I’m wondering how much money I’ll need. I can save about $2400 from now until this date next year. Will that be enough for a week-long stay?
Your biggest expense is going to be your hotel. Find a good B&B for under 50 bucks (US) a night.
I recommend the Winston hotel for a truly authentic experience. It’s really cheap (you can always bargain them down), smack in the middle of the red light district (maybe that sounds a little scary, but it’s really not. Plus you get to watch all the American men pretend to be lost and then slip down an alleyway to get a prostitute), and every room has been decorated by a different artist- I recommend the Monk room if you’re going there alone (though you really shouldn’t be), and the faux-whore room if you’re there with a friend (it even has a red light in the window). Breakfast is included- nothing exotic, bread and cheese (but GOOD bread and cheese)- which is beneficial to anyone on a budget since food is what people tend to spend the most on. Not fine dining (as there is very little to be had), but, er, hunks of cheese and Belgian waffles from the strategically placed fast food vendors that line the streets by the coffehouses. Transportation is cheap barely needed in such a small city (though after about 4 days you may want to just get out, at least as far as the zoo), museums don’t cost that much for what they offer, and tickets to the orchestra can be acquired quite cheaply if you’re flexible. Many Amsterdam museums and hotels have English websites (plus there are tons of message boards dedicated to the stoner Mecca)- search a bit and you’ll get a good idea of how much it will all cost you- there aren’t too many hidden fees, and even those don’t amount to much (e.g. a train ticket from the airport is something like 5 bucks)
The biggest expense may just be getting there. Since we fly standby, I have no idea what the cheapest ways to get there are, but checking on flights this past summer I noted that the coach tickets were around $2000.00. I’m not trying to scare anyone, just saying that some suggestions on cheap flights would help.
It might be cheaper to fly to London–and in the off-season New York to London is probably less than $500–and then catch a flight to Amsterdam on one of the no-frills airlines (comparable to Southwest here). It’s only about an hour flight, and fare each way is around $40 or so.
One airline (not necessarily the best, but one I have heard of) is:
http://www.easyjet.com/en/book/index.asp
A good source for inexpensive but livable accomodations is:
I should have said Hotel Discounts has all price ranges, including lower-end and very high-end, but it doesn’t have places like youth hostels.
Well, I was just poking around on Travelosity, and it depends on where you go from. Leaving from BWI, the best fare I found was about $1600, but if I were to drive to New York, I can get there for $620. When I went about 4 years ago, I paid around $400 for airfare IIRC.
Whoops! My bad. I had just picked dates at random next march, and I selected coming back on a weekend just 2 days after arriving. When I changed it so that I stayed a whole week, the rates dropped to $400, even from BWI.
This is a good suggestion - Easjet do the Gatwick-Amsterdam route, with BMI from Heathrow. Also check fares for BA and KLM, who can easily be as cheap. (Don’t try to get to a different London airport from where you arrive though - expensive and awkward. And leave plenty of time between flights.) There’s myriad other routes you could do this, too, via Birmingham, Glasgow, or Manchester in the UK, and also with Paris, Frankfurt and Brussels all being about 4 hours by train from Amsterdam.
Hotel Keisershof, double room w/ breakfast, no bath, 6 nights @ 65€ = $508 (390€)
Museumzicht, double room w/breakfast, no bath, 6 nights @ 58€ = $453 (348€)
Train from airport to city, 2 trips @ 2.95€ = $8 (5.90€)
Rijksmuseum admission = $11 (8.50€)
Van Gogh Museum admission = $12 (9€)
Anne Frank House admission = $8 (6.50€)
Amsterdam Historical Museum admission = $8 (6€)
Stedelijk Museum (modern art) admission = 7 (5€)
Canal tour-boat, 1 hour tour = 10 (8€)
Free:
Flower Market on the Singel
Nieuwe Spiegelstraat antiques quarter
Waterlooplein Flea Market
Red Light District (if you just window shop)
Official Amsterdam visitor’s site.
Virtual tour of Amsterdam.
Lonely Planet have a good hostel search. Well, I don’t know if it’s good, as it’s the only one that I’ve seen, but you can get dorms for ~$20 a night.
Absolutely!
What are you gonna do? Bag some babes, sniff some tulips, gawk some windmills, then off to the hash bars baby! Snack cakes will be your biggest expense.
I’ve been to Holland many times, and it’s clean, safe and they speak English*.
My only complaint** is that they are slightly too tall. :eek:
Try Indonesian food, especially a rijstaafel***. 
I think it would be cheaper to come via London - after that, what GorillaMan said****.
- They really all do. In over 20 visits, the only Dutchman I met who didn’t speak English was pretty old.
**actually they sailed up the Thames and bombarded London. :mad: Admittedly this was in 1667.
***many, many small courses (meat, fish, eggs, vegetables) served with rice.
****of course real men take the ferry from Harwich to Hook. My ‘best’ crossing was 8 hours in a-gale force storm. 
I’m going there next week. Got tickets for under $500 direct from Dulles in DC. If you’re looking at going to London I got a direct flight in June for under 500 from Dulles on virgin. I don’t think you’ll need 2400, I spent a month in Europe and didn’t spend more then 4000 including flights. You just can’t stay in the high end hotels.
I can confirm that the Dutch are very nice people. I only spent two days there but I really enjoyed it. Hence the reason I’m going back.
How’d you guess?
Thanks to all for the input!
A couple years back I managed to spend a month in Europe for just under $2000, and went all over, but that was hostels all the way. I believe I had a lot more fun bumming it as you meet some amazing people.
Moved to IMHO.
-xash
General Questions Moderator
hehehehe, glee. 
ninetypercent, Seems you’re covered. If you need to know more, mail me. Have a great time in A’dam.
Just how expensive is the coffee shop fare over there? I’ve always wondered.
I’ve always wondered the same as fetus. Let’s say that in the US, some primo green is $200/oz. Is it that expensive there? I mean, it’s not like you’d want a whole ounce - just some samples, because you can’t have any leftover when it’s time to go home. Can anybody fill us in on this, please?
Standard disclaimer: drugs are bad. Don’t take them, even if you’re in a country where it’s not against the law.