Do be safe.
That means not hanging around the train station at night, and walking very quickly away from those people trying to sell you drugs on the street.
If possible, buy a small map, as opposed to a giant folding one, so you don’t look too conspicuous when trying to work out where you are! Money belts are good, don’t carry more money than you plan to spend in a day- use the safe at the hotel to lock up your valuables, as you won’t need to take most of them with you, and try and carry some money in a hiding place (say, your shoe) in case your pocket does get picked.
My husband and I were there a couple of years ago. Unfortunately our budget was about 10euro a day once we had paid for accommodation (it was at the end of a month long backpacking thing and money was tight) so our choice was either to go to one museum a day and spend the rest of the time bored and hungry, or to spend our money in a “coffee shop” and magically find ourselves amused by very little and satisfied with M&Ms and chips (french fries). We chose the latter option and had a great 5 days. Since then my husband has been back twice for a couple of lads’ weekends, so a proper trip where we have a budget big enough to do the cultural stuff is still on the cards.
For fabulous, award-winning and very cheap French fries with every sauce imaginable, I recommend Vlaams Frites Huis on Voetboogstraat, off Heiliegweg it’s a hole-in-the-wall place that literally just serves fries to take away- a Lonely Planet recommendation that was totally on the money.
There’s a Tourist Information office just of Leidseplein on Leidsestrass, and one at Centraal station, it’s called VVV, the staff all speak english and are very helpful.
If you fancy a movie, you could do worse than the wonderful Art Deco Tuschinski cinema, on Reguliersbreetstrass, between Rembrandtplein and Muntplein. They have current films in English with Dutch subtitles, so you’ll understand what’s going on.