going to amsterdam 1st time much needed advise
 

I am traveling to amsterdam next week for the first time ever with my boyfriend. it will be a quick stay 4 days/3 nights. would love hotel recomends/things to do. we love to stay at great places - eat/drink great food/wine - have absolutley no clue where to go and what to do!!!

This must be a very strange idea, but for about US$ 20 you can buy a guidebook for Amsterdam. If you are in North America, your flight to Amsterdam will be at least 6 hours, so at the latest on the plane you can read the book. <BR>Have a nice time here! <BR>

How about somewhat helpful advice? My husband and I love Amsterdam. We stayed at a charming hotel called Hotel Toren on Kaizersgracht. We paid about $122/night at the time (1995). Our room was large and quiet with a beautiful view overlooking the canal. We were in walking distance of everything. You cannot miss the Anne Frank House or the Van Gogh Museum. Take a walk through the Red Light district. A canal ride is also one of the best ways to see the city. You can pick those up on Damrak. Also, just walk. We found it to be a very easy city to navigate.

The best guidebook we used for Amsterdam was Time Out Amsterdam. Packed with info and lots of pictures. The Amstel is a very nice "who cares what it costs" hotel, but a tad away from the center. <BR> <BR>Amsterdam's a wonderful place, and I agree with Sjoerd that the first place to start is reading a good guidebook cover to cover.

Some of my suggestions and others' can be found on previous postings: <BR>Amsterdam - Sights to see <BR>Long Weekend in Amsterdam <BR>Amsterdam Sights <BR> <BR>For a guidebook I liked the Eyewitness travel guide to Amsterdam. Books may be a great place to start but people come to this forum for firsthand advice. <BR>

Message-Gillian- Meg gave excellent advice on another string about amsterdam. Here was advice I gave to her:If you love architecture, you might want to take a day canal cruise to see the buildings better. Again, for architecture, if you are up to it,you could take a 60 min. train ride to Rotterdam. The city was destroyed in WWII and built it a wonderful, joyful, modern style- we walked from the train station all the way to the Blaak Houses and "The Pencil" and went up the Eruomast tower. Then (we walked again) to Historic Delftshaven to see the undestroyed section and the old windmill. <BR>We like the "red light district" and thought the "Asian Caribbean" restaurant on the Warmoesstrat was such a hoot! Also liked the Sukasari Damstraat 26-68 for the rice table. Loved eating dinner in the window table at De Luwte (Leliegracht 26-28) in the Jordaan. <BR>You almost can't go wrong in this fabulously fun city. As for hotels- I find the goholland site to be easy- you can search the hotels by price and see the pictures of the rooms. It depends if yo u want a "canal house" type place or a basic hotel room, which are clean and inexpensive. Almost all the nice hotels include a buffet style breakfast. <BR>I know once you visit, you'll want to go back again! People are friendly and well mannered- but realize, it's not like a London Pub or a Boston bar- the people sitting next to you generally do not want to "make friends" with you or talk to you, groups of people are private unto themselves. My husband and I love this city and did all kinds of things.Please feel free to email me if you have more questions. <BR>

When I went to Amsterdam in Aug i got s great deal on hotels at this site called North America Travel. the address is www.natravel.com!

We did a weekend in Amsterdam a couple of years ago. We dined at The Five Flies, a great restaurant. The wine was super, different from our favorite California reds but we had one called Faithful Hound and loved it. Everything is within walking distance. We walked our legs off! Believe it or not, I can't remember the name of our hotel. Something to do with "Owl" anyway, it was 4 star but 4 star there is not 4 star here. No AC, twin beds. We loved it to death though. Van Gough museum/ Ann Franke's house, both a must see. They provide great maps and we did the trolley some. The Holland Casino is super if you like to roll the dice. Have a great time! Tannya

Planning on going again in June! Can't wait! I have a genealogy website- on it are links to Terschelling and to Suzanne's site and to Circuit Riders site. Be sure to see those- they have lots of photos. Terschelling is an island off the coast of Holland- you probably won't have time to see it this time around but you could drive up to Volendam, a fishing village and see the Dyke. Amazing! Get a map and you can see the long narrow strip of land with the sea locked inside it. The long narrow strip has biking trails and a highway. On the left is a portin of landlocked sea, on the right is the Dyke, holding back the sea. On Circuit Riders page you will see lots of photos, my favorites are Kuekenhof Gardens. On Suzannes page lots of photos and a diary of her trip to Amsterdam. She now lives there, with her husband Harold. She is from Los <BR>Angeles!

Oops, forget <BR>www.dutchnsuch.com <BR> <BR>for the photos!