In June we'll be in Amsterdam from Wednesday morning until Friday afternoon, before doing a Baltic cruise. We want to see as much as possible in that short time. With all you very knowledgeable travellers out there, I need your expert advice.

Do you think we should "do" an organized tour? I saw that Gray Line, recommended by AAA, has one that covers a canal ride, a city bus tour, including Anne Frank's house , & a diamond factory tour. I thought that may be good for the 1st day.

Then on Day 2, they have one that goes out to the countryside to see windmills, a cheese farm, a wooden shoe factory,etc. (It's 7 hours.) At night they offer a 2-hour escorted tour of the Red-Light District.

On Day 3, I thought we may just meader around Dam Square where our hotel is.

Also, how expensive is Amsterdam? We'll need euros but how much? Is the city as expensive as Paris (our last trip)??

I would greatly appreciate any help & advice you have to offer & I thank you all in advance.
KB

Amsterdam is a very walkable city with good public transport.
You donot need to book tours, but can do it yourself.
Ann Frank house is close to citycenter and Damsquare. There are few Diamond factory's which can be visited. Check with your hotel or have a look for much info about Amsterdam on:
http://www.vvvamsterdam.nl/
Going outside town is also easy. Excellent trainconnections into many directions.
For windmills, cheese factory visit Zaanse Schans.
http://www.zaanseschans.nl/
Take a train to Koog-Zaandijk (15 minutes) and walk for another 10 minutes.
If you feel better, you can make the escorted tour at night through the red light district, (it is very close to your hotel on Damsquare)but again you can also walk it yourself.
It is not done/allowed to make photos there.
Do you know there is probably a "roll-call" going on on cruise-critics for your sailing?.
Check http://boards.cruise.index.

KBinFL - I would recommend the Amsterdam Card -

http://www.amsterdam.info/pass/

For €43.00 you can get a 48-hour card which entitles you to transport on tram, bus and underground, as well as admission to 27 different attractions (all the biggies except Anne Frank Huis), plus 2 canal cruises, and a 25% discount on other services.

We used the card a few years ago, and it was worth the money. On Day 1 we visited the <b>Amstelkring</b> and the <b>Oude Kerk</b>, while walking around the RLD in the morning, enjoying the architecture. Then we walked over to the <b>Amsterdam Historich Museum</b> where we spent 2 hours walking through 24+ rooms and hundreds of years of history. After ducking into the Begijnhof, we ate breakfast at T'het Singeltji, a pancake house in the flower market, then on to the <b>Theatre Museum</b>. We're theatre people, and this museum even bored us...we should have done the <b>Willet Holthuysen Museum</b> instead. While we were wandering along the canals, we stopped by the <b>Houseboat Museum</b> for a quick look around. We saved the Anne Frank House for later in the day, when the lines are shorter, then went to dinner. After dinner we took the evening <b>canal cruise</b> based near Central Station and enjoyed looking at the lights of Amsterdam.

We started our second day at the Waterlooplein, wandering through the flea market, checking out the Normaal Amsterdam Peil in the Stopera (free), and visiting the <b>Rembrandthuis</b>. We stopped in at the Hollandse Schowburg (free), then on to the <b>Resistance Museum</b>. After a bite to eat in a brown cafe, we were off to the <b>Van Gogh Museum</b> and the <b>Rijksmuseum</b>. We finished up our day by taking another <b>canal cruise</b>, this one based near the museums, before heading off for dinner at our favorite Chinese restaurant, Nam Kee.

There is so much to see in Amsterdam, and it's so easy to get around (a map is provided with the Amsterdam Card). The tram system is very efficient and easy to use. I personally think an organized tour would be a waste of money and time (flexibility).

Have fun in Amsterdam, whatever you decide to do. Just remember to look out for the bicyclists. Peace, Robyn &gt;-

I think to see as much as possible, the organized tours can pack more in. I did Amsterdam myself, with a guidebook and had 5 days to wander around. But it sounds like you'd enjoy more structure. That said, I'm not sure I would do 2 full day tours, 2 days in a row though.

I wouldn;t do any sort of tour except a canal ride (and these can be interesting at night when you see everything lit up. Amsterdam is quite small - esp the major tourist area - and there are so many things to see that I would just pick what matters to you and do that on your own.

IMHO the diamond tour is a complete waste of time - they're just trying to con you into buying something - and somehow a large part of the &quot;tour&quot; ends up being spent there.

I say Day 1 you can do on your own, keeping a short city tour, then visit Anne Frank's house, skip the diamond/shopping part, take a canal cruise in the evening.

Day 2 off to the country as planned. But skip the RLD tour. Last thing I'd want to be in that part of town is marching around with a big group of tourists!

Day 3 head out to Vondelpark and Leidseplein area for nice walking neighborhoods (the area around central and the Dam is not very pretty imo).

Forgot to add, I found Amsterdam comparable in price to Paris.