Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands is famous for its culture and colorful houses. It is also a multicultural city, especially when it comes to food. You can find a lot of different cuisines from various places in the world like Indonesian, Dutch, Mexican,… The capital of the Netherlands surprised a lot of tourists because of its way of life and particular rules available only here.
Also nicknamed “Venise of the North” because of the large canals system, Amsterdam is a city where it is good to travel. Find below some recommendations for what to do in the Netherlands ‘ capital.
Best things to do in Amsterdam
I Amsterdam City Card
Visiting monuments and museums is the best way for learning. But if you want to visit more than one or two places, travel can be expensive. Because of that, the city created the “I Amsterdam City Card.”
I Amsterdam City Card is a pass that you can use as needed. They have card selections from 24 hours up to 120 hours. With this card, you have access to transportation, museums, and many other activities. Also, get exclusive discounts at restaurants or shops.
Prices start at 65€. For more information about the Amsterdam City Card, visit the Amsterdam tourist office website.
Museums in Amsterdam
Rambrandt House
Master of painting, drawing, and sculpting, Rembrandt moved to Amsterdam in 1639. In 1956, the artist had big deficits. He had no choice but to sell all his house and valuable furniture. At the present time, his old house became a museum about his life and his art.
Open daily from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm, except on Monday.
Entrance prices. (prices include the museum’s audio guide)
Adult 14 €.
Children 6 – 17 years old 5 €.
Children under 6 years old: Free.
How to get there: Tramway, lines 9 & 14, Mr. Visserplein Station.
Van Gogh Museum
Amsterdam had many worldwide renowned museums. Among them is the Van Gogh museum. Amsterdam has the biggest Van Gogh’s collection of the word. With 200 paintings, 400 drawings, and 700 letters, it’s definitely a place to go for all fans of this painter. Through this exhibition, learn more about Van Gogh’s creation. Some of his masterpieces are currently presented in the permanent exhibition such as The Potato Eaters, The Bedroom, Sunflowers, and Almond Blossom. Into this exhibition, discover the painter’s ideas and ambition, but also his life.
The museum is opened daily.
Entrance prices.
Adult 19€
Entrance visitors aged under 18 is free.
Guided visits are available in different languages here.
How to get there: By tramway, lines 2, 3, 5 & 1, van Baerlestraat Station.
Rijksmuseum
Rijksmuseum is the National Museum of Netherland consecrated at Arts, Handicraft, and History. The museum has rich collections from the Middle Age to the present day. Like painting, photography, sculpture,… The museum has various styles of objects.
Among the Highlights creations:
- Self-portrait, by Vincent Van Gogh, 1887
- Madonna of Humility, by Fra Angelico, c, 1440
- The Milkmaid, by Johannes Vermeer, c, 1660
Given the series, and following the museum’s frequentation, Rijksmuseum is the most important museum in the country.
The museum is easily recognizable. Built-in the 19th century, the magnificent facade of the monument received gothic influence in the renaissance style’s construction.
The Rijksmuseum is a real cultural treasure!
Open daily from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm.
The adult entrance price is 20€.
The museum is free for people under 18 years old.
Audioguides are available for 5€. It is better to book audioguides in advance and to use your own earphone.
For the best experience, you can find a private guided tour on the Internet.
How to get there: By Tramway, lines 2 & 5, Hobbemastraat Station
Lines 12,Concertgebouw Station.
Anne Frank House
Anne Frank is a young girl who explained to the world the life of a Jewish family during world war II.
Born in June 1929 in Germany as Annelies Marie Frank, she moved to Amsterdam in 1939 with her family to escape Hitler’s rage.
After attacking Poland in 1940, the nazi army invaded Netherland.
Hiding in a secret annex, Anne Frank started to write her story, her life, her emotions, and her thinking in a diary.
Unfortunately, Anne Frank’s family was found and sent to different camps. Anne Frank and her sister got sick and died.
This diary will be found and translated into 70 languages to share the story with the world.
Located in the heart of Amsterdam, Anne Frank’s House is the place where the girl lived with her family. In this visit, you will learn the clandestine’s life during the world war.
Discover the house of the little girl who wanted to be a writer.
Opening time
April ~ October, from 9:00 am to 10:00 pm.
November ~ April, from 9:00am to 7:00pm. Until 10:00 on Saturday.
June ~ August, the museum open earlier, at 8:30.
