AMSTERDAM TRAVEL TIPS FOR FIRST TIMERS | 30 Must-Knows Before Visiting Amsterdam What NOT to Do!

Amsterdam is one of the most beautiful cities in the world but one thing that gets downplayed a lot is how easy it is to actually mess up here luckily in this video I am sharing all my best Amsterdam tips and tricks for first timers to help you save money avoid scams and get around like a pro in case you're new here hi I'm Christina from happyto wonder.com and this channel is all about practical travel tips so be sure to like And subscribe if that sounds like your kind of thing now let's get started started with

some Amsterdam travel planning tips first in terms of when to go do be mindful of the fact that Amsterdam is probably one of the busiest tourist destinations in the entirety of Europe so regardless of when you go you can probably expect there to be at least some crowds with that in mind do try to plan for off peak periods if avoiding crowds is a big priority for you in addition to the usual summer and Holiday Rush that most European hotspots do experience Amsterdam does also have an additional p season around Springtime because of its world

famous tulips so think usually from March to May it can be really busy there as well especially because this period of time tends to coincide with the Easter holidays that a lot of European countries do have and these are really lengthy holidays that usually spend several weeks which means during this time you're also going to be seeing a lot more families and students traveling to Amsterdam as well in addition to that Amsterdam is just a super popular city break for people who want a weekend trip away so ideally if you're looking to minimize crowds I

would recommend going on weekdays and also going during the offseason like winter or maybe late fall now in terms of booking a place to stay I would say whenever possible try to book a hotel airbnbs are a pretty controversial Topic in the Netherlands especially in Amsterdam where there's a pretty severe housing shortage and besides not wanting to contribute to those issues renting an apartment rather than a hotel can come with a lot of extra inconveniences as well such as arranging time to check in with your host and corresponding with your host Etc as an example

of this on my most recent trip to Amsterdam last year I rented what looked like a really nice apartment on booking.com and the apartment itself was very nice but in addition to the absolutely wild list of rules that they eventually sent me I also had to bank transfer them a €500 deposit which was actually more than the nightly amount that I was paying to stay there and the cherry on top is once we got there they were drilling at random hours of the day because they were actually renovating the apartment above but nobody told us

that when we were booking eventually I did get my deposit back but I had to follow up and it was just a whole ordeal so I would say whenever possible book with a hotel it's honestly so much more convenient and if it's within your budget I would highly recommend booking a place to stay in the city center as much as possible just because Amsterdam is actually quite Compact and it's really nice to just be able to walk around and enjoy the city and not have to worry about commuting back to your hotel so if you

can do try to prioritize location because I think that's just the best way to experience the most of Amsterdam in a short amount of time if that isn't possible however I would just advise picking somewhere that is close to a metro station or tram stop or if you want to look even further out somewhere that's close to a train station just because the Netherlands is actually really compact so you could stay in a neighboring City and be in Amsterdam within 10 minutes so if you want to broaden your search a little bit that's totally possible

I know a lot of people recommend staying in Harlem rather than Amsterdam because you can take the train in and it only takes a few minutes that said if it's your first time I honestly think you should try to stay in Amsterdam because it's such a lovely experience but do it whatever works with your budget if you're looking for a cheaper neighborhood within the city the Nord neighborhood across the water is actually full of really affordable options and it's just a cool neighborhood as well with a free ferry that takes you over to the Amsterdam

Central Station in less than 5 minutes so it's a really nice alternative I've stayed there in the past and really enjoyed it and it's worth noting that if you're into quirky accommodation Amsterdam is a really great City for that in the past I've stayed in a house boo I've stayed in a hostel housed in a former laboratory stayed in a hostel housed on a train which I honestly wouldn't recommend because it was literally just an old train that they turned into a hostel you could even lock up your own room or your belongings and stuff

so it wasn't great Amsterdam is also home to a boatel which is pretty self-explanatory as well as a hotel located in a crane so overall there's a lot of really cool options so if you have the budget for it do be sure to shop around and kind of kind of look for those unique experiences now in terms of how long to stay I think a lot of people assume that one or 2 days is enough for Amsterdam because it's quite a small City but to be honest with you I think 3 or 4 days is

