Amsterdam Must Do's
 

We will be in Amsterdam in June/July for a few days. I would love to know what we must do? We are also interested in renting a car for a day and doing a little sightseeing. Any ideas or help very welcome. Would love a lot more time but just don't have it. Thank you.

Within Amsterdam you really, really, don't need a car. Everything's set up to discourage it. Walk or use the trams.

With only a few days, there is more than enough to see and do in Amsterdam, but if you wanted a day trip elsewhere, again, public transport or a coach tour will get you there.

As for what you must do: enjoy yourself seeing the things that interest you from what's in a good guidebook or the destinations guide from the top menu on this page.

Book your tickets for the Anne Frank house online before you leave! Take a canal boatride. Visit the Rijk and Van Gogh museums.

Enjoy the canals

What avalon said... Also, I liked the houseboat museum - small and interesting and near the Anne Frank house. There are a few small museums that are very nice....Visit the flower market.... Walk... Take a bike tour...

We had a wonderful time in Amsterdam just walking everywhere. We picked up the free walking tour. It was great. We walked for a few hours around the different parts of the city and we were given some great insights and stories from our guide. They rely on tips at the end as payment. Many skipped out before the end so they didn't have to pay. I thought that was really mean. It was certainly worth a good tip. Have fun!

Thank you for replies. jayneLB what are the free walking tours? And how much do you tip? Being Australian we find the tipping part hard as we never know how much.

How many days is a few?
The obvious things are the van Gogh and Rijks Museums, Anne Frankhuis, Hermitage Amsterdam, maybe the Verzetmuseum. Canal tour, flower market. Have a look at Palenque's post on Amsterdam for the clueless and clued : http://tinyurl.com/yajgun3.

You could do a trip out to Zaanse Schans and maybe Volendam. You don't need a car for that. Or to Den Haag, Leiden, Delft, Rotterdam, Haarlem, all very doable by train.

Or if you want to hire a car then maybe Naarden and Muiden would be of interest. Also Spakenburg, a small fishing village which used to be on the Zuiderzee is nearby and some of the ladies still wear their traditional costume. The Palace at Soestdijk is open to the public. The palace itself (home of the late Queen Juliana) is not actually worth the entrance fee imho but the gardens are nice to stroll around.

Further afield you could drive up to the Afsluitdijk which separates the sea from the Ijsselmeer (former Zuiderzee), and maybe visit Enkhuizen or even cross the dijk and go to Harlingen or Hindelopen. Franeker has a wonderful wooden planterium if you want to go that far.

If you want to continue the WW2 theme then the Airborne museum at Oosterbeek may be of interest. http://www.airbornemuseum.nl/language/en
You could combine that with the open air museum in Arnhem http://www.openluchtmuseum.nl/en/ or with the Kröller Muller museum in the Hoge Veluwe NP. http://www.kmm.nl/?lang=en

Hi Rebecca, We picked up a brochure in our hotel. Just ask- someone in the hotel/ hostel will know about them. They are quite popular. Sorry, but I cant remember how much we tipped but we just decided what we thought it was worth based on how much a paid tour would have cost and paid a bit less. I'm an Aussie too and find the whole tipping concept complicated, especially when you pay for a service and then tip as well. This walking tour is well worth it though. We also did one in Paris= great. The guides have a good knowledge of the cities.

We also took a day trip to Edam. It was a lovely day- we wanted to see the windmills that Holland is famous for. I think we booked it before we left through Viator online.

Rebecca, I just found my brochure. The meeting place is at the National Monument in Dam Square opposite the Royal Palace. Tours start at 11am and 1pm daily. A web site that might help www.neweuropetours.eu Good luck.

Hi; This is one company that offers 'free tours' that lasts for three hours. Click on The Amsterdam Tours. We did a Munich tour with this company and they were good. These guides do live off their tips, so perhaps 5 to 10 euro. Richard newamsterdamtours.com

I think from memory, we gave 20 Euro from the two of us- well worth it. I think Richard'sis the same company.