Anyone been? (Amsterdam)

[AH1406]

Hi, i'm travelling to Amsterdam with a friend for four days in a months time.

What was your favourite thing that you did there?
All tips welcomed please, on everything.

Our accommodation is booked and is pretty central. If it helps, we've no interest in the drug etc. side of it, but rather want to see the city, architecture, sights etc. I'm not a big fan of art, but if there was anything arty that ye liked, please say it. If you did a bike ride out of the city, what was it like? Actually what was any day spent not too far outside of the city like?

Free stuff to do would be great, but include everything, no matter how pricy. We'll decide on as many favourites as possible that together are within our budget.

Thank you everyone.

Going in May, interested.

Go before mid Easter.
At that point they start cutting the fields of tulips. We went end of the month and only managed to see one field!
Sigh.

Book Anne Frank House in advance, tickets go online on sale 2 months in advance. Book ASAP. You'll find it v hard to get tickets on the day.

Arrive at Keukenhof when it opens, it gets super crowded within about 2 hours of opening.

Go to the Carousel pancake house... so yummy.

A canal boat tour and also a visit to the dungeons were both fab. The dungeons have you a really good insight into the history. And the canal boat tour was just brilliant.

Nice day spent cycling through the parks - from memory Rembrandt park and Vandel, plus others. Loads going on in both. Definitely hire bikes for a day and see where you end up!

This was a recent thread on Amsterdam which might be helpful for you: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/shorthaul/3722681-Amsterdam-3-days-what-to-do

Wicked Waffles makes an amazing breakfast. As does Greenwoods but they only take bookings Monday-Friday.

All museums in the district are brilliant. My personal favourite was the MOCO museum.

The trams are so easy and so cheap around €17 for 72 hours.

caferestaurantdeplantage.nl/en/#home

Excellent dinner spot

Hi OP. I'm an Amsterdam blogger and have heaps of suggestions for you on my blog. Have a browse and feel free to reach out via the contact form if there's anything particular I can help with.

Just to be clear I don't make money from it - my husband is Dutch and I'm absolutely passionate about sharing all that's best about the city and helping visitors steer clear of the grotty bits and tourist traps!

www.amsterdamwonderland.com

I went recently and like previous poster said you need to book Anne Franks house, and some of the other attractions too. Wear comfy shoes - theres lot of walking around if you want to see everything!

Anne Frank house....amazing....we booked the day before once already there
We did a free walking tour ..google it...
Vondelparc is lovely ...have a beer sitting outside
Segway tour was fun....we used groupon !!

Van Gogh museum and canal boat your - pick an open top one.

I went last year with DD and we loved

Anne Frank House, tickets have to be pre-booked, I think they open the booking 3 months in advance

We went to the Van Gogh Museum, I found it fairly quite, again you need to book a slot, and DD and I love impressionistic artist so it worked well, the Rijksmuseum was mayhem, even with booked tickets it was heaving. The reason may have been a major exhibit but still, too much for us.

Vondel park is next door, a really nice place to relax. We got some picnic food from a supermarket and had lunch there.

The Resitance Museum is great, all Audioguides are also in English, the exhibition is thorough and very informative.

I think the Holocaust Museum is now closing.

We also saw the Jewish synagogue and the Jewish Museum. The latter one was good but extremely detailed, it got to a point you are loosing the focus. We concentrated on the periods we found the most interesting.

There is a Micrope Museum next to the Zoo. Very unusual and interesting.

We had an Amsterdam Card, May have been a bit overpriced but it meant we could just pop I to whatever we like to see without wondering.

The red light district is very local but also easy to avoid. But you will smell weed all over the city.

Been to Amsterdam loads as ex DP used to live there.

It will be cold! It is a small city and easily seen on foot (or bike) so wear comfortable and warm shoes. Also take warm and waterproof clothes. I'd say hood and hat / scarf rather than umbrella as it is so windy in most of Europe at the moment and Amsterdam is quite a windy city anyway.

For getting out of the city, hire bikes and cycle to Brouwerij 't IJ which is a nice pub in a windmill. You can also take a short train from Centraal Station to Haarlem which is a pretty town where you can visit the Corrie Ten Boom house (where they hid people from the Nazis in WW2).

In the city, you need to see the flower market on the Singel, and go to at least one of the traditional cheese shops to taste the samples. Other Dutch foods you must try are Dutch apple cake, poffertjes with melted butter and powdered sugar, and Dutch fries with sweet mayo from any of the street stands. The herring stands in the street are good too if you like it! You also need to wander around the "grachtengordel" (heart of the canal area).

Most of the big tourist attractions are best booked online in advance to save queuing time. Personally, my favourite museum in Amsterdam is the Van Gogh museum, down on Museumplein.

I recommend Café de Wildschut (down past the Museumplein) for people watching and good bistro style food served all day. Café Koosje in the quiet Plantage area out to the east (where the zoo and planetarium and Tropen Museum are) is also a great place for a drink or pub style dinner. Also Kantjil & de Tijger restaurant for "typical" Indonesian food (it was a Dutch colony, like Surinam, so there are many Indonesian and Surinamese restaurants in Amsterdam). You need to book K& de T., you can pop in and do it in person, otherwise turn up an hour or 2 before you want to eat (if there's just 2 of you) and get your name on the waiting list while you go for a drink.

I would certainly not bother with a canal boat tour; it's very dull (and Amsterdam is really not big at all) and all you see is the underside of bridges and the sides of the canal.

It's also easy to visit Den Haag by train from Amsterdam. I think it's a beautiful city and well worth visiting, the urban area is not very big so possible to enjoy it in a day trip.

Westerkerk Tower here
Best views of Amsterdam from up there! It's very close to the AF house...

Definitely go out on the swing.
We didnt get round to it and I was gutted