definitely needed for you to properly fall in love with the city and I say that because one or two days is fine if you're just going to walk around the city look at The Monuments and not actually go into any of the attractions but for you to actually do the city Justice and go see the inside of the museums actually enjoy those experiences you do really need at least 3 or 4 days plus having that extra time will allow you to venture a bit out of the city center so that you can experience some of

those smaller neighborhoods that make Amsterdam such a special place if time allows I would also highly recommend booking a day trip or two just because again the Netherlands is so compact that from Amsterdam you really have a bunch of really amazing day trips at your disposal so some of the more obvious ones are zans shant which is where you can see a lot of windmills and wooden clogs and in the spring there's the coconut Hof Gardens which are the largest Gardens in Europe but in addition to that within an hour from Amsterdam by train you

have tons of cool cities like rdam then hug Del Etc and Harlem of course which I mentioned previously so definitely make sure to add some more Dutch destinations to your itinerary if you have time because it's so easy to travel within the Netherlands so don't just limit yourself to Amsterdam now let's talk about transport and getting around Amsterdam first off skipple airport is actually very well connected to the City by train so this is probably going to be the cheapest and easiest option the journey takes less than 20 minutes and it's actually very affordable as

well that said if you are taking the train do avoid buying tickets from these machines that can be found at train stations across the country this is not because they're a scam they are absolutely legitimate it's just when they print the physical ticket for you they do give you an additional search charge of €1 which doesn't sound like a lot but the alternative is actually much easier so you can either tap in and out with a contactless credit or debit card and then they'll charge you automatically which I think is probably the simplest way or

if you want you can also book a ticket online in order to get these tickets online though and also for just general navigational purposes it's very important that you get a data plan for your trip and the easiest way to do that is by buying an eim on that note this week's video is brought to you by AO my go-to eim provider that provides easy and affordable connectivity to over 200 countries and regions around the world long story short eim stands for embedded Sim which means it's pre-installed on your device and works 100% digitally to

connect you to your telecom's network as soon as you land this means you can be connected as soon as you arrive in your destination without needing to switch those physical SIM cards in and out which I did for years and do not miss at all these days you do really need internet for everything and airlo just makes it super easy and it's also a lot more affordable than roaming for me so it's really just a win-win overall the best part is you can easily Buy eims on the AO app pre-install it and set it up

in advance and then just activate it and know that you're going to have data as soon as you land I honestly always assumed that eims were really complicated so I avoided them for the longest time but it's surprisingly painless so if you want to try them be sure to check out the link in my description and there's also a discount code in there for you to try it out all right thanks again to AO for sponsoring this week's video now let's get back to the navigation tips all right now once you're in the city center

honestly the best way to get around Amsterdam is just on foot the city is so beautiful and get to see so much that way when you're just walking around getting lost I know it's a total cliche but it's honestly the best way to get around in contrast I would say please do not rent a bike in Amsterdam unless you are a very proficient cyclist cyclists in Amsterdam do not mess around and they have very little patience for tourists who aren't familiar with the rules of the road and aren't proficient on bikes so really just save

yourself the trouble save yourself the pain if you're not great on a bike do not rent a bike in Amsterdam no matter how cute it looks for longer distances of course you also have the free fairies as well as the metro and trams that are all run by the local transport operator which is known as gvb that means that when you buy a day ticket or something with gvb that ticket is actually valid across these multiple modes of Transport so you don't need to worry about getting different tickets for the tram compared to the Metro

that said I would prioritize trams over the Metro just because trams are above ground and so you do get to see a lot more that way to pay for single tickets the easiest method is to just tap in and also tap out with a contactless card this way you're charged automatically and you don't need to worry about buying the right ticket but that said there are quite a few ways to save money so I'm going to try to summarize the different options as well as I can but just know that it is kind of confusing

and I hope you don't think that's my fault because they just have so many different possibilities so I'm not going to tackle all of them but I am going to focus on the bits that I think are most relevant for tourists so as of 2024 the cost of a 1H hour ticket on the gvb is €340 however the cost of a day ticket is €9 with additional multi-day tickets being a little cheaper per day depending on how many more days you add this means that so long as you are planning on taking more than two

