Amsterdam
Top activities
- Rent a bicycle and discover Amsterdam and it surroundings on bike → See below
- Visit the Anne Frankhuis → See below
- Visit the Waterlooplein flea market - Always nice, and handy if you want to buy a bit more original souvenirs
- Visit the Red Light District - Not a personal favourite of mine, but most of my guest do visit this area. At the very least, it will impress you and will make you think.
Rent a bicycle
Why?
- Amsterdam and its surroundings is so much more fun on bicycle than by public transport
- Get everywhere really fast, without having to figure out public transport
- The whole city comes alive when you're on a bike!
How?
- Prices seem pretty much te be the same everywhere: Around € 13,-- for the first day, and around only € 5,-- per day when you rent more than 5 days
- A deposit is required. Usually, a credit card will do, or alternatively, your driving license or passport.
Where?
- There are lots of bike rental places all around town
- There is a rental place around the corner from where I live: No. 1 Rental - Most of my guests rent their bikes here, and they're happy with it
- There is a Mac Bike at Central Station, if that's more convenient
Bicycle trips
Some of my favourite day trips by bike
- Rural Amsterdam North: Oranjesluizen (water locks) » Durgerdam » Ransdorp » Holysloot » Ferry to the other side of the Holysloter Die » Back to Amsterdam » Ferry behind Central Station
- Marken: Ferry behind Central Station » Nieuwendammerdijk » Durgerdam » Uitdam » Marken » Back to Amsterdam
- Ruigoord: Westerpark » Park Spaarnwoude » Ruigoord
- Muiden: Flevopark » Camping Zeeburg » Diemerpark » Diemer Vijfhoek » Muiden
Areas & spots
- Anne Frankhuis
- Ferry to Amsterdam North
- Ferry to NDSM terrain
- Food halls: Former tram depot (tram garage?), turned into a mall with lots of food stuff and cinemas. Maybe nice for rainy days for non-museum-lovers
- NDSM terrain - Amsterdam North
- Red Light District
- Stonehead (Stenen Hoofd) - Nice for swimming in the open water
- Landelijk Noord - Rural Amsterdam North
- Rijksmuseum
- Van Goghmuseum
- Water locks
- Yard at Jodenbreestraat
- Dinner: Cannibale Royale - Several nice venues in Amsterdam.
Anne Frank House
The Anne Frank House (Anne Frankhuis in Dutch) is probably the most famous and impressive thing to see in Amsterdam. I also think it's the best museum in Amsterdam, if you could actually call it a museum.
Reserve in advance
In the past, you could just go to the Anne Frank House and buy a ticket. The only problem: The queue sometimes was more than 1km long - Thank God they changed this!
Nowadays, tickets can only be bought online. As how their website explains it:
80% of tickets are released exactly two months in advance at noon, 20% on the day itself. Every day at 9:00 am, the tickets for the day are made available on this site.
I assume that 'noon' and '9:00 am' are ment according to the CET time zone.
Day tickets
Next to the regular tickets mentioned above, there is a small amount of day tickets available every day. How to get such a ticket: Go to their online and
- Reserved tickets: The Anne Frankhuis uses an online reservation system and it seems that you need to reserve at least a couple of weeks in advance
- Daily tickets: Next to the reserved tickets, there seem to be a small number of daily tickets. For these too, it seems you can only apply online. How this might work: Go to their website, go to the ticket page, and keep pressing refresh until you're lucky