janisj

It is too late to get tickets to the Anne Frank House for your. time period anyway, so this is a moot point. But just an FYI it isn't a mad house with hordes of people in lock step. They are very tight with the number of tickets per time slot, so it isn't very crowded at all. It is quite a thought provoking and somber experience.

lavandula

Yeah, with reference to your query about changes in the past 20 years and the old thread, the poster who said that one day people would demand it be cleaned up had second sight ... governments in recent years have tended to the conservative and there have been some voices in that direction, love it or hate it. Moreover there have been voices also for tourism to be regulated and the 'wrong kind of tourism' to be reduced (cruise ships, stag weekends, beer bikes). I don't know what is happening currently or what the result of those calls have been (although I know they got rid of the beer bikes). But a lot of those freedoms are what makes Amsterdam unique. It's not all my scene (I don't do drugs, I feel badly for those women in the window, etc) but people draw their identity from this liberalism and I think that's a really important thing to defend.

Lavandula

bvlenci

It sounds as though you've already decided, but I just thought I'd go on the record with other cities in the Netherlands that are well worth visiting, that are easily accessible from the airport, and that are good bases for day trips. My three first choices would be The Hague, Rotterdam, and Utrecht. Rotterdam especially is very underrated. It's a vibrant city, with a fascinating port, excellent restaurants and museums. You can easily visit Delft, the Hague, and the windmills at Kinderdijk from there.

menachem

There are some youtube travel vlogs of the trip you're going to take. The city visits don't seem superficial to me at all, and of course, biking gives you a pretty intimate knowledge of the places you bike through.
Your experience of Amsterdam will improve if you go outside the tourist areas, but hotels are pricey in AMS. Haarlem could be a suggestion, or Utrecht, or indeed Rotterdam, for a totally different Dutch city experience. You'll never be more than an hours' train ride away from Amsterdam.