Amsterdam is one of the most popular tourist destination in Europe and rightly so. Known for its historic architecture, canals, world class museums, bike trails, coffee shops, Tulip fields, windmills and off course great food and even better beer, it’s a vacationer’s delight in our opinion. We visited Amsterdam recently and today we are going to take you through what all we did in this amazing city on a 4-day vacation.

Day 1

We arrived in Amsterdam from Cologne at around 1 PM in the afternoon and the very first thing we did was to get ourselves two I amsterdam cards from the store at the Central Station itself and straightaway made use of it by taking the metro to our hotel.

Amsterdam is an expensive city and living in city centre is surely going to burn a hole in your pocket unless you are ok with bunking up in a hostel. We stayed at Correndon City Hotel and it was a fantastic hotel. It is approximately a half an hour metro ride away from the central station and although we didn’t find a convenience store, café or restaurant anywhere near the hotel, the hotel itself had a restaurant, a 24×7 little store where you could buy ready to eat items and a pay coffee machine…so all was good 🙂  We haven’t done a detailed review of the hotel yet, but once we do, we will link it here.

After checking in our room, we got freshened up and straight away took a tram ride towards Dam Square. The plan was to first get some lunch (as it was already past 3 PM and we hadn’t had a decent meal since the morning) and then start exploring the city. The tram ride itself was really fun as we got to marvel at the unique architecture and got our first glimpse of the cute ginger bread houses of Amsterdam.

As soon as we got off at Dam Square we saw a kiosk selling Herring and we knew we had to try one right away. Well the herring worked well as an entrée to an authentic Tibetan lunch we had at a restaurant called Bhatti Passal, the restaurant is top rated on Tripadvisor, it has great atmosphere, the host is very welcoming and warm and the food is good too. We loved the steamed chicken momos but found the chicken noodles to be just about ok.

With lunch done we decided to stroll around the Dam Square area…we wandered around the streets and were pretty quickly enamoured by all the clothing stores… needless to say, we ended up spending a little extra time and money here. By the time we were done with our winter shopping the sun had already set and the crowds had really started to pour in. We decided to walk towards Damrak at a slow pace absorbing in the amazing architecture and the playful vibe of this vibrant city.

In our opinion Damrak waterfront is the best photo spot in all of Amsterdam. We spent a good amount of time admiring the buildings and took some amazing night shots. After taking hundreds of photos at the Damrak Waterfront we walked towards the infamous Red-light district. As expected it was the most crowded area and it almost felt like a carnival.

Now for some coming to the red light district might be a cultural shock, so our advice would be to read up about the Red-light district before venturing out. Yes there are topless ladies standing inside glass balconies going about luring prospective clients… yes there are live sex show theatres and erotic museums and yes there is a prominent smell of cannabis in the air, BUT to be really honest we didn’t find anything sleazy or bottom line vulgar… in fact it was one of the best experiences we had in Amsterdam. Off course, if you are travelling with minors, we would not advise you take them here.

Top Tip – since its really crowded here it would be advisable to beware of the pickpockets and do not click photos of the sex workers, you will end up getting into trouble. Plus, it’s plain rude, so don’t do it!

Even though we had read and heard so much about this place, experiencing it first hand was just amazing. We even watched a live show. It is definitely overpriced and over hyped but then it’s not every day you come to visit Amsterdam 🙂

We ended our day with a little sweet treat of churros dipped in chocolate sauce which we relished sitting near the Damrak waterfront and wandered about the city streets before heading back to the hotel.

Day 2

 

When it comes to breakfast we generally avoid opting for the hotel’s breakfast package as it tends to restrict the offering and we prefer to roam around the city and explore local food joints, so obviously while we were in Amsterdam we headed out to find some amazing breakfast joints.

We started our day with a delightful breakfast at the Pancake Corner. We ordered an English breakfast and a ham pancake, plus we also enjoyed a mug of hot chocolate with whipped cream and a tiny stoop waffle candy.

After breakfast we roamed around the Flower Market (also known as Bloemenmarkt) and got our first glimpse of the famous Holland Tulips. Well if you are visiting during the bloom season you must visit the popular tulip fields such as Keukenhof Gardens, but since we visited in November, the best chance for us to get up close and personal with Tulips was here at the flower market. You can buy a bunch or even single flowers and can even buy packets of bulbs which you can plant at your own home later. You can also find all sorts of souvenirs here apart from Tulips like fridge magnets and mugs.

After exploring the flower market, we visited Beginhof, a peaceful oasis in the middle of this bustling city. It used to be a catholic nunnery which dates back to 14^th century and houses a very beautiful courtyard and an old church. It is not as much of a secret spot as it must have been once, thanks to Instagram but still it is quite calming. There is no entry fee but if you’d like you can make a small donation at the church adjacent to the courtyard.

We wanted to stay here longer but since we had pre-booked tickets to visit the Anne Frank house we had to rush off. Ever since I read the Diary of Anne Frank when I was in school, I had always wanted to visit Amsterdam and see the Anne Frank House… and I must say it was so evocative. I feel it’s experiences like these which gives meaning to your travel.

Tip – Tickets are only available online direct from Anne Frank House and they sell out very fast, so book at least a month in advance. If the tickets are sold out, there is no other way to visit as you cannot buy them anywhere else.

