Amsterdam travel tips Netherlands bike tour self-guided

Amsterdam is one of the premier European cities, with a deserved reputation for beautiful canals, incredible museums, diverse food and drink, and lively atmosphere. The Capital city of The Netherlands is also a party city – lots of cafes, bars, coffee shops (where you find marijuana and magic mushrooms). Its busy, lots of locals rushing around on bikes, and tourists clamoring for canal selfies. While the architecture is classy – the sidewalks can be a bit trashy (why do the Dutch smoke so much, then toss their butts? Surprising for these otherwise prideful people).

Amsterdam is your gateway to exploring The Netherlands, flying into Schiphol airport and taking an efficient train to the impressive 1889 centerpiece Amsterdam Centraal station. Amsterdam is incredibly walkable or bikeable, your preference. Amsterdam is home to 800,000 people and over 1 million bikes; apparently 25,000 bikes are pulled out of the canals annually!

Amsterdam is fun for a day or 3, on your arrival and/or departure. Just exploring the brick-lined streets lining the labyrinth of canals is amusing enough. Admire the stunning 17th-century architecture of close-knit, narrow three-story homes with their iconic facades and ornamental roofs. Many of these homes are leaning to and fro since the entire city is built on sunken timbers of wetland, hence all the canals. Fun fact: nearly one-third of the “Netherlands” (translation: lowlands) is below sea level, the canals and dikes are clever Dutch engineering to combat flooding.

Top Things to Do in Amsterdam

Stroll the city’s canals. Amsterdam has more canals than Venice, Italy! 165 canals circle over 100 kilometers of scenic waterways. Hop a canal boat, there are hourly tours = cheap to pricey and private, beer boats, wine barges, Veuve Clicquot Vaporetto, even a cheese-tasting cruise emblazoned with yellow Gouda graphics!

Tour Amsterdam’s top museums. The remarkable 1885 Rijksmuseum building is a grand work of art itself, and inside is wing after wing of Rembrandt, Vermeer, Frans Hals and Van Gogh, plus Blue Delft pottery. Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum is a more modern building and presentation chronicling the compelling, heartbreaking story of this prolific and tortured artist. Pre-purchase your tickets for a specific entry time to Rijks and Van Gogh, and the Anne Frank Museum.

The Anne Frank House is on everyone’s list, you can walk by the humble house where the young girl recorded in her diary the Nazi occupation as her family hid in the attic. The Museum is in a modern building, depicting her diary and the story of Jewish families here during WWII. Tickets plus a long wait in a queue are required for admission. Many “Anne Frank Jewish neighborhood walking tours” are offered too.

Eat Amsterdam. Taste all the local “Dutch treats” from the crisp but gooey Stroopwafel and appletart, to Gouda cheese, bitterballen meatball snacks, kipperling – like fish nuggets, mussels, salmon, herring and eel. The Dutch also adore Fries (more than the French) but here the fresh cut fried potatoes are served with mayo. Amsterdam also hosts Indonesian, Chinese, and Greek dining, to name a few cuisines.

Heineken and Amstel Beer (named for the Amstel River) are native, so consider a tour of either beer factory. Or just find a café overlooking a canal, order a Dutch lager and watch the flow of sidewalks and canals.

Visit the Flower Market to see every tulip bulb imaginable, even wooden tulips are sold.

Walk, jog or bike Vondelpark – a glorious 120-acre green preserve where the fitness fanatics of Amsterdam work out, and locals dog walk, picnic, and just savor nature.

Go to the Bulldog – the original 1975 “coffee shop” at #90 that sells marijuana in a colorful “stoner” living room setting. The world-famous Bulldog has expanded to numerous shops, a 420 friendly hotel, and merch outlets throughout the city due to the popularity of its pot sales.

Walk the Red-Light District to see the prostitutes in their windows awaiting their next willing-to-pay customer. It’s strange during the day, and seedy at night. Oddly enough the Red Light District abuts China Town and the 420 weed-friendly coffee shops.

Stay at Hotel Estherea – a beautiful chandelier-sparkling hotel on the pretty Singel canal, ideally situated near everything in Amsterdam.

Dine at De Strusvogel for a classic Dutch menu of fish and local foods in a romantic setting, below canal level.

Brunch or Lunch at Greenwoods – this friendly fun café has a wonderful homecooked menu, plentiful entrees, served al fresco overlooking the Singel canal.

Rent a Bike and ride out of Amsterdam to explore more of the Dutch countryside on entirely designated bike lanes. RentaBike.NL is the oldest bike rental shop of Amsterdam, since 1986, near Dam Square. Yun and Yan are the best, with great bikes (traditional, e-bikes, kids and tandems) for a day, week or month, and guaranteed friendly reliable service.

See our 12 Day Holland Friesland Bike Tour Itinerary – Amsterdam to North Holland, Friesland and back, over the Zuiderzee waterways. Visit time-revered towns of Hoorn, Hindeloopin, Sneek, Harlingen, to Leeuwarden and Steenwijk, to the cute village of Giethorn, to Harderwijk, Amersfoort and Naarden, back to Amsterdam. Biking about 20 miles a day, through bucolic land, to authentic dreamy Dutch villages.

Our 8 Day Holland Cheesy Bike Tour takes you from Amsterdam to Gouda, Delft, The Hague, Leiden, Haarlem, Alkmaar, and Edam, and back to Amsterdam. This tour is about 20 miles a day, with phenomenal scenery, requisite windmills, beautiful historic cities, with nice lodging properties, intriguing dining and sightseeing, plus lots of cheese!

“Tourists think Amsterdam is a city of sin. In freedom, many choose to sin.”

Bike Tour: Amsterdam to Friesland and back – self-guided cycle tour
Cheesy Bike Trip Amsterdam to Gouda, Delft, Leiden, Alkmaar, Edam, Volendam and back