Amsterdam Things to Do

Amsterdam’s Nuit Blanche (White Night) is the biggest underground and avant-garde festival in The Netherlands, showcasing all that is leftfield and innovative in theater, food, music and clubbing in a single night of nocturnal excess.

The biggest and best-established arts festival in The Netherlands brings international musicians and actors into Amsterdam every June – 2013 dates are June 1 through 26. Encompassing all genres of music from classical to garage, drama, dance, film, and opera, the festival spreads across the city into every sizeable venue from the mainstream Muziektheater and the Royal Theatre Carré to the Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam and the home of leftfield music and drama, the art-house venue Westergasfabriek.

It’s the end of a long cold winter and time to get back outside and dance off those winter blues. To do that Amsterdammers will be heading to their iconic music venues Milkveg and Paradiso for 5 Days Off, an electronic music and art festival running from March 6 – 10. The art part is basically to make sure that people do see some daylight hours by providing 5 Days On, a non-music based part of the programming.

The tulips are coming out in Holland – it must be springtime. Every year, March is eagerly awaited by gardeners everywhere, not just because it’s the time when things will actually start growing again and they can get back outside with their buckets and spades, but because March is the month when the Keukenhof park opens each year for its short two month splendor.

As the capital of The Netherlands, Amsterdam is its biggest city and home to a hip and multicultural population, with a rainbow of nations all bringing their colorful heritage to town. The result is a vibrant, happening city with plenty of street life and cultural events.

Catch the highlights of Amsterdam on this 2.5-hour Amsterdam City Sightseeing Tour that includes the Royal Palace, National Monument, bridges, a market and traditional gabled houses.

There’s also a visit to the Gassan Diamonds factory, which allows spectators to watch the talented workers turn rough diamonds into exquisitely polished stones! This month, one lucky winner will be awarded two tickets to the Amsterdam City Sightseeing Tour PLUS while on the tour they will each receive a Gassan diamond worth €500!

There is plenty to do in Amsterdam over winter. The climate in the capital city of The Netherlands is not always at its most welcoming but if you’re lucky the sun will come out, the crowds will have disappeared, and you’ll have the place virtually to yourself.

Amsterdam in The Netherlands has its party reputation to maintain and the city certainly erupts on New Year’s Eve to celebrate Oudejaarsavondwith fireworks and fun for residents and a multitude of hard-partying Euro-revellers alike. Stores close in the early afternoon on New Year’s Eve and reopen on January 2; most of Amsterdam’s street parties are accessible on foot in the largely pedestrianized city center.

Christmas preparations kick off in mid-November in Amsterdam, when the streets are adorned with Christmas lights and store windows decorated with festive scenes. On the third weekend in November, Sinterklaas and his helpers arrive in The Netherlands and sail down the Amstel River before parading through Amsterdam’s streets to check on the behavior of the city’s youngsters.

Amsterdam in 2012 celebrates Christmas with a Light Festival—The Netherlands’ capital city comes alive with magical laser shows piercing the night sky and glinting off the canals over the Christmas season.