam but they generally take much longer than the train and are only slightly cheaper at about $3.90.

Must Do Attractions in Amsterdam

• Walk through the center and take pictures of the bicycles and the canals

Amsterdam is very picturesque and it’s nice to just take a walk and climb across different bridges and smell the scent of weed that hangs in the air in front of every coffee shop.

 

• Join a canal cruise

The canals look cute from the streets and are even more fun if you are on them on a boat. We did a hop on hop off tour but just the one hour ride with canal cruises for $16 is good to get an overview of the city and hear some interesting details (for example why the buildings are so narrow and seem to lean forward). If simple daylight cruising isn’t enough for you, have a romantic pizza dinner on a ship or do the canal lights cruise. In the evening, there are several bridges that are beautifully lit up and actually become a piece of art.

• Eat Dutch Fries
  There really is something about these fries that just makes them extra crunchy and taste really good with mayonnaise. We bought our first dose right at the beginning of Dam street (near Central Station) at Holland’s No. 1 fries and really weren’t disappointed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Visit the Rijksmuseum
  A beautiful building from the outside and filled with treasures from the inside. I loved the paintings by famous Dutch painters like Rembrandt and Van Gogh or Jan Vermeer. I never cared much for Rembrandt or Vermeer because their paintings are quite dark and mostly consist of people but if you see the houses and canals in Amsterdam and see some paintings of how it looked like earlier, these paintings suddenly seem to fit very well. I also loved the models of beautiful wooden ships on the ground floor. Of course, there is also the Van Gogh museum, which is supposed to be good but at the Rijksmuseum you get everything.

• Visit a market
  Whether it be tulips or food, outdoor markets are fun and you find great prices for flowers, souvenirs, fruit and vegetables. On the tourist map you can see the Blomenmarket in the town center and the food market I went to a few streets below the Heineken Experience.

• Drink craft beer
  The choice of locally brewed beer with unique tastes is endless. Try something new!

 

• Take a walk through the red light district
  After all, this is something Amsterdam is famous for and already at 11 am in broad daylight, there are some half naked women waiting in their windows. They looked pretty and as if they liked their job (much better than the one I walked through in Lüneburg), so if that’s something on your bucket list, perhaps Amsterdam is a good place for it.

 

Three eats you shouldn’t miss

1. Pho and yummie sushi: best salmon sushi I ever had and the gyozas were delicious as well. It’s a very small but cute place along bus lane 22.
2. Dutch pancakes (for example at Pancakes across the bridge from the Anne Frank house at Westermarket
3.  No.1 Holland Fries near the central train station
4.  (one more because I stumbled into this one by accident): Cup a la cake. It’s a bakery and take away coffee place with AMAZING cakes, cupcakes and cake pops for small prices. Also at Westermarket, opposite the church.

More attractions in Amsterdam:

• Heineken Experience
  After the Heineken Experience I still don’t like that lager beer but the exhibition was fun nevertheless. The Guinness Brewery in Dublin was slightly more authentic though and a much nicer building. At Heineken’s it’s more like you live through a fun club night in 1.5 hours.

• Madame Tussaud’s
  You don’t necessarily have to do this in Amsterdam, as they are everywhere but it’s still fun to take pictures with famous people made out of wax if you have extra time.

We also went to the Ice Bar but I found it over priced and quite uncomfortably cold. But if you go anyways, I’d recommend that you keep your gold coin until after the ice bar because you will only stay in there for 30min at tops and then you can still enjoy another cocktail in the pirate bar afterwards. We ordered a drink in the beginning but then only had 10min to drink it because it then was our time slot to go inside the ice bar.

Where to sleep:

We stayed at Dutchies Hostel which was clean and had free tea and other small snacks. But the most important thing was that I booked with booking.com. I had no idea of this beforehand but after I booked, i received an e-mail with HUGE discounts for many attractions. That’s why I tried things like the Heineken Experience which I wouldn’t have done otherwise.

What’s your secret tip for Amsterdam?