rides a day it will most likely be cheaper to get a day ticket that said if you are taking the train from the airport as well there's actually another ticket called the Amsterdam travel ticket this includes the train to and from the airport as well as local trams and Metro this starts at €8 for the one-day version there's also an Amsterdam and region ticket which costs a little bit more but basically this just expands the validity of that other ticket to the greater Amsterdam area as well as a Holland ticket that includes transport within the

entire country finally adding even more confusion is something called the I Amsterdam card so basically this is a sightseeing card meant for tourists that includes access to 70 plus attractions in addition to day tickets for local public transport so if you're planning on doing a lot of sightseeing for paid attractions during your time in Amsterdam and you're also planning on using a lot of public transport this is probably going to be the best value I'll discuss this pass a little bit more later just because it can also be a bit confusing overall to decide the

best option for you it's not fun but you should probably just estimate the number of times per day you think you'll be using public transport and then crunch the numbers compared to the different passes now if you're planning on doing day trips or you're planning on traveling around using public transport a really great website is known as 9292 basically you just enter your point a and point B and then it'll tell you step by step all the different buses or trams or connections that you need to take to get there the gvb also has an

app of their own honestly as you can probably tell there are tons of different tickets and ways to get discounts I've just covered the different ones that I think are most relevant for tourists but if you want a full list and it's a very long list be sure to check out the official website all right next let's move on to attraction tips for Amsterdam first if you plan to do a lot of paid attractions as I mentioned before it might be worth your while to get the I Amsterdam card this card includes public transport as

well as entry to 70 plus attractions in the city for the number of days that you buy it for confusingly though you might think oh 70 plus that's a lot but it doesn't actually include every single major attraction in Amsterdam so some notable ones that are missing include the Anne Frank house which isn't included and as of 2022 also the Veno Museum so before you buy this pass do make sure you go through the list on their website to see what's actually included to make sure that the sites you want to see are actually included

in the pass and make sure you're specifically looking for the free with the I Amsterdam card label just because their website is a little bit tricky they do actually show you a list of attractions that includes ones that they give you a discount to or ones that just have tickets for pre-booking online so you really do need to look for that label to make sure that that attraction in particular is included in the card attractions in Amsterdam can be quite pricey though so often times admission tickets are like 20 to30 so a lot of the

time this card can really save you a lot of money of course just like with the transport tickets it's not just this one card that they have they actually have many different discount cards and again it's kind of confusing so I'll try my best to sort of recap the ones that you might find interesting so the other main Contender apart from the I Amsterdam card is the go City pass so I've used pass actually in London and also in New York and have always really enjoyed using them that said in Amsterdam their offerings are definitely

more geared towards experiences and attractions rather than museums so if you're interested in going to museums when you're in Amsterdam it's probably a good idea to stick with the I Amsterdam card on the other hand if you want things like tours and excursions then do look into the gohost City Pass another perk of the go City Pass is they actually offer two different options so the first one is the all-inclusive pass which is very similar to the I Amsterdam card in that you buy a certain number of days and then within those days you can

see as many attractions as you want and then they also have the Explorer pass which is where you buy a set bundle number of attractions and then you pay one price for that and the cool thing about that one is that pass is actually valid for 60 days so definitely more ideal if you have a longer trip and you want to spread out the sightseeing rather than condense it in just a few short days and speaking of longer trips there are actually more options if you can believe it that cater to Residents and longer term

visitors so this includes the museum card which includes a bunch of museums all across the country but again if you're just a regular tourist coming for a few days that's probably not going to be the best option of course if you do just want to pick and choose a few attractions rather than try to see them all then a great way to save money is to just look out for bundle deals and luckily in Amsterdam this is actually a very common thing so you'll often find that there's a bundle discount like 5 to 10% if

you want to buy like a Museum entry ticket that also includes a canal Cruise or also includes entry to another museum for instance so I like checking websites like getyou guide and tickets for these bundle deals often they have quite a few and you've seen how many attractions there are in Amsterdam there's pretty much pairings for every single one so I'm sure you'll find something that suits what you actually want to see now I know this all sounds really overwhelming Amsterdam is a small City but there's so much to do and see I should stress

