Wild Rose Travel

Amsterdam

July 2017

Being the Netherlands capital, and known for its elaborative canal system, cobbold streets and history – Amsterdam should be on the top of everyone’s travel bucket list. Amsterdam is a place I would love to go back to, and one with so many hidden gems that you can’t possibly explore all of in one trip. In July 2017 myself and my 2 best friends decided to take a 4 night, 3 day trip and what a blast it was!

AMSTERDAM sign
First, one of the main things everyone wants to whilst on their trip to Amsterdam is get a famous picture by the sign. The letters actually travel around the city and are moved for set occasions and events – therefore do a little bit of research about the specific time you are travelling to see where they will be located. You don’t want to do a wasted walk to where they were in July 2017 so I won’t confuse you with the exact location pictured below.

Museums

One thing you can find lots of in Amsterdam are museums – of every kind! Now don’t get me wrong I like a museum.. but normally very few and far between. One thing you don’t always want from a city break is back-to-back mass information consumption. However in Amsterdam, the museums are done well. They’re not typical “walk around in silence reading tonnes of information and looking at artefacts that you’re not even sure what you’re looking at” kind of museums. They’re good fun and most definitely worth checking out.

Anne Frank’s House
My all time favourite experience of the trip. My first piece of advice if you are wanting to visit Anne Frank’s House is to book in advance! This is one thing we didn’t do, meaning when we arrived the options were to either skip it completely, or come back at a set time and sit in the longest queue you have ever seen and wait. The museum is open to pre-booked tickets at set times of day, and then walk-ins for the remainder of the day. On the last day we decided that it was something we all wanted to check off the bucket list, so we found our way to the end of the queue and waited.. and waited.. and waited. My god was it a long wait (around 3 hours) but it was so worth it!

Once inside you are given an audio guide and the whole experience is un-matched. It is eye opening, informative and inspiring. You learn so much in such a short period and seeing exactly where she lived and knowing exactly what happened within those four walls was intense, but amazing. The experience did not disappoint at all. I had read Anne Frank’s diary prior to this experience but this is something else I would recommend doing either before or after your trip just to make it that little bit extra meaningful. I would most definitely recommend this to anyone.

Sex Museum – Venustempel
For only €5 and around an hour of your time the sex museum is definitely worth a visit! In a very central location, it is easy to find and if you are based centrally already, it’s an easy walk. The museum itself is not very big, but big enough to fill a good hour. No matter how mature you think you may be, walking around a sex museum with two of your best friends is always going to be a laugh. Maybe give this one a miss if you’re on an innocent family city break.. but if not definitely check it out.

Body Worlds Museum
Another absolute must! The Body Worlds museum was one that at first, we were considering giving a miss. This is one of the more pricey museums, however it was so worth it and up there with one of the best parts of the whole trip. If you were going to skip all of the museums and only do one, this is the one I would recommend. A ticket is around £15 per adult (concessions including student prices are available with valid ID – always handy if you’re a student like we were!). The museum itself is huge, set across a number of floors so definitely worth the money. The museum is so engaging as it is interactive as well as informative. There are plenty of things to keep you busy throughout, and is such an interesting insight into the human body and how to maintain a healthy body and mind. We all left the museum feeling 10x better than when we had when walking in, it was empowering!

Cheese Museum
Walking around one day, the Cheese Museum was one we just kind of accidentally stumbled upon. It’s essentially a tiny little cheese shop with the downstairs set out into a little museum. It is completely free to look around and just the cutest little place to visit – especially if you’re an avid cheese lover like myself! Before you even reach the museum downstairs you are spoilt for choice with cheese tasters.. it’s worth going just for these! The staff here too are so knowledgeable and willing to answer all questions you may have which is always a nice added extra. Downstairs you can see everything from how the cheese is made, to wearing cheese triangle hats and snapping a picture in the “Cheese Selfie” area. It’s a laugh and definitely worth popping in if you are in the area.

Food
In Amsterdam you can get just about anything you’re after – for whatever price range too! One of my favourite places, that again we accidentally stumbled across was “Sir Hummus” Cafe. It is still to this day the best Hummus and bread I have ever eaten – I can’t even tell you what made it so amazing but it was just delicious! If you enjoy hummus it is definitely worth the walk to get here (located near the zoo). All I can say is, YUM. My mouth is watering just writing this.

Duration

Overall I would recommend around 3-4 days to explore Amsterdam. If you are travelling from the UK, you don’t need to miscount the days for travelling (like I normally do) because the flight is only 45 minutes long! This means it only takes a couple of hours in total to arrive. It’s really easy to jump on the train into the city from the airport. This takes no time at all and is super cheap – you can then walk to your hotel from the station if it is centrally located – which I would advise. This means when you arrive, you’re not tired from the travelling and can still count these as full exploring days! I would recommend flying early on Day 1, and late home on Day 4 then you can fully make the most of your time there.

In terms of weather, we travelled in July and it was ideal. It was still a nice temperature (around 26 degrees) to be able to walk around the city exploring without getting too hot and bothered – as long as we had plenty of water to hand. As with most cities, they can be enjoyed whatever the weather so simply choose your preference and base your plan around that.

One last tip; keep your eyes peeled at all times if you choose to walk everywhere. The cyclists really do come from nowhere!