The spot also serves as one of the stops for many of the city’s hop on and hop off boat tours. It is also a starting point for a few tour operators, and a lot of them have a tie up with the I amsterdam card, so if you have the card you can enjoy an hour long tour for free. These boat tours are really popular in Amsterdam and we opted for the one with Lovers. Our boat was covered from the top but with a glass ceiling so there was no obstruction to the view as such but quite honestly we would have preferred an open boat. The tour and commentary was ok, nothing great but nonetheless you get to see a lot more than what you would have explored on your own on foot.

Well waiting in queues and then sitting on a boat for an hour worked up our appetite, so the minute we stepped off the boat, we headed straight to Café Winkel 43 in Jordaan for some local beer and Dutch meat balls (bitterballen). While you’re here, don’t forget to taste the world famous Winkel 43’s Apple pie with whipped cream… it’s to die for!

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We spent the rest of the evening roaming around the gorgeous Jordaan area taking lots of photos, stopping by a few thrift stores, shopped for some souvenirs and finally ended the day with an amazing dinner at an Indian restaurant called Ganesha.

Day 3

 

On our third day we had something really fun planned –  a day trip to Zaanse Schans to check out the magnificent Windmills and the cheese factory. Instead of taking an organised tour we made use of the brilliant Dutch railway system and did a DIY day trip. We first took the metro to Amsterdam Sloterdijk and then from there took a sprinter to Zaandijk Zaanse Schaans station. From here, the windmills are just a 15 minutes easy walk 🙂

It wasn’t the sunniest day when we started from Amsterdam, but by the time we reached Zaanse Schaans it had already started to drizzle and half an hour into our escapade the weather decided to play a real spoil sport and it started to rain pretty heavily.  Lucky for us, some of these Windmills are in working condition and the owners welcomed visitors for a small fee. We visited De Kat, the one which make paints and got transported back in time. It was an amazing experience and on top of that the view from the platform above was just magnificent.

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We also visited the wooden clogs factory and the cheese farm briefly, but the real joy was to just sit on a bench under an umbrella and take in the beauty of the quintessential Holland scenery.

 

Well as you would have guessed, the Umbrella wasn’t big enough for both of us and we ended up getting drenched! So, we decided to first go back to the hotel, change our clothes and then go about exploring the city.

A couple of hours later, the weather was still miserable, but we decided to step out anyway. This time we took an extra umbrella (thanks to the Correndon City hotel) and we went to NEMO Science Museum. This place has some really cool exhibitions and its absolutely free to visit if you have an I amsterdam card. Well it does take a bit of walking to reach the museum from the central station, but we would say its worth it. To be really honest the real reason for us to come to the Nemo museum was to catch some views of the Amsterdam Skyline from the terrace, which by the way is absolutely free even if you don’t have an IAmsterdam card.

The view from the terrace was gorgeous, too bad we couldn’t take any decent shots because of the rain. The terrace also has a restaurant and some sort of a play area, we loved the fountains which you have to manually pump up by maneuvering the handles with your hands. The height of the water sprouted depends on the power you put into the apparatus. Pretty Sciency huh!

The rest of the evening we decided to just roam around the city, it was pretty cool to see that we were not the only ones who had been brave enough to step out in the rain! Next up we visited a Feebo store – it’s somewhat like the Dutch version of a Mcdonald’s … only bit cooler. So, you get your regular chicken burgers, etc but the show stopper are the croquets which sit nice and hot inside a wending machine ready to be munched on.

We spent majority of the evening strolling around the city and a few hours later we started craving for some Thai food, so we decided to sit down at some place, have a few drinks and check for the listings for Thai restaurant on Tripadvisor. We took refuge at this boisterous Irish Pub called Durty Nelly’s and while we made friends with some locals we enjoyed some great Guinness beer!

We found a highly rated Thai restaurant nearby called the Bird Thais restaurant and the sheer number of people who had queued up outside the restaurant when we reached there only verified the genuineness of the reviews on TripAdvisor.

We had to wait for almost 20 minutes before we got a table and we straight away ordered our staple Thai food – Thai Red curry with Jasmine rice and chicken pad thai. The food was amazing, and the service was quick and with that we wrapped up our third day in Amsterdam.

Day 4

 

If you haven’t biked in Amsterdam, have you even been to Amsterdam?! Well, we didn’t exactly bike in Amsterdam but we did do an awesome tour of the Dutch country side on two wheels with Volendam Rent & Events.

So, the weather on day 4 was again plotting against our plan to have a wonderful day trip to Volendam, a beautiful little town further up north from Amsterdam, but we kept our spirits high and decided to go as per the plan and our efforts did pay up. We had an amazing day biking our way to a beautiful country side. You can read our detailed post about the fantastic day we spent in Volendam HERE.

Quite honestly this has was our favourite day on the entire Europe trip and we would strongly recommend all our readers who are planning to visit Amsterdam to step out and experience the nearby small towns, they are just amazing.

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We ended our journey in Amsterdam with a long walk from the flower market till the central station where the decorations for Christmas had just begun.

Visiting Amsterdam had been on our list for a long time and we are grateful that we were finally able to visit this beautiful city. We fell in love with the city on the very first day and the fondness kept growing with every passing day. At the end of it we felt perhaps 4 days is a little too less to experience this vibrant city but on the bright side a short trip always gives you enough reasons to come back again.