that at the end of the day just remember to choose activities that you are personally interested in I know that sounds really basic but amst shadam is one of those cities that just has all these attractions that are really famous and really hyped up and everyone's saying like this is a must se you have to go see this but at the end of the day if you're not interested in art don't pressure yourself into going to the Rick's museum for instance just because you know it's famous I promise you you're not going to have a

good time the cool thing about Amsterdam is that there's really something for everyone so just take a good hard look at the different attractions that are available and be honest with yourself pick the things that you feel like you personally do want to see that said I would urge you to prioritize uniquely Amsterdam attractions while you're in town so what I mean by that is in Amsterdam there's tons of attractions and some of them don't really have a lot to do with the city of Amsterdam or the Netherlands in general at all so for instance

bam2 sads which is a wax museum or rip please believe it or not those are two very popular attractions and I'm sure they are really fun but I feel like if you don't have a ton of time in the city you should be prioritizing things that are distinctly Amsterdam if that makes sense so just keep that in mind and also prioritize free things as well Amsterdam is not a cheap City but if you're on a budget there's actually quite a lot that you can do without spending a lot on attraction tickets so off the top

of my head there's the Amsterdam City archives and also some of my favorites the free views from the Nemo Science Museum which is completely free for the public to access as well as the view from the Amsterdam Central Library Terrace now for the next tip for big attractions make sure you are booking well in advance PE season in Amsterdam or just Amsterdam in general is no joke with some of the bigger attractions often booking out weeks if not months in advance with the anrank house for instance tickets get released 6 weeks before the date and

they sell out pretty much instantly during peak season so make sure to plan ahead next make sure you are venturing Beyond just the touristic Center of Amsterdam most of the time when visitors come to Amsterdam they do stay within this very middle part around the red light district maybe they'll venture out to yordan but there's honestly a lot of really nice neighborhoods in Amsterdam to check out if you have the time so if time allows make sure you are exploring other neighborhoods like Amsterdam West into pipe and I'm personally a big fan of the nort

neighborhood they have a really cool Street Art Museum over there that I would highly recommend checking out but that said next week I do have a full video coming all about the best things to do in Amsterdam so be sure to subscribe so you don't miss it finally if you are looking for this specific photo op I hate to be the bear of bad news but that sign has not been there since 201 18 it's actually now by the airport but people are still looking for it so make sure you know you will not see

the sign here when you go to this Museum plan area but if you want to find the sign it's at the airport all right now let's move on to food and drink tips for Amsterdam first off if you have a restaurant that you have your heart set on make sure that you're booking a reservation as I mentioned before Amsterdam gets super busy over Peak periods and odds are if you have a restaurant you want to try other people want to try it as well so make sure you make those bookings of course there's over a

th000 restaurants in Amsterdam so you won't starve if you want to be a bit more spontaneous but if you have your heart set on a specific Place make sure you book it for an easy way to book tables you can use websites like Open Table my next tip is to just be wary of places that have become super famous thanks to social media often times these viral spots can be overhyped and I think a big part of that is just the fact that a lot of them do focus on Aesthetics more than they focus on

taste so a really great example of this in Amsterdam is strut waffles so strut waffles I think are meant to be eaten plain they're really good on their own but a lot of the more popular places are the ones that dunk them in chocolate cover them in candy and I just don't feel like that's the best way to experience them so make sure you're always looking into the reviews to ensure that it's not just a tourist trap now speaking of viral Sensations one place in Amsterdam that has completely blown up on social media and always

has a super long lineup is Von stap cookies so these cookies are really good but one thing that most people don't know about is you can actually skip the line entirely if you book these cookies online in advance so I recently did this on my trip and it was just the biggest life hack because I got to just strut in there skip the lineup and I felt like a celebrity so remember just go on their website pre-book the cookies and then when you go you literally ring this golden doorbell and then they let you in

to grab your cookies without having to wait next we should probably address the difference between coffee shops and cafes because in Amsterdam or in the Netherlands in general there is an important distinction to be made so let's make this clear if you're looking for coffee and just coffee go to a cafe if however you want some other things then go to a coffee shop don't make the classic tourist mistake of going to a coffee shop when all you want is a cappuccino adding to this confusion of course are brown bars so Brown bars are a