Entrance prices: (Add +6,00€ for the introductory program)
Adult: 12,50€
Young 10 – 17 years old: 6,50€
Children up to 9 years old: 1,00€
Audio guides available for free in 9 different languages.
How to get there: By Tramway, lines 13 & 17, Westermarket Station.
Hortus Botanicus
Hortus Botanicus is one of the oldest botanic gardens in Europe. Created in 1638, this garden possessed six thousand exotic plants and trees. These plants were used for medical research. Depending on plants, different climatic greenhouses composed this garden.
The park became the most favorite attraction of foreign visitors.
Opened daily from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm.
Entrance prices
Adults: 9,75€.
Children between 5 and 14 years old, students, and seniors under 65 years old: 5,50€.
How to get there: By Tramway, lines 9 & 14, Mr. Visserplein Station
The Flower Market in Amsterdam
The flower market is the favorite place of Amsterdam’s citizens for buying flowers.
Created in 1862, the Amsterdam Flower Market is the only floating flower market in the world.
Located near the Singel canal, the flower market is a beautiful place with colorful flowers.
The market is running all year, in every season. A lot of variety of flowers at a reasonable cost. You can easily buy bouquets, bulbs, single flowers, or garden furniture.
Visitors often buy a tulip bulb as a present because the tulip is the symbol of the country.
Flower market opening hours
From Monday to Saturday from 09:00 am to 05:30 pm. Sunday from 11:30 am to 05:30 pm.
How to get there: By tramway, lines 1, 2 & 5, Koningsplein Station.
Lines 4, 9, 14, 16, 24 & 25, Muntplein Station.
Bicycle in Amsterdam
Bicycle is the favorite transportation way of Amsterdam citizens. For that reason, the city is well equipped for welcomed cyclists.
In Amsterdam, more than 400,000 bicycles are used. With 15, 000 kilometers of bike paths, the bicycle became the best transportation way in the city. This is also a unique way to discover the city.
A bike rental’s price is around 12 € per day. You can find a list of bike rental shops here.
Additionally, professional guides purpose a lot of different bike tours. If you subscribed to the I Amsterdam City Card, you could get a discount for the rental.
Amsterdam Canals
Canals are a particular characteristic in Amsterdam. Canals are so important, the city nickname is “Venice of the North”.
The total size of the Amsterdam canals is 75 kilometers. On these canals, it counts more than a thousand bridges.
Grachtengordel, known in English as the Canal District, is the name of the three most important canals of the city. These ones were constructed in the 17th century, and are surrounding the historical center.
On these canals, a lot of families used barges as a house. This curious residence appears during world war II because of the insufficient habitations. In the present time, more than 2,500 barges were made.
If you are curious about it, you can visit the Houseboat Museum. This boat museum was used as a house until 1997. Now, the boat is a museum that used to introduce how life is in a barge.
You can explore the canals during a cruise.
There are many cruise companies, and they purpose various boats and cruise trips such as the classic cruise, the diner cruise, or the open-bar cruise.
The cheapest price is around 15€ for 1 hour of cruise.
Amsterdam local food & beverage
In Amsterdam, there are a lot of restaurants from multiple origins like Indonesian, Mexican, etc.
Because discovering food is important in a journey, and because everyone does not necessarily speak Dutch, there needs to be some explanation.
The Netherland food, what is it? Here are some examples.
Fast-food in Amsterdam
- Patat: French fries served in a paper cone, accompanied by sauces, generally mayonnaise.
‘atatje oorlog’ for a french fries cone with a mixed sauce of peanuts, ketchup curry, and onions.
‘patat speciaal’ is a french fries cone with a mixed sauce of ketchup curry, de mayonnaise, onions.
-> This food is mainly present on the street.
- Maatjes haring: raw herrings selling as a snack with pickles. This is also a street-food. The ‘broodje haring’ version is a raw herring sandwich with pickles and onions.
- Bitterballen: The best Netherland’s snack. Fried meatballs served with mustard. This meal is usually served in bars.
Main dishes in Amsterdam
- Hutspot: A beef stew accompanied by mashed potatoes and carrots. This meal is usually served during the winter season.
- Erwtensoep: Split pea soup. A traditionnal meal of Netherland.
- Stamppot: Netherland traditional hot meal! It is mashed potatoes and vegetables. The traditional version of this meal had various tastes and can be served with sauerkraut, carrots, onion, spinach, and sausage.
Dessert in Amsterdam
- Stroopwafel: 2 thins waffles with sugary syrup.
