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Planning a trip to Amsterdam? Whether you’re visiting for the first time or looking for expert travel tips, this guide will help you explore the city with ease. From the best time to visit Amsterdam to insider hacks on transport, here are 12 Amsterdam travel tips for everything you need to know.
➡️Read here for a list of six essential travel items I always pack. They’re not necessarily what you think they are!
First, Amsterdam was so nice, we have visited twice. I know people might say that it was a bad idea to visit again just two years later, but I often find things better on the second visit: you’ve gotten the lay of the land and have some familiarity with the culture. The second time around, you can really delve into a place.
So here are twelve (updated) Amsterdam travel tips– the Quick and Dirty Dozen– for a fabulous week in this beautiful and captivating city.
Amsterdam Travel Tips
1. It’s still not just pot and porn…
As it turns out, Steven and I could not be happier that we chose Amsterdam as our vacation spot for six days of September. I was overwhelmed by the tremendous number of art museums (one of my favorite things to do), the wonderful restaurants featuring cuisines from every part of the world, and the opportunity to travel outside the city to more of The Netherlands. Red light district? We never had time to visit.
2. Getting to Amsterdam… and the Amsterdam Tourist Tax
We flew Air Canada nonstop from Toronto to Amsterdam. Amsterdam is reeling from over tourism, and flights always seem to be full. But this just confirms how popular a destination Amsterdam truly is– so much so that the government has increased the 2024 Amsterdam Tourist Tax for overnight visitors to 12.5%! It’s one of the highest in Europe, but the government felt it would crack down on rowdy and disrespectful tourists.
My husband and I collect air miles all year long on the Chase Sapphire credit card. I love this card for its generous benefits. For those who love to travel, there are several different types of cards you can use accrue miles to travel any time of year. Use the link to learn more.
3. Where to Stay in Amsterdam
We’ve stayed in two different hotels while in Amsterdam– and loved both of them. The Linden Hotel in the Jordaan neighborhood was our first stay. Now, if you are looking for very large hotel rooms this is probably not the property for you, but size of room is not something I care about.
Book The Perfect Hotel in Amsterdam…
I look at vacation hotel rooms like this: The hotel room itself is really just my bedroom– a place for me to crash. I don’t need a huge room to do this. My living room is really the outside of my hotel: the neighborhood, the sites etc. My kitchen is any one of the wonderful restaurants in Amsterdam. When I’m traveling, I really try to burn through my days so I am in my hotel room only a minimal amount of time. That said, there were plenty of reasons to love the Linden.
The neighborhood is nice and quiet, yet we were close to lots of sights, including the Anne Frank house.
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- The hotel has a lot of nice amenities like umbrellas for guests, and snacks and beverages throughout the day.
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- There’s a cozy lobby where I sat every night to write in my journal. It was very pleasant, quiet, and I could enjoy those wonderful stroopwafels the hotel had out every day.
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- Breakfast is a nice option to have. There is a charge for having breakfast at the hotel. If you like to eat a full breakfast, then it’s definitely worth adding breakfast to your reservation. If you just prefer something quick, more of a continental breakfast, than it’s probably worth skipping.
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- The hotel will send your laundry out for 10 Euros (no matter the amount!) Far better to send out the laundry rather than sitting in a launderette waiting for it on your own– and it’s roughly the same price!
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- Really great hotel staff– I don’t dare name them since I know I’ll forget someone but to a person they were all super helpful.
After a change in our itinerary, we found ourselves with an extra couple of days Amsterdam. The Linden Hotel was booked, but the owners referred us to their sister hotel, Mr. Jordaan.
I wasn’t sure any hotel could measure up to the Linden, but I was surprised once again. Mr. Jordaan was just as wonderful as the Linden. Clean with a wonderful breakfast room/community area in which to sit when I had down time. The lobby and community room had lots of quirky decorations and a very nice “lending” library, so you could grab a book and read if you like. We were given a room on the top floor of the hotel, overlooking a quiet canal and Westerkerk Church off in the distance, the same church Anne Frank could see while hiding in the Secret Annex.
Highly recommend!
More Amsterdam Travel Tips:
4. Leave Lots of Time To Walk Around
You can be held captive by the “schedule” and the sheer number of things to do. Don’t feel like you need to schedule every single minute of the day in a museum or a sight. Amsterdam is made for walking! And you will want to spend time just meandering by the canals, crossing the footbridges, and exploring whatever is around the corner. Accept that you won’t be able to see everything there is to see– and that you will return to Amsterdam another day.
5. Explore Cuyperspassage
Next to Centraal Station (the main train station in Amsterdam) is the Cuyperspassage, which connects the Station with the waterfront and ferries behind it. I learned about the porcelain tunnel on Atlas Obscura, which I love for it’s offbeat suggestions of things to do. The passage is composed of 80,000 of the famous Delft tiles.
6. The Anne Frank House
Purchase your timed tickets to the Anne Frank House online AND well in advance of your trip. This is the most popular site for tourists to visit and tickets sell out quickly. If you don’t purchase online, you can try your luck at purchasing the limited number of tickets made available first thing in the morning, but I wouldn’t recommend it.
