Your guide to Amsterdam! Amsterdam may have a stigma to it, but it has so much to offer besides cannabis (which was a bigger deal in 2017 when it wasn’t legalized recreationally in many places) and other “friendly services” 🙂 The cobblestone streets lined with canals and beautiful architecture really make for a beautiful city. It is also a clean city!
Best time to visit
Amsterdam has some perks in every season of the year.
- Summer: Great weather
- Spring: Tulips are in bloom
- Autumn: Less crowds and changing of the leaves
- Winter: Beautiful Christmas lights and the Christmas Market
Peak tourist season in Amsterdam is during the summer months. Prices will be higher and crowds will be larger. The crowds tend to gather for the tulip season as well, but for good reason! The Netherlands are known for their beautiful tulips.
My recommendation for the best month to visit Amsterdam is September
The crowds are winding down, the prices are decreasing, the weather is still pleasant and there is still plenty of daylight. By November the weather is starting to get on the colder side and less pleasant. However, if Amsterdam is on your list due to the tulips, go in April!
Weather
Amsterdam can have cool and windy winters and humid summers. July and August are the warmest and most humid while January is your coldest and windiest.
- Summer weather is quite pleasant with highs typically in the 70’s F (20’s C) and lows in the 50’s (!!)- However, expect humidity and it combined with the sun can make for warmer conditions.
- September continues to have pleasant weather with highs in the upper 60’s and lows in the 50’s and the rainy season hasn’t yet come (another reason it is a great time to visit)!
- October weather can be hit or miss, but typically cools off quick and by November, the rainy season has come.
- Winters can be brutal. Temps typically don’t drop below freezing a lot, but highs are typically in the 40’s F, with lows in the 30’s F and humidity and wind can make for unpleasant weather.
- Spring brings gradual warming. March is still quite chilly, but by May you will get highs in the 60’s F again
Currency
The Netherlands are part of the EU, thus they use the euro as their currency.
Tipping: Dutch law states service charges must be added to the price of meals in restaurants. So, it isn’t quite as customary to tip. However, as an American, tipping is ingrained into my head and I would still tip, especially if service is good.
Transportation
Grab a bike! Honestly, the best way to explore Amsterdam is on a bike. Amsterdam also has a tram and metro system as well as a bus system and ferries. There is no reason to rent a car when you visit Amsterdam.
Bike rentals are super affordable in Amsterdam and there are several places to rent from. The bike lanes as well as the bikes are endless in Amsterdam. There are about 4x more bikes in Amsterdam than cars and about 60% of locals own and use their bike daily. It’s a fun and great way to get around!
Click here to get started on booking your bike!
Accommodations
I will give recommendations all day, but I’m not quite as big on non-recommendations. I don’t want to publicly dog a business unless it’s just an awful experience and horribly deserving. With that being said, I won’t give you a direct recommendation on where to stay in Amsterdam, because I don’t recommend where we stayed.
I will say we stayed in the Red Light district, honestly, on accident because I was quickly looking at cheap places and didn’t do enough research 🙂 . We stayed in a hostel due to save money. It was super affordable! However, it was a mixed-dorm over a bar in the Red Light district. I don’t exactly regret staying there because its funny to talk about now. However, I wouldn’t recommend that situation on anyone else.
There are several hostels in Amsterdam and they are typically an affordable option. However, know that you could be sharing a room with a younger crew. If you ARE the younger crew, this could be a great option.
If you aren’t, however, so keen on the rowdiness, I recommend staying just outside the Red Light district where you are still in walking distance of everything, but away from the noise. Also, if you are trying to avoid noise, splurging for a hotel or AirBNB may be your best option.
Food
Your guide to Amsterdam and the Dutch foods! While you are there try:
- Stroopwafel- delicious dough filled with caramel and placed on teh griddle
- Poffertjes- mini Dutch pancakes covered in sugary syrup
- Herring- A Dutch staple of raw fish that has been frozen then semi-cured in salt and aged for a few days in oak. Typically served with onions. Honestly, I didn’t try it, but people raved about it!
- Fried Cod- Just as it sounds. Delicious fried cod is popular in Amsterdam!
- Bitterballen- Ground meat croquettes that are often served as a bar snack with your beer!
What to do
Amsterdam is full of stuff to do. Looking for recommendations? Click here!
A few Pearls
- Amsterdam is more than just its reputation and has more to offer than their libral offerings 🙂 Go with an open mind, because it really is a beautiful city!
- While you are wandering around the Red Light district, DO NOT TAKE PICTURES. Things can go south quickly if you are caught taking pictures
- There are many cops and body guards in the Red Light District, so it really is a pretty safe place to be
- Be careful when you go looking for your real coffee 🙂 Cannabis can’t technically be advertised, so cannabis shops have been called Coffe Shops
- Fun, or not fun, fact: Focus of the police was shifted away from Cannabis toward the more hard drug problem of heroin Amsterdam had in the 60’s, creating a culture of tolerance and paving the way for the modern-day influx of tourists to the famous coffee shops.
Your guide to Amsterdam! Being someone who doesn’t actively participate in the “offerings” of Amsterdam, I still thoroughly enjoyed the city! I loved the canals and Dutch architecture and biking around the city. I 100% recommend the city even if the “soft drug tourism” culture starts to decline (which I’ve heard snippets of, but don’t know all of the details there!)