My wife and I, along with another couple, will have two and a half days in Amsterdam in February 2025, at the end of a Viking cruise to Norway. Of the four of us, only my wife has been there before. We are agreed on several of the city’s major attractions that we all want to see (despite the fact that my wife has been to most of them before):
Van Gogh Museum
Anne Frank House
Rijksmuseum
Rembrandt Museum
Straat Museum
Canal cruise
That list is obviously enough to fill more than the time we have, so we probably won’t get to all of them.
Do you have any suggestions for prioritizing this list, or for other attractions or activities we should consider? (Don’t bother mentioning the Red Light District or the marijuana “coffeeshops.” We’re not interested.)
We are in our mid-to-late 60s, relatively fit for our ages, but not about to run marathons or anything.
I was in Amsterdam last fall. Canal cruise was mediocre/negative.
I guess it depends on what kind you arrange.
We were too far down in the boat to actually see anything so it was useless. Look carefully at the boats before deciding.
I am a museum/art person and loved the Van Gogh museum. Did not have time for the Rijksmuseum but would have loved seeing that.
Could not make the Anne Frank house as you need advance tickets.
In fact decide early and book tickets for everything online as soon as possible. February might not be such as issue but the fall was.
We did the Church in the Attic instead. that was an awesome little tour.
From the attractions you listed, I’ve only been to the Van Gogh and Rijksmuseum (I was at the Anne Frank House, but only on the outside), but I can wholeheartedly recommend them. Of course a thorough visit to the Rijksmuseum takes a lot more time than for the Van Gogh Museum, when I visited I only had limited time and missed a lot which was a pity. It has three floors each for medieval/Renaissance art, classic Dutch period and modern period, and I didn’t have enough time for the medieval/Renaissance floor, so I missed Hieronymus Bosch which still nags on me, I have to visit again some time. It’s a beautiful collection, probably the most impressive art museum I’ve ever been to.
My wife and I did a private little boat for just the two of us, we had a great experience, and champagne was provided! The boat could easily accommodate four. The weather might not be as nice in February, but if you want a canal cruise and have the budge for it, I’d highly recommend it.
Something like this. (not sure if this is the same company)
Get tickets to the Anne Frank house as early in the morning as you can. The time of the tour depends on how fast the people in front of you get out, and people tend to linger there in order to take it in, and then in the gift shop as well. I was on the first tour of the day and when I got out the line was really long waiting to start the tour.
Thanks for the link. That particular company is a little more pricey than we were considering, but it sure looks nice. We’ve been looking at morning or afternoon cruises in the price range of $25-$50 per person for 1-1.5 hours, many including drinks.
That one is €90 pp for one hour, with food and drinks extra. It is private, though. We could afford it if we felt like splurging, the question is, is it worth the splurge when compared to the others. I’ll ask the others to see what they think.
Thanks for all the other replies. Keep them coming. We’ve got plenty of time.
I don’t recall what we paid, bu it was certainly more than the large boats. We went out on a beautiful spring day, and it was a highlight of our trip. On a cold rainy day, it would still be fun, but a different experience. (we’re always partial to “on the water” experiences in every place we visit.)
There may be ways to get a discount through your hotel or something. I wouldn’t think February would be their busy season.
I don’t live far from Amsterdam (350 km), and February usually is the nastiest and coldest month of the year around these latitudes. But then, it’s a coastal city and climate so with luck you can catch a sunny day even in February.
I see a lot of good recommendations up there. For slightly more offbeat, if y’all like cats, there’s a cat sanctuary in a canal houseboat that’s worth swinging by (and donating).
Based on our incredibly limited experience (once), you might want to avoid the Anne Frank House in the late morning, when school groups might get bused in (that recommendation upstream for the earliest possible time makes sense, in that context)…kids were yelling and running up and down the stair when we were there.
You have listed the main sights that match your interests, as far as I can glean from that list. The only odd one to me is the Straat museum, but if that is your thing, by all means go see it. If you’re interested in modern art, the Stedelijk has a nice collection (including some Mondriaans I think).
Regarding the Anne Frank house: consider carefully whether you really want to visit is, as it is very busy. If you do want to go, check out the website now already. IIRC you need to reserve something like 6 weeks in advance to get a reasonable timeslot, on short notice you may not have many options left (but maybe February is less busy). New slots open up each week on tuesday? thursday? So remind yourself to make the reservations at the proper day in advance.
The warning about bad weather is correct, be prepared for cold rain which may necessitate mostly indoors activities. If it is not raining, the canals can be beautiful at night just to walk around.
If you’re looking for spots to eat, I’d suggest going for an Indonesian restaurant. They’re quite common due to the colonial history, and offer very tasty food for relatively low prices.
ETA: And Akkerman indeed is (at least used to be, haven’t visited in years) an excellent pen shop.
Regarding your question about priorities: The Anne Frank is up to you, it is out of the way of most of the others so may effectively takes most of a morning/afternoon. It is not too far from the Rembrandt huis, though, and both are in the city centre which you may just like to wander around. Also Akkerman is in the centre as well.
First priority should be Van Gogh Museum and Rijksmuseum. They’re almost next to each other (just outside the Grachtengordel - old city centre), so easy to visit on the same day. Depending on how quickly you want to go through the collection, you can spend a morning/afternoon or a full day there.
The Straat Museum is out of the way, so again takes up a morning/afternoon. The nice thing apparently is that you go there by ferry so you also get a view of the water behind Central Station.
The Canal cruise is a typical tourist thing, maybe easy to get a good view with explanations of the city.
I’d suggest reserve one day for Van Gogh/Rijks, and on another day do Anne Frank/Rembrandt, and see whether on either of those days there is time left for the other things you’d like to do.
Public transport (trams mainly) is good and fairly frequent, but still takes time which is why I suggest planning visiting nearby locations.
Also: check all the websites to see whether you need reservations/timeslots.
Not beer drinkers? The Heineken Brewery is on many peoples short list who are. And to my suprise, it tastes much better in Holland than it does in the states. Must be the water.
One other bit of warning about Amsterdam. Wherever you go be very careful about the cyclists.
I was not prepared for this at all and was amazed but a little frightened by the sheer volume and speed of it all. I am clumsy and wander about most of the time but in Amsterdam my senses are on high alert to my surroundings.
I love how they have integrated bicycling but wasn’t aware of how it actually looked in real life.
Amsterdam is a pretty cool place to just walk around and snack on street food, as well as just go shopping for stuff. Hanging out in a street cafe drinking a witbier is a great thing to do in nice weather.
I enjoyed the Nieuwe Kerk/Dam Square as well as the Oude Kerk, as far as touristy stuff is concerned.
I don’t know what days of the week you’ll be there, but I went to one of the Wednesday storytelling nights at Mezrab, and it was absolutely incredible. Highly recommended (though a little out of the way from most tourist sites).
The Dutch Resistance Museum is really well-done, and complements a visit to the Anne Frank house nicely.
I would highly recommend the Maritime Museum. It had a good mix of exhibits: navigational instruments through the ages, maritime art, a replica VOC ship to explore, discussions of the Dutch history of colonialism and slavery, etc.
Yep, this is what I was going to post. It’s a cycling city, and so the onus is on you to not get in the way. Keep your wits about you at all times on the street. Especially at the bridges if you’re walking alongside a canal - they can make for dangerous interchanges.