Amsterdam Things to Do

With some of the best markets, specialty stores, and boutiques in the world, Amsterdam’s shopping streets are easily explored on foot, from the pedestrianized Nieuwedijk-Kalverstraat to the cobbled side streets, canal-sides, and squares. You’ll find everything from big department stores to specialty stores glittering diamonds, crumbly Gouda cheese, and the famous blue-and-white Delftware.

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 pint-sized capital of The Netherlands, Amsterdam is not a massive metropolis in the fashion of London or New York – and most of the major attractions are walkable – but nevertheless a hop-on, hop-off tour on an open-top bus is the ideal way to great to know the layout of the city and to pinpoint its treasures.

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.

There are two kinds of cafes or coffee shops in Amsterdam – the famous ‘coffee shop’ which is one of the city’s main tourist attractions (though this is fast changing with the new laws coming in), and the brown cafes which actually serve coffee, beer and food and which are where you’ll find the locals relaxing in an atmosphere that is both vibey bar and laid back café.

The Dutch might be the least superstitious people on earth, but in a city as old and full of history as Amsterdam, there’s bound to be some ghosts haunting the place and sure enough there are.

The Dutch are very child-friendly and so Amsterdam is a great city to take kids, with lots of activities just for them.

1) Canal Cruise

This one is fun for the entire family as you get to explore the world’s greatest canal city from a boat on the canals. Kids will love seeing all the barges that people live on, plus the many bridges, the crooked buildings and the harbor with its mix of the modern and the historic.

The Red Light District (De Wallen) in Amsterdam is one of the major draws for tourists. It’s not far from the Centraal Station, centered around Dam Square as it has been for centuries, and it’s where a lot of people head as soon as they reach town. Later they find a coffee shop to take part in The Netherlands’ other unique feature: legalised cannabis at coffeeshops.

When I was old enough to start visiting bars (18, as I was in Australia), my eye was immediately drawn to those shiny, pretty-colored bottles gleaming on the shelves behind the bar. They were the colors of precious jewels, much brighter than the rainbow. I confess, for a while I drank only things that matched my outfit–again, I was 18. So, it was inevitable that when I got to Amsterdam, I had to seek out the place that made these magical – and frankly sickly sweet – alcoholic tints.

The House of Bols is located at Museumplein in the center of Amsterdam, very close to the Van Gogh Museum (another house of wonderful colors). It has won a Dutch Design Award for Best Exhibition and Experience.

I’m not the first to say it but really the only way to get around Amsterdam is by bicycle. It’s cheap, the city is flat, and you can go where the mood takes you and see the real Amsterdam.