City Break - Amsterdam

Depends on your budget, but if you are going to the centre by train from the airport then the Ibis Amsterdam centre is right next to the main train station exit so you will not have to lug your bags round anywhere. It is also a short walk to many of the attractions and boat trips.

In case you do not know, Ibis is a budget hotel brand, so it is not going to blow you away with comfort, but they are clean/tidy and... well, budget

You can get Northern Lights in Amsterdam. 😉

Amsterdam is pretty compact, particularly the old city. It's a great place to wander around. Hiring bikes is fun and let's you get around the entire city, but riding there does take some getting used to. If you aren't feeling that brave, the public transport is great - get a multi day ticket. The area around the station is horribly touristy, a bit reminiscent of the eastern end of Oxford Street, but get a bit further away and it's fine. Although it can cost more, I always prefer to take the train rather than fly, especially now you don't have to change in Brussels on the way back.

The Van Gogh Museum is good, and I loved the Canal Museum which explains how the old city was built and evolved. Also great is the Tropenmusem about world cultures - so well designed. Cross to Amsterdam Noord by ferry for modern culture and some great post industrial grunge.

So many decent bars and cafes. For the best coffee and great cakes I'd go to the Scandinavian Embassy, but if you like syrup in your latté they will refuse and be very rude to you.

If the weather is decent take the train to Naarden - an amazing old fortified town to the east of the city. I actually cycled from the centre to Naarden on a Dutch bike last November, which was a great day out, although the headwind on the way back was brutal.

Overall, I loved it, and if you are only there 5 days the flatness won't bother you 😁

It's a tame place now. Pretty, with decent food, but we never felt that it had any kind of edge to it. Not like it did years ago, which may be a good thing. It's also kind of small. We went about 3 years ago, for a week, and I am struggling to remember much about it.

I'd say do 2/3 days then go to somewhere like nijemagen or Arnhem

See the proper Netherlands

Body worlds exhibition is good.
The sex museum is just funny.
I like vondelpark.

It's a small place for that long; how about Berlin? A lot more interesting/ edgy + the locals are even more friendly than the cloggies

As others have said, 5 days is probably too long in Amsterdam.

We have just come back from Krakow which was enjoyable but again 5 days may be too much.

I would recommend Bratislava. It is a small city and probably covered in a day or two. However, it is only a short train journey from both Vienna and Budapest so you can see 3 cities in one trip.

The Boss has said Amsterdam - want's to go when tulips are in bloom, so may mean a trips out. I'm going to have t work out the scale of the place - we found loads to do in rague over 5 days. I'd go back to Prague and Budapest.

Gdansk is a great place for a week. Tri-city, so quite a bit of variety. Note to self: go to Krakow!

I'd go back to the Brewery 'T Ij any day of the week. Bit of a trek from the centre, probably best on a day you have a bike.

5 days? For a city break, that's a push. It's got a lot of nice places but I'm not sure I would want to spend five days there.

If Norrskenet is what you're looking for, have you considered Helsinki? I mean, I can see the lights from here in Uppsala, so you should be good next door. You may want to time it though and choose some place that is dark outside.

Funny story: My mother booked a week in Iceland a couple of years ago for the lights and had to spend hours outside waiting for the camera to get the long exposure of the lights. We stepped outside the house and saw this amazing display that just kept on going.

Hell, come to Stockholm for five days and then book an AirB&B somewhere in the country to the north. Or just come to Stockholm.

If you are going to do the museums I would suggest booking tickets online before you go. I personally enjoyed the graffiti/ street art museum at the NDSM wharf (an ex-shipbuilding area converted into an arts enclave). Also if you run out of things to do in Amsterdam then Haarlem is well worth a visit.

