My Top Travel Tips for Amsterdam: Advice from a First-Time Visitor
In winter 2022, I had the wonderful opportunity to travel to Amsterdam. Despite the cold weather, I really enjoyed my time there!
Since it was my first time visiting Amsterdam—and my first travel experience in a major European city outside of Spain–I made some mistakes along the way. On the other hand, I also lucked into some really incredible experiences! In this post, I share my tips for other first-time travelers to Amsterdam based on what I learned during my winter trip to the Netherlands.
This post is not meant to serve as a comprehensive travel guide to Amsterdam by any means. How could it? I only stayed in the city for a few nights! Rather, this post offers some tips I have based on the things I got right and wrong during my first time traveling in the Netherlands. I hope you find this list of travel tips to be entertaining!
1. Reserve tickets for Amsterdam museums well in advance of your trip.
In general, I prefer to go with the flow when traveling and play things by ear rather than booking tickets and tours in advance. However, this way of traveling is simply not possible if you want to visit the popular museums in Amsterdam. And I learned this the hard way.
Luckily, I had reserved a ticket to visit the Anne Frank House, because as I stood waiting in line to enter, other tourists were turned away when they asked if they could purchase tickets. Apparently, that day and the next, the Anne Frank House was completely booked.
Unfortunately, though, I did not think to reserve a ticket ahead of time for the Van Gogh Museum. Once I arrived it Amsterdam, that museum was already completely booked during my entire trip to the Netherlands.
So, if you want to be sure to see certain museums in Amsterdam, be sure to reserve your tickets well before your trip.
2. Consider buying an Amsterdam Travel Ticket.
If you’re planning on using public transportation multiple times while in Amsterdam, you should consider purchasing the Amsterdam Travel Ticket.
When I visited Amsterdam, I bought a three-day Amsterdam Travel Ticket for 28 euros total, and it covered my transportation on the train to and from the airport as well as trams, busses, metros, and ferries operated by GVB. For my trip, this covered all of the public transport I needed to get around the city of Amsterdam. This was a great way to save money while getting around this major city efficiently.
Before purchasing, be sure to do your own research to see if the Amsterdam Travel Ticket is right for you and your trip. For up-to-date information on pricing and what exactly is included, click here.
3. Take a canal boat tour of Amsterdam.
Canal boat tours offer a unique way to see the city of Amsterdam. I’m so grateful that I took a canal cruise through Amsterdam, because I learned a lot from the guided tour, and seeing the city from that angle was really fun!
I would definitely recommend taking a canal boat tour during your first day or two in Amsterdam, because it may help you get oriented to the layout of the city.
There are tons of Amsterdam canal cruise companies, but I took my canal boat tour through Lover’s, which is conveniently located close to Amsterdam Central Station.
4. Take advantage of the transit information desks within Amsterdam Central Station.
Luckily for tourists and locals alike, Amsterdam has a fantastic public transportation system. But if you’re like me and haven’t had much experience with complex transit systems, you might get a little confused.
If you can’t figure out what sort of transportation you need to take to get to where you need to go, stop at one of the transit information desks within Amsterdam Central Station. They’ll be able to help direct you to the right bus, train, tram, or ferry. And they can do so in English!
5. Try traditional Dutch foods!
When you travel to Amsterdam, I definitely recommend you try as many traditional Dutch foods as you can!
First off, Amsterdam is famous for its fries—or chips, as the Dutch call them. If you’re from the United States, you might think it would be silly to spend time eating fries in Amsterdam, but I can assure you, the fries are different in Amsterdam. Don’t miss out on the fries!
You can also try lots of delicious Dutch desserts in Amsterdam. If you have a sweet tooth, you might be interested in stroopwafels, poffertjes, oliebollen, and Dutch apple pie, to name a few.
For more information about where exactly I tried all of this yummy Dutch food, check out this blog post.
I hope you enjoy your travels in Amsterdam!