- poffertjes: Small pastries (similar to crepes) with custard filling and served with sugar, butter, maple syrup, or advocaat (Netherland’s liquor).
Unusual
In FEBO, you can find a lot of snacks that are waiting for you in a vending machine. Hamburgers, kroketten, frinkandellen,… Just insert your money and grab your food.
The West Church of Amsterdam: Westerkerk
Westerkerk or the “West Church” is a protestant church located in the heart of Amsterdam city.
Built-in between 1620 and 1631, the church has a Renaissance style with a double cross shape.
The decoration is minimalist, the church interior just had an orgel, used every Sunday during the mass.
The tower of the church amounts to 85 meters, and her heavy bell weighs around 7 kg.
If the interior of the church had nothing special, the top of the tower offers an incredible panoramic view of Amsterdam.
The sacristan’s house is located at number 28. The habitation is easily recognizable. In front of his house, there is a statue of Anne Frank. So this house is the habitation and the most photographed. By the way, the Anne Frank house is just a little far. If you are interested in this visit, you should book a schedule. And because of the popularity of the place, we recommend you to do it as soon as possible.
The church visit is free but the tower access needs to buy a ticket. The ticket’s price includes an English professional guide.
Entrance price: Adult: 7,50€
How to get there: By tramway, lines 13, 14 & 17, Westermarket Station.
Bollenstreek – Tulip Field: The symbol of Amsterdam
Visitors who come to Netherland during the spring have the opportunity to see one of the greatest experiences of the country. From mid-March to mid-May, the country becomes a blanket of tulips. Netherland has flower farms and flower’s bulbs farms and sells products all over the world.
Therefore, the Spring season in Holland is the moment to visit a tulip farm.
And after seeing the sea of flowers you want to have your own bouquet, there are two solutions. Going to the flower flea market? Or, create your bouquet at a picking garden!
For that, you can go to Annemieke’s Picking Garden. From mid-February to mid-May, visitors can pop into the greenhouse, discover more than 300 varieties of flowers, and pick fresh tulips, the symbol of the Netherland.
The Royal Palace in Amsterdam
The Royal Palace is located on Dam Square, in the very center of Amsterdam.
This incredible monument built between 1648 and 1665, was originally not built as a palace but as a city hall. In 1808, King Louis Bonaparte transformed the structure into a palace, his own palace. The beauty of the building makes it the most precious and the largest construction from the Dutch Golden Age.
At the present time, and for 200 years, the Royal House is one of the three houses which are at the disposal of the monarch in the Netherlands. This palace was used for the officials’ reception with world leaders.
The Royal Palace opened his doors to visitors for most of the year.
Opening Time
Every Day, except on Monday.
Weekday: 12:00 pm to 05:00 pm.
Weekend: 10:00 am to 05:00 pm.
Entrance prices
Adults: 10€
Students: 9€
Visitors under 18 years old: Free
- A free audio guide is available
- The visit schedule should be booked because the palace allows a maximum of 100 visitors at one time.
Discovering the Albert Cuypmarkt
It is the best way to discover the city as an Amsterdam citizen.
Located in the De Pijp area, which is one of the liveliest areas of the capital, the Albert Cuyp market is the largest and most popular market in Amsterdam with 260 stands. Since 1905, Albert Cuypmarkt is a unique place that will offer you many hours of interesting shopping sessions and discoveries. This place operates six days a week and gives you hours of browsing with stands selling everything like food, clothes, shoes, luggage,… That is also the opportunity to discover Holland’s snacks!
The market atmosphere is really unique. A laid back atmosphere where you can discover the mood and the happiness of the Netherland people.
Opening time
The Albert Cuyp Market is operating six days a week, from Monday to Saturday. It starts from 09:00 am to 05:00 pm.
How to get there
By tramway, lines 16 & 24, Albertcuypstraat Station.
Tramway, lines 3 & 12, Ferdinand Bolstraat Station, or Van Woustraat Station.
Tramway, line 4, Stadhouderskade Station.
Why go to Amsterdam?
Amsterdam is a precious city with very interesting cultural activities. The Hollands’ capital also had a rich and hard past due to the Dutch army invasion. An invasion that deeply shocked the western part of Europe. Like many other countries, and even if some stories are sad, the city protects her historical memories.
Amsterdam is also a great city where you can easily enjoy nature! This is why Amsterdam is a truly particular capital of Europe.
We hope this article will help you to plan your future journey to Amsterdam.