1st time to Amsterdam
 

HEY... leaving for Amsterdam in 10 days.... very nervous!!! Please help with any restaurant suggestions, sites suggestions... MUST SEES!!! We will be there 3 days!!

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threadselect.jsp?fid=2

go to your local library and check out a few books too.

have fun

Why are you nervous? It's a wonderful city and the centre is small, and the public transport system is wonderful, and loads of people speak English.

What could be less confronting?

Why did you choose Amsterdam?

You must have some idea of what there is to see. If not, as previous poster said, go to local library and get out a book; or even buy a guidebook and read it on the plane/train (where are you from).

Personally I would say the Rijkmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum, and just go walkabout (Jordaan area especially fine).

What are you nervous about specifically? Amsterdam is a great city. Much of it centrally located so easy to see on foot.

Do you have a guidebook?

I used "Let's Go Amsterdam" for my first trip. It was perfect. Great maps and listings of anything you might want to know.

You don't need to worry ahead of time about restaurants, there are so many all over the city, easy to find places to eat.

One thing I didn't do, but would next time is take a tour on a canal boat.

Yes, even if you don't like tours, getting onto a canal boat is one of the very finest experiences you can have in Amsterdam. You don't really understand how beautiful the city is, or how it developed, or what it means to be below sea level, until you see it from the water.

The boats leave from several places around town and the cost of a ticket is worth it.

The first thing that comes to my mind when I see a question like this it to advise clicking on "DESTINATIONS" and then the city if it's there.

Fodor's has a great deal of easy to find information in one place.

not nervous about the city... i have been doing lots of research...just don't want to miss anything in my time there.... i just want TIPS! :) thanks!!

My best tip is if you don't have a guidebook yet, get one to take along with you on the trip.

Once you arrive likely your hotel can help you with maps and recommendations of nearby places to eat or shop or whatever.

If you are into museums at all, then certainly the Rijksmuseum would be a must and probably the VanGogh as well.

The Anne Frank house and you might even have time to ride over to Haarlem which is only a 15-minute train ride away.

I thought the red light district was worth an evening of walking around.

Amsterdam is GREAT! @Suze, It's a shame you didn't take a tour on a canal boat, the canals are one of the things Amsterdam is known for.

@angelalice21
You should visit the House of Bols. This museum is different from all other museums. Here you will find a mixture of dutch culture and the world of cocktails.

This museum is young and trendy but also informative.

And you'll get a free cocktail afterwards.

You won't regret it.

Cheers William

A great site for restaurant reviews; www.iens.nl

Also in English!

A direct link to the English part of the site:
http://www.iens.nl/english/index.htms?

Here is a site that has free walking guides to A'dam.

http://www.eatndrink.com/pages/bestwalks.html

There are a handful of walks to meet a variety of interests.

Here's my rather long trip report from Amsterdam, which includes some very good restaurants and cafes. Have fun there. It's a wonderful place.

" Final stop: Amsterdam. Five nights’ stay, first visit for all of us.

LOVED, LOVED, LOVED Amsterdam! You always hear of the Red Light district and the coffee shops and the laissez-faire attitude, but you don’t hear how open and friendly the people are, how lovely the canals and side streets, how wonderfully trendy the restaurants and cafes, how people are out strolling at all hours of the night and you feel safe everywhere. I think I’d expected it to be quaint and charming (which it is), but in a dark wood-paneled cliché way, not in the young and contemporary way it is.

The standard reply we were given in Amsterdam, when we asked for anything, was always “Of course!” How refreshing.

We stayed in a fabulous location, at The Hotel Residence le Coin, which was directly across a small street from the Hotel de l’Europe, down the street from the Hotel Doelan, on Nieuwe Doelenstraat (sp?). A great neighborhood in the heart of old Amsterdam.

The hotel has a lift and A/C, also free use of the hotel’s washing machine and clothes dryer in the basement (which was welcome as we’d been traveling over a week when we arrived there). Each room has a little kitchenette, a nice-sized bath, large rooms with wooden floors and a sitting area. It’s fairly new, so everything sparkles. Very friendly front desk, too.

Two cafes on the same block as the hotel were wonderful: Café Katoen for a university atmosphere, and Café le Jarden, for great table seating on the canal.

Amazing dinners at two restaurants in particular:
“Stout!”, at Haarlemmerstraat 73 (www.restaurantstout.nl). Fabulous ‘foamy asparagus’ soup with shrimp, chateaubriande, fresh fish, dessert course, wine list. Very trendy lighting. Great service. We’d gone to the neighborhood in search of a restaurant called “Lof” which we’d seen written up. We didn’t like its atmosphere, but were lucky that Stout! was just across the street.

Also at “Restaurant Dining Eleven” we had a great dinner. It’s at Reestraat 11. Also trendy and contempory, well-presented and beautifully-served meal.

Another nice dinner at “frenzi”, at Swanenburgwal 232. Very simple and contemporary. We arrived shortly after 10:00p.m., when most restaurants close in Amsterdam, and persuaded the owner to sell us any left-overs they had in the kitchen! They put together a nice Caesar salad with cooked-in-the-shell shrimp and mango. Very nice.

Also a good brunch at a place across the street from frenzi—called “Puccini”. Creative salads and sandwiches. Very nice also.

We took a canal cruise one evening. Toured the Anne Frank Huis and the Van Gogh Museum. Visited the Nieuwe Kerk (sp?) Our teens went to a concert at the Paradiso and loved it.

One afternoon we did the 2:30 “Best of Holland” excursion to Volendam and Marken, with a stop to see wooden clogs made, Gouda cheese created, and to visit windmills. It was by bus, with a boat from Volendam to Marken. A lot of fun. Even our two teens liked it.

Our teens also liked shopping at one street in particular, between our hotel and the museum district. Also a Zara shop there, and many others like it. They thought the selection and prices were better in Amsterdam than what they’d seen in London and Paris even.

A detail about Amsterdam if you go there-- carry enough Euros in cash, because many places won't accept a credit card for a 'small' purchase (i.e. under 25 EU)."

The flower auction is a must see as far as I'm concerned, although you do have to get up early to see anything.

http://www.aalsmeer.nl/00004.asp

Blsuw at achterburgwal 99 in the heart of the Red Light Distict was excellent.

We also very much enjoyed the Indonesian Tempo Deoloe on Utrechtsestraat 75.

I LOVED Amsterdam... was there for 3 days last fall. Here are a few suggestions:

Anne Frank house - either book reserved tickets or get there an hour before they open and eat breakfast in line... the lines are amazing.

Rent a bike and ride through the city... it was the best thing I did while I was there.

Ride through Vondelpark. There should be all sorts of concerts in the park right now. Great place for picnic, too, I would think.


To an earlier poster's point, everyone I met spoke English. Before I went, I learned how to say, "I'm sorry, I don't speak Dutch... do you speak English?" EVERY single person looked at me like I was insane. "Of course I speak English." I think they spoke it better than I do.