Introduction
I spent three days in Amsterdam to celebrate my birthday and meet up with a friend. Even though I was only there for a short amount of time, I learned a lot about what to do, where to go, and how to get around ... and, also, a little bit of what you shouldn't do. Each item will be reviewed by my personal experience, price, accessibility, and ease of travel to and from the location (proximity of public transportation and likelihood of getting lost). There are links throughout the post so you know exactly what I'm talking about and where to find more information. This guide will take you through of what I did each day so you can follow a similar schedule if you are in Amsterdam for three days and want to do as much as possible while still being able to maintain you health, safety, and sanity. At the end, there is a list of other things I would've loved to visit and a general FAQ about Amsterdam for anyone thinking about traveling here.
Day 1
Around lunch time we arrived at our hotel and got settled in. Before we made it to our room, the hotel actually sold short-term public transportation tickets that allow you to travel by bus (& night bus), tram, train, metro, and ferry for an allotted amount of time, so we immediately bought a three day ticket as it saves a ton of money. The specific ticket we bought is called the Amsterdam Travel Ticket. It also includes train rides to and from the international airport. However, it should be noted that if you have a flight requiring you to be at the airport before six AM or leave before five thirty AM, you will need to find a taxi or an Uber. Depending on how many museums and paid attractions you want to go to the IAmsterdam City Card may be worth looking into as it includes free entrance to the majority of museums and tourist attractions, a 24 hour bike rental, and a canal cruise. It is a little pricey so it would only be worth it if you do want to do all of those things on top of using public transportation.
After that, we decided to go into Amsterdam to get more acquainted with public transportation and the city, itself. We went to a cafe with a cute atmosphere called, Digters, conveniently located in Amsterdam Centraal. They serve coffee, desserts, drinks, and amazing sandwiches at a great price. They even play recognizable, English music (a surprising rarity in Europe).
The entirety of the station and most public transportation is disability and wheelchair friendly so there's no need to worry about not being able to get to the restaurant. There are also a ton of other stores and restaurants located in the station from two Starbucks to Swarovski to an Albert Heijn (a Dutch grocery store).
After eating, I was really exhausted from flying in and getting settled at the hotel so we chose to do something a little more relaxing than walking around a brand new, giant city. Instead of spending more money on a sight seeing tour, you can ride on Tram 2 from Amsterdam Centraal and pass all of the major tourist attractions and highlights of the city. It did get a little crowded because it is a very popular tram for getting around Amsterdam and by this point it was closer to rush hour. Whenever you're done sight seeing or if you see something you want to explore, you can get off and return to the stop opposite of the one you got off at to return to Amsterdam Centraal.
We decided to get off and visit the BloemnMarkt before returning to Amsterdam Centraal. It is a market place that is particularly famous for beautiful tulips and seeds/bulbs. Obviously, the market is free to go to and look around (& take pictures) but you could spend a ton of money in theory. Pro-tip: don't go in the winter. It's not really worth it to walk around the whole place. None of the tulips will be real and there will only be seeds and tourist trap products. Maybe go into one booth just to say you went? Also, it is really crowded and the ground is uneven brick (there's a lot of that in Amsterdam). It would be difficult to actually move anywhere in a wheelchair unless someone would be pushing you and singing, "Make way, for Prince Ali!". If you aren't one to pay attention to where you're going or occasionally make sure you aren't about to step into a hole, it would probably not be disability friendly for you.
We didn't do anything special for dinner since we had a really late lunch. By this point, I had also hit a pain wall and could barely walk. My aunt visited the grocery store and grabbed cheese and bread. By the way, Holland is known for its cheese. Unfortunately, we didn't get any of the fancy cheese as it was confusing and expensive and impossible to finish eating in three days.