Amsterdam is great, but definitely recommend heading further afield if you're there for 5 days. Haarlem, Delft, The Hague, Rotterdam and Amersfoort are all within easy reach via train and are worth exploring. I've stayed at a few different places around Amsterdam, including across the water in Amsterdam noord at the Yotel which was pretty good. The '9 streets' are nice for a wander around, Proeflokaal Arendsnest is excellent for a few beers. See what exhibitions are on when you're over, I saw a Van Gogh Hockney one at the Van Gogh museum which was pretty cool. For tulips make sure you get the season right(!) and check out the Keukenhof for displays

muddyground
Free Member
Gdansk is a great place for a week. Tri-city, so quite a bit of variety. Note to self: go to Krakow!

Oh god, just go......it's ace.
Not huge, but so much to see. Walkable, fun, safe and packed with
places that'll blow your mind.
We spent a full day in the Schindler museum and still missed bits.
The old Jewish quarter is a great place to eat and socialise, people are so friendly and desperate to show you round.
For culture, music, art and history with a nice, low key vibe, it can't be beat.

Polish mates have recommended cycling round Gdansk and the lakes to the North, it's on the list.

Oh a trip out to the coasts good go visit edam and the windmills

We went to Keurkenhof in full bloom. Was a great trip by train but you’re out of season. Also visited a friend on the other side of the Netherlands by train. You’ll soon appreciate public transport.

Buy tickets online or at the airport. The big name places are very popular. The maritime museum is good. Rent a bike and see the city. Sit in a park and go for walks along the canal.

We stayed out of the city and caught the tram to dam square.

5 days isn't enough to see Amsterdam properly, in my view. Fantastic city. So many great museums and galleries; the aforementioned ones of course, plus the Rijks is probably one of the best in the world for art. The Jewish Museum, along with the Holocaust Museum and Memorial are essential imo, as is the Museum of Resistance (Verzetsmuseum). Near the Rijks, you've also got the Moco and Stedelijk for more modern art, as well as the Van Gogh.

I'm into photography and architecture, so Amsterdam is a great place to wander/cycle round to find stuff. I'd say taking/hiring a bike is pretty much essential as well, as you can then travel a bit further to find some other hidden gems. Top tip; the cafe in the Centraal Library is very good, and very reasonable. You can make your own soup! It has a great view, and is open most evenings. What I would do, is stay away from the very centre, as it's extremely touristy, and mainly just shops and crap. Hearing the chimes at the Oude Kirke is nice, but expect to queue up for a long time if you want to visit Anne Frank's house. Don't bother with the red light district unless you want creepy men rubbing you. What's so fascinating about prostitution anyway?

The passenger ferries are free! And the many parks are really good places to chill out for a while. I ❤️ Amsterdam!

Bookmarked, fancy going here with a cruise/ferry from Hull.

I'd second the Van Gogh Museum. It's very much what you'd expect but I found it quite captivating.

I'd also second getting out of Amsterdam. Like any major city it just feels a bit manic and stressful. It has its charm of course, but many other places in the Netherlands are so chilled. Definitely get a bike at some point, the ability to travel around in such a relaxed way, completely unimpeded needs to be experienced to be believed. Just don't do it in the centre of Amsterdam, not on day 1 at least anyway.

The thing I learned at the Van Gough museum is that he was right to give up painting figures. His hands were appalling and he came late and largely self-trained.

And check out the bike shops because that’s what utility cycling really looks like.

Amsterdam is ace. Art is well known but its also amazing for science. Cant believe nobody has mentioned NEMO which is superb and also Microbia by the Zoo. Actually the Zoo is good too and I normally hate Zoo’s.
Its a very safe city so you can wander around at night without a worry and there are some lovely bars.
As others have said the actual centre is pretty awful but it doesnt take long to get into the nice bits as is so compact. There is a big long (fairly tacky) market but the steets off that have loads of cool stuff going on. I’d definitely spend 1 day of the five jumping on a train and going to somewhere like Texel, Giethoorn or the Veluwe to get a flavor of real Netherland

Love the crazy Dutch but then I’m biased as I married one!

Zaanse Schans to have a look at some windmills. It’s around 20 minutes by train from Amsterdam and has an interring demo of how a clog is machined. Also the mannekin pis chippy half way up damrak is legendary in my opinion.