very typical Dutch thing that's basically like a cozy Dutch Pub and the reason they're called Brown bars is because the inside is all dark and wooden and super cozy so I'd highly recommend recommend going to one for a drink because that's like a quintessential Dutch experience that you don't want to miss now in terms of Dutch food I Do cover this more in my full Netherlands travel tips video but it's safe to say that Dutch Cuisine is something that really divides people I personally love it but it's not for everyone a lot of typical Dutch

snacks tend to be deep fried and so if that's your kind of thing then I can highly recommend stopping off at one of the many AO mats around town and these are basically wallmounted vending machines that have hot food items in them so it's really cool you can just tap your card or insert a coin and then get some fresh or questionably fresh snacks like bitter Ballin or croquet so that's a really fun Amsterdam food experience that I can highly recommend another popular street food is Herring so you'll see stalls all around the city selling

this it's not my kind of thing but if you're adventurous and you want to give it a try my one tip is to make sure you're keeping an eye on your Herring as you're eating it because I have seen a lot of funny videos of Seagulls just snapping up this Herring mid bite while people are trying to eat it like this so make sure you are keeping an eye out for seagulls because they are ruthless now apart from Dutch food do keep in mind that Amsterdam is a really International City so there's a lot of

really great International food options as well so you don't need to necessarily limit yourself to Dutch food one quisine I can highly recommend you try when you're in town is Indonesian or surinamese and the reason for that is just because once upon a time the Dutch Colonial Empire was huge and so there's actually a lot of Indonesian and camese restaurants in Amsterdam these days or in the Netherlands in general and they serve some pretty excellent food one really cool experience that I can recommend is called the rice taffle and that literally translates to Rice table

and it's basically just a way that you can sample a lot of different dishes at the same time with rice so it's really good if you're craving a break from Dutch food that's definitely something I can recommend and lastly don't forget to visit cheese shops while you're in town Dutch cheese might not be as famous as other European countries but I assure you it is absolutely delicious and if you go to a more touristy place like Henry willig they are super generous with their samples just so you know so make sure that you're visiting that

said Henry willig their cheeses are good and they are packaged really nicely but as many locals will tell you it is a very touristy shop and so you're going to be charged a premium for the cheeses there if you're looking for something more affordable and honestly probably better tasting then be sure to visit a local market and just grab some cheese from there and be wow now finally let's tackle some tips for once you arrive in Amsterdam the first is to be mindful of bike Lanes I've alluded to this before but cyclists in Amsterdam have

no patience for clueless tourists so in Amsterdam the bike lanes are actually usually right next to The Pedestrian lanes and if you're new to the city you might not notice them right away so this is how you can tell when something's a bike lane most of the time it's going to be red so keep an eye out for these red Lanes make sure you're not walking into them especially not if you're trying to take a photo or something like that because you will probably get run over and trust me pedestrians do not have right of

way in Amsterdam so keep an eye out for bikes in terms of what to wear do make sure that you are prepared for wind rain and all kinds of weather because trust me the weather in the Netherlands is notoriously unpredictable so even if you wake up and the start of the day it's bright and sunny you could encounter rain later on so just make sure you have options for all the different possible elements I would also make sure to bring a small day bag with you so a lot of the main attractions and museums in

Amsterdam actually don't allow you to take a backpack in so while there are lockers that you can Stow your belongings in most of the time I do feel safer just knowing everything's in my day bag and close to me and I can keep an eye on it so just remember that big bags aren't allowed in a lot of the museums another thing to bring is coins for public toilets so unfortunately in the Netherlands like in many European countries it does cost money to use the toilet so in train stations for instance the cost is about7

so that's why I would advise you bring some change with you to make sure that you can use the facilities if you ever need them a lot of these machines do take card these days but I kept running into trouble with my card for some reason so it's good to have some coins just in case there are some public urinals on the street but that's obviously not super useful if you need an actual toilet and the final tip is honestly common sense but it's worth repeating and that's just to be respectful I know a lot

of visitors come to Amsterdam to party or to take advantage of certain viices but at the end of the day Amsterdam is still a city that's home to hundreds of thousands of residents so do remember to treat the city with respect remember that it's someone's home don't take photos in the red light district don't be shouting at the top of your lungs while you're walking home from the bar things like that all right thank you so much for watching be sure to like And subscribe for more practical travel videos just like this one and I'll

see you guys next week bye