Day 2
We woke up bright and early to go to The Anne Frank House for a history lesson and a tour. It is difficult to get tickets here because it's so high in demand (buy them as early as possible) and you are required to buy your tickets online no matter what. On the day of, they release the last 20% of the tickets. So if you aren't able to get a ticket for the days you will be in Amsterdam, don't worry. There is still a chance you will be able to get one. Also, it is more expensive to include the history lesson (it's a separate kind of ticket) but it was well worth the money. You'll leave with a better and probably, more accurate, understanding of the events leading up to World War II and the Holocaust and of the whole Frank family. Afterwards, you will proceed to the actual house where you will get to see letters, pictures, and recordings of the whole Frank family and of the others who lived with or helped them. Most importantly, to me, you will also get to see the original diaries Anne kept. Before they were found, Anne decided she wanted to be a world famous author. She started writing short stories for a book that would be called, The Secret Annex, based on her experiences living in hiding. Because of this, there is an actual diary, which is missing an entire year, and a revised diary, which includes that missing year, that she would use in her novel. These diaries are one of two items that a helper was able to save before the Germans raided the secret annex. The house doesn't have the majority of the furniture as the Germans took it when they found the people in hiding. Upon returning to the Annex, Otto didn't want to put any of the furniture or recreations of the furniture back into the house. There are plenty of pictures and diagrams that show what everything looked like, though. Fortunately for us, the famous bookshelf-door is still there, along with anything else that was connected to the wall. When Otto found out that his family had been killed, his friend who had been holding onto the two items for safekeeping returned them. He eventually read Anne's diary and was so impressed by his daughter's writing that he decided to make her dreams come true and published it. Now, it is the third most translated book in the world, only behind the Bible and the Harry Potter series. Because it was built so long ago, the majority of the house is not wheelchair or disability friendly. There are a ton of narrow stairs and uneven entryways. If you are a wheelchair user, you should probably talk with customer service to figure out how to get around the house or if that's even possible. In the museum, there is also a store and cafe if you want to further support their cause as they also do education programs internationally to help keep something like the Holocaust from happening again.
After that, we headed towards the Van Gogh Museum, which we had tickets for. However, we were ready for lunch and had a couple of hours before our reservation. On our way to the museum we stopped at a cafe called, Bagels and Beans. The reason why was because my aunt and I immediately thought it was a restaurant for bagels and baked beans. We didn't see how those two things could possibly go together and, turns out, we were right, because the name is referring to coffee beans. The food and drinks were really good and well priced. I had some of the best apple juice I've ever had. Accessibility wise, there are a few steps to get in and most of the seating is downstairs. The only issue we had was that our waiter got at least one part of every person's order wrong around us at some point, even after clarifying it two or three times. Because of this there was a little bit of a wait. From what I can tell, this isn't a common experience, though. Now that we had eaten lunch, we went back towards the Van Gogh Museum. Thankfully, It's located on a road of museums, and I had previously decided to go to another museum before our reservation at the Van Gogh Museum. Because of my affinity for Banksy, I chose to go to the MOCO Museum. It was well worth paying 14 Euro for entry. It was a little crowded but the employees were all very nice and you were allowed to take pictures of everything. The museum, itself, feels like the building was originally meant to be a large house so it's not super accessible. There are three stories with stairs. I didn't see an elevator but I could have missed it. It does get points for having even and wide stairs, though. Currently, one of the exhibits is a digitized and mirrored picture-taking thing that's really trippy, so if that will give you a headache or trigger a seizure or anything, you should skip out on that one. It's the very last part of the museum near the store so there's no need to worry about accidentally walking into it.
By this point, I was really exhausted, but we were now going to the Van Gogh Museum. I was planning on just pushing through the pain and that's what I ended up doing, literally. I pushed myself in a manual wheelchair (for the first time) because they had a free wheelchair service for all patrons. This museum consists of two building with three stories each so there is no way I could have stood the whole time. No one thought I would be able to push myself in a wheelchair, but I did, even though it was a little too big. It reduced my exhaustion and my pain. Anyway, you want to know about the museum, now. Since it's right next to the easily-reachable MOCO Museum it also does well with the transportation category. However, this museum has the most expensive ticket out of all the ones I went to at 19 Euro. If you choose to get the IAmsterdam City Card, it is included for free. Between the number of pieces painted by Van Gogh and other noteworthy painters that are displayed and the historical information about him and his family's life, I would say this museum was also worth paying for. They have works from when he was just starting out to his very last painting. Just like it was important for Otto Frank to make sure the world read his daughter's writing, it was very important to Van Gogh's brother, Theo, to make sure the world knew Van Gogh. They were surprisingly close, as far as brother's go. There's even one painting that people used to think was a self-portrait but now theorize it was a portrait of his brother to go with the other self-portrait. Once Theo died, each family member continued collecting Vincent's art, loaning it out to museums, and even publishing his letters. Painting meant the world to Vincent. When his health continued to decline, Vincent's last doctor told him the only thing left to do was paint and that's exactly what he did. Pardon my wording, but Vincent painted and painted and painted; he painted like a mad man until the day he died.
