City break in Amsterdam – What to visit & eat + tips

This touristic city knows how to presents all it has to offer, with plenty of sites, applications that show you everything you can do in Amsterdam and its surroundings.

Amsterdam, the city that does not really need a presentation, everyone has heard of it in one way or another. It is a city that can satisfy everyone, having a wonderful architecture, relaxing places and nature (in town and in the immediate vicinity), if you want to drink or have fun, you will not get bored in this city.

3 days in Amsterdam

In the three days we spent in the city, we walked almost every street in the city center. Managed to wander through the city without the help of a map, only when we wanted to go back to accommodation on the first day just to be sure. You can walk for 2-3 days easily without getting bored or feeling like you have nothing to see. Besides the architecture and the vibe of the city that makes you walk around nonstop, you can visit a lot of museums, one more imposing than others.

We think there are a lot of blog articles telling you about all the museums you can visit, so we will not focus on them. So will give you an idea of how you can spend 3 days in Amsterdam and in the surroundings.

Day 1

If you arrive in Amsterdam in the spring you can start your day with the Keukenhof Tulip Garden. It’s one of the best botanical gardens we’ve ever visited. you can even take the bus directly from the airport and be the first thing you do when you get there.

We are food lovers and we want to try traditional food from every country we visit. If you are the same, you can spend the afternoon wandering around the picturesque streets and looking for some culinary goodness.

Day 2

One of Holland’s symbols are the windmills, so we have to check them out. Zaanse Schans is a small neighborhood in the town of Zaandam. The perfect place to admire a traditional 18th-19th-century village with windmills and green wooden houses. Craft workshops are open until 17 o’clock if you want to see them too. To get here you can take the train or the bus from the central station (30-50 minutes).

Day 3

What you can do on the last day is to go to the North Sea. We have chosen to go to Zandvoort, because there is a direct train that reaches within 30 minutes. Walking on the beach with the salty smell of the sea and eat a fish & chips, can be the perfect way to end the last day in Amsterdam.

But do not forget to get to the airport in time.

Accommodation

Accommodation will be the most “difficult” part of this trip. Although there are many available accommodations, they disappear very quickly in case there is a celebration in town. In addition to the rush you need to secure your accommodation, there are quite expensive for what it offers. The rooms were rather small if you want to stay in the central area.

We ignored the accommodation for a good time, realizing a month before we did not have a place to stay. After we started looking, we realized something was wrong. So I started looking for what holidays there were at that time, and I found out exactly that weekend was the King’s Day. It is one of the most important holidays, being celebrated all over the Netherlands. Besides King’s Day, it was also the tulip season (the main reason for our trip to Amsterdam), so choosing accommodation was difficult.

We stayed at Hotel Arena, where for two nights we paid 440 euros. A big price, which can be justified by its very good position in the center of the city, in a park, and especially by the fact that it is an old mansion that has been transformed into a superb 4-star hotel. The room was large and modern, with the bathroom and living room on the ground floor, and the upstairs bedroom had a huge bed and two bedside tables.

To help your budget, click here for 10% discount on Booking or if you prefer Airbnb – 34 euro credit.

What to eat in Amsterdam

If you like to try something new, you will not get bored in this city. You have a wide range of restaurants, fast food, and street food, so you will not be hungry. You must try raw herring, which you find on the street. It is very good, aromatic and very worth eating. Besides herring, you’ll have a lot of stores selling french fries. They’re served in a paper horn, and they’re very tasty, just right.

The Netherlands is also known for cheese production, and the restaurants serve a wide range of different assortments of cheese. We went into such a place, and after tasting some of the cheese, we decided that we should enjoy a plate of cheese. And yes, we can say you have to try this in Amsterdam.

What we can say that it is also worth checking out are the following foods:

• donut-pancakes (poffertjes), which were good but they did not impress me,
• Croquettes. There is a place where you can get your food from a vending machine. Add the money, chose what you want, open the door, eat. Behind this wall, you can see how the food is prepared and how it is placed on the shelf, in case you are a little suspicious.
• Stroopwafel. There’s no way you do not like this one. And here are a lot of places where you can eat them freshly made, warm, and gooey.
• Hot dog. You will find them everywhere you walk around the city. But, not the classic hot dog. So you will find all sorts of combinations, from different sausages to all sorts of toppings. Thus, we can say that we ate the most “complex” and tasty hot-dog.
• Yogurt. If you want to cool yourself or just enjoy a light snack, there are places where you can pay the yogurt by weight. How’s that? Well, it offers you three sizes of cups, which you can fill as much as you want and add what topping you want, at the end paying according to the weight of the cup. Where we were they had 3 types of yogurt, fruit, candy, chocolate and all kinds of other goodies.

Transportation in Amsterdam

Public transport in Amsterdam is exceptional, which is also due to promotion as a means of transporting a bicycle. Amsterdam is also known as the world’s capital of bicycles, with a well-developed policy and infrastructure for bicycles. So wherever you look, you’ll see a bike, whether it’s raining or sunny. In the 3 days we were here, we did not have very friendly weather to enjoy the bikes, so we did not use them. We chose to walk a lot and public transport for long distances.

We purchased from the airport a card that allowed us to enjoy all the means of transport in Amsterdam and around, for three days. So we could use the train, the tram, the subway, the bus and the ferry unlimited. This card gives you extraordinary freedom. It offers you the opportunity to visit the fields with tulips, windmills, even to reach the sea, without paying anything extra. Especially since all means of transport arrive on time in stations, they are very clean and you can rely on them.

If you want to stay only in Amsterdam and you do not want to visit the surroundings (must be visited at least once), then the unlimited transportation plan does not seem worth it. Because in the city you will be walking more or you will rent a bicycle that will be more useful.

 

What other recommendations do you have for Amsterdam? What goodies have you eaten?