See the Anne Frank House first thing in the morning and allow a couple of hours to really take it all in.
There is also a walking tour of the Jewish Quarter, which I have not taken, but looks very good! Note that it does NOT include admission into the Anne Frank House.
You will be emotionally drained after visiting The Secret Annex so give yourself some time to “recover.” We walked around a bit before we did anything else, but the next stop on our itinerary completely “refreshed” us.
7. The Heineken Experience
The Heineken Experience is a must during a week in Amsterdam. For just a few Euros more, considering taking in the VIP Tour at the Heineken Experience. If you plan this tour for midday, then the VIP Tour can also be your lunch experience as you can participate in a five-course beer and food pairing. Also, be sure to get the personalized Heineken bottles. These are included with the cost of the VIP Tour. Otherwise, you can pay for them separately.
8. Step Outside the City (Easy Daytrips from Amsterdam)
Amsterdam has an AMAZING public transport system: bus, ferry, tram, train– you can get anywhere easily and efficiently. We took one day out of our week in Amsterdam, to travel to a three nearby towns.
Four Easy Side Trips from Amsterdam
Edam
Yes, just like the cheese. In fact, the whole town is cheese. Cheese shops, cheese market– you get the idea. It is a lovely town and well worth a visit and a stroll. Do check the opening and closing hours of the cheese market in Edam, although if you miss it, there’s plenty of cheese shops in the village.
Getting to Edam from Amsterdam: It couldn’t be easier to get to Edam. Hop on Bus 314 from Amsterdam Centraal and you’ll be in Edam in about 30 minutes.
Volendam
On the North Sea is a lovely fishing village. There’s a very nice business district with lots of souvenir shops.
Getting to Volendam: Take bus 316 from Amsterdam Centraal to Volendam. You can take this same bus on to Edam. Volendam is touristic, but in my opinion, it’s worth a visit if you want to see a coastal town. It’s touristic, but in my opinion, more enjoyable than Zaans Schans (see below).
Zaanse Schans
Many of Holland’s famous windmills and houses from 19th Century have been relocated to Zaanse Schans to recreate an 18th or 19th Century village. “Relocated” and “recreated” are the key words here. If you have ever been to Olde Mistick Village in Mystic, CT- Zaanse Schans is a lot like it. It was not my favorite place to visit and we didn’t spend that much time there.
Getting to Zaans-Schans from Amsterdam Centraal: Take Bus 391 and ride for approximately 45 minutes to Zaans-Schans.
The great news is that you can see all these towns in one day. It’s a nice change of pace from Amsterdam and a chance to see outside the city.
We found it pretty easy to negotiate public buses and we like being on our own schedule. If we like a place, we stay longer, if we don’t we move on. But if you are pressed for time, and don’t feel like handling the details, consider the tour I’ve listed below.
Book your day trips from Amsterdam here:
Utrecht
For a separate day trip, that takes about half a day in total, consider traveling to Utrecht. It’s a fun, college city with plenty to see and do and a cool vibe (like Amsterdam isn’t!).
Consider traveling to Utrecht in the afternoon, staying for a drink and dinner (I highly recommend trying the Pornstar Martini) and then catching the train back to Amsterdam afterwards.
Getting to Utrecht: Hop on any of the frequent trains from Amsterdam Centraal for a quick ride into Utrecht.
9. Indonesian Rice Table (Rijsttafel)
Indonesia used to be a Dutch Colony– the Dutch East Indies– and because of this, you can still sample this history by visiting an Indonesian rice table. Rice tables are all over Amsterdam and are a great way to sample a variety of food prepared all different ways and full of different flavors and textures. We had a rice table with several small portions (maybe 12 or so, though you can sometimes have up to 40).
10. Cash is (Not) King…
I was surprised at the number of places: cafe`s, restaurants, stores, etc. that had signs up saying “Credit Cards Only.” Be sure to have a working credit card (and a backup) for everyday payments.
11. Eat Up!
Rather than describe all the great food there is, just enjoy these photos of some wonderful meals we enjoyed. Yes, eat food specific to The Netherlands, but enjoy this very cosmopolitan city with diverse cuisine. Dutch? Yes. French? Spanish? Italian? Vietnamese? It’s all there…
12. Amsterdam Museums and the I Amsterdam Card
We spent some time as some of Amsterdam’s lesser known sites and museums. After seeing the Van Gogh Museum and Rijksmuseum, consider visiting the Portuguese Synagogue, the Dutch Resistance Museum (documenting the resistance of the Dutch people during WWII), and the Hermitage Museum (an actual branch of the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia.
If you are planning to visit at least three of these museums (not including the Van Gogh Museum), then purchasing the I Amsterdam Card makes good financial sense! The Card also includes public transportation, a canal cruise and discounted bike rental.
Lean Into Your Gezellig (Not Just for Ted Lasso Fans)
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Amsterdam is just the beginning.