By the time we left the museum, it was time for dinner. We went to another conveniently located restaurant in Amsterdam Centraal, Julia's Cucina Italiana. It's basically a choose your own freshly made pasta at a reasonable price. It was really good and very accessible. It was so accessible that there were two locations in the train station alone.
Day 3
This was the day I had been excitedly waiting for. I got to visit a really good friend who I usually only get to text and call because we live on two different continents. We both have some dietary restrictions so we met at a highly reviewed cafe called, Vegabond. It's a vegan/vegetarian cafe and store if you couldn't tell by the name. It was affordable and accessible even though it was a little confusing to get to. Instead of spending money on a museum or attraction, we decided to walk around the city and take pictures and famous locations. We took pictures at the Damrak Houses and at The Nine Streets. It was a lot of fun, but most importantly, it was free. We went to a place for lunch that I'm not gonna mention because it wasn't the most pleasant experience. I think we were there on a bad day.
After that, we said goodbye and my Aunt and I were off to explore Amsterdam one last time. We went to a couple of stores before deciding to get a snack. I really wanted to get a stroopwaffel before we left so we went to Melly's Cookie Bar. If you don't know, a stroopwaffel is a really hard to describe dessert in Holland. Imagine two layers of a flattened waffle with a mixture of brown sugar, molasses, cinnamon, and maple syrup in between. On the outside, you can leave it plain or dip it in chocolate or nutella with candies sprinkled on top. Basically, it's the best thing to ever exist. We originally went to a different store called Van Wanderen. They were really rude and didn't have any batter and acted like it was our fault for walking in the store hoping to buy something. The employees at Melly's were very kind and made up for it. Even though there was a short wait, it was worth it. Then, we went back to our hotel to pack and mentally prepare ourselves for waking up at 4 AM the next day.
Other Things I Think are Cool:
If I go back to Amsterdam, there are some other things that I want to do and will recommend to you just in case you're interested in any of them.
1. The Rembrandt House - lots and lots of Rembrandt in one of his houses, I think
2. The Rijks Museum - a beautiful building with old paintings
3. De Kattenkabinet - a cat museum
4. A'Dam Lookout - The tallest swing and fastest elevator in Europe (like the Space Needle)
5. Hortus Botanicus - A giant garden
6. Amsterdam Public Library - Supposedly there's a great view of the city here for free
General FAQ:
Do people speak English?
Yes, most people do. A surprisingly large amount of people spend most of their time speaking in English. The national language in The Netherlands is Dutch, though. If you know a little bit about German, you will probably be able to get the gist of menus and written down/visual information.
Where should I stay?
If you are looking for cheap options in the city, then a female hostel will probably be your best bet. A slightly more expensive option in the city, but still not hundred of dollars, would be an AirBnB. You should look at least two months in advance if you want to get a full place or place with private bedroom and bathroom to yourself.
If you are looking for cheaper options that are nicer than a hostel, I would suggest staying in a hotel in a nearby city (preferably close to the airport). This is what we did. We stayed in a city called, Hoofddorp. The only downside was that there weren't any restaurants nearby so we had to stay out in town until dinner or by groceries in Amsterdam. It was only 30 minutes to get to Amsterdam Centraal and we were only a three minute walk from the metro to our hotel.
Should I pack anything out of the ordinary?
Depending on where you live, yes. It is colder in Holland so make sure you are prepared for that. While I was there last week, it was also rainy and extremely windy. Having an umbrella and windbreaker would be very helpful if you want to do any walking during the colder part of the year.
Is it safe to drink the tap water?
Yes, we didn't have any problems. There are also special water bottles at drug stores and grocery stores you can buy that give you free access to taps located around the city.
Conclusion
You should definitely put Amsterdam on your travel bucket list. If I haven't convinced you by now, I don't know what will. Also, to accompany this post, I will be adding a check list in my free resource library with all of the places to go to in Amsterdam. Make sure to subscribe to get access to it and more, if you haven't already!