Is it possible to explore Amsterdam in 5 days? YES!!
Five days is more than enough time to explore the main attractions and get a feel for this city. It may seem large at first, but it can all be managed even within a couple of days. This place offers so much to those city folk as well as small town dwellers.
Let's move on to the itinerary, shall we?
Welkom in Amsterdam.
I booked my Amsterdam trip about a month before I went, I was going with my sister and it cost me £162.91 for myself when booking through with Expedia, we flew with British Airways there and back.
We left home about 4am and got to the airport for our 6.45am take off, we made our way through check-in and airport security and got on the plane which was surprisingly empty! So we got a row each, the flight time was only an hour and 20 minutes from London Heathrow to Airport Schiphol, but we enjoyed every minute of it separately!
We like to take the earlier flights that way we can spend more of the day in the country we travel to and flights are cheaper as well.
We were staying at the hotel Citizen M and I have got to say, it is the coolest hotel I have ever seen!
More on that later, but for now we've reached Amsterdam's airport and take a train to Amsterdam Zuid Station which is the closest to our hotel. My sister was here on business so the hotel was closer to her temp. office, but still close to central by tram. You can, of course, take a taxi from the airport, but why waste the money when you can spend it on... oh I don't know..food!
We checked into our hotel and now was the time to explore!
DAY 1 - INTRODUCING AMSTERDAM
We spent much of the morning hanging out in our hotel room because it was so goddamn amazing! Today was a Sunday and the only full day my sister had free so first thing after hanging out in the hotel was hire bikes from Black Bikes and rode around the city, we visited Vondelpark and rode straight through a marathon. There are a ton of other bike rental shops in Amsterdam, but we got a good deal because our hotel was promoting them. Fun Fact: Did you know there are more bikes in Amsterdam than people?!
I even ended up losing my sister at some point because we stopped to check where we were and have a drink of water, it was a nice sunny day out and then at some point I guess she just rode off and she probably thought I followed her which I didn't! So I just rode around on my own, thank god I had a map app of Amsterdam on my phone, got back to the bike rental place to give the bike back then went back to the hotel. If you get lost get back to your hotel asap and make a call to your lost ones to check if they are okay.
Best App - Amsterdam Travel Guide and Offline City Map by Ulmon GmbH available on Andriod and Apple Store *not sponsored*
DAY 2 - ART OVERLOAD
I spent the rest of the week on my own doing some sightseeing in this laid back city, so the second day I spent my time at one of the best museums in Amsterdam called the Rjiksmuseum. It is definitely one of the larger museums in this city and has more than 2000 paintings including works by Rembrandt and Vermeer, you can easily spend hours getting lost in this beautiful building, I know I did!
If you can make sure you buy your tickets ahead of time or online while you're there as lines can be very long some days and use your student discount if you have one.
Before entering the museum, many tourists rush towards the 'I AMsterdam' sign in front of the museum, it is a sought after photo opportunity for many and a city icon in itself. But make sure that you get there early in the day or even in the evening when it's quite so that you can get yourself a picture of climbing and be sitting on top of the 2-metre tall sign!
I then travelled to the popular floating flower market or Bloemenmarkt as known in Dutch, it is the world's only floating flower market and can be found between Muntplein and Koningsplein. You're actually not allowed to take pictures of the flower market itself, not a lot of the shopkeepers like tourists taking photos, but I managed to sneak a few in! You can see the famous flower the Netherlands are known for - Tulips as well as other colourful fragrant flowers.
DAY 3 - #GRAMTHEDAM
Day four was spent checking out a bunch of random places mostly, I was still doing research of where to visit while on this trip because Amsterdam is quite a small city but packed full of things to do. I first made my way to the Royal Palace of Amsterdam which was first built as Amsterdam's city hall back in the 17th Century. Small but rich in history this Palace offers a lot of photo opportunities for your social media!
One of the many modern attractions in Amsterdam is the TFIOS bench that was made famous in the film 'The Fault In Our Stars' where characters Gus and Hazel have a romantic moment. I visited this bench and oh boy was it busy, this bench had its own line! It is a lovely bench that has been covered in graffiti and love locks but the view from it is much better!
In the evening my sister and I roamed the streets of the Red Light District of Amsterdam to see what all the hoo-ha was about. If you intend to visit please be safe as this is a dangerous area at night even though it is a tourist attraction and you never know who may be lurking around the corner. Here we saw the famous Bulldog coffee shop, Amsterdam has many locations the first being 'The Bulldog™ The First Oudezijds Voorburgwal 90 1012 GJ Amsterdam The Netherlands' but if you wanted to buy weed here I wouldn't recommend as it seemed a little seedy.
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The first Bulldog cafe est.1974
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DAY 4 - WANDERING
In the morning I visited the Van Gogh Museum, I respect him as an artist and as a complicated human being if you don't know who he was, then start googling because there is a heck of a lot of information on him. the majority of the museums are coupled together on the Museumplein, so you could possibly do all the museums in one day however that would bore me and I need a little more variation in my sightseeing. Remember to buy your tickets in advance!
Wander around the Nine Streets - The nine canals that join together at a junction are not to be missed, it is the area where you see a lot of popular Amsterdam photos, flowing with endless canals and a uniform row of houses. And also watch out for bikes here as locals will be flying through while your standing trying to take a photo!
No one there are more bikes than people!
Head to the Jordaan neighborhood for a more local atmosphere, not as popular as the Nine Streets but still beautiful for all to wonder.
Be the first to line to tour the Anne Frank House, this famous spot gets really crowded so try and book tickets in advance to view it during the day or queue for 3 hours like I did! (The line goes around the block!)
DAY 5 - SAYING GOODBYE
As for my last day I wanted to do something that was a bit more laid back, we had an evening flight as we normally would for any of our holidays to use most of the day for more sightseeing.
I started with taking a stroll through a park that was located near to our hotel called Beatrix Park - it had stunning landscapes that if I still drew I would sketch it out.
then I made my way to the Albert Crypt Market, one of Amsterdam's most popular food and trinket markets pathing through a long road. If you're a foodie or like shopping stalls this is the place for you. If you have a chance to visit the market you can get a really good falafel wrap at Sonny's Falafel, they won't let you down!
The last museum I wanted to visit was the Moco Museum located on the Museum Plein, near the Van Gogh Museum. They had a Banksy and Andy Warhol exhibition on, and I have never seen any of their artworks in real life so I took the opportunity to view them here in Amsterdam. I learned so much just by observing their work. Did you know that someone was ripping people off on Banksy artwork on the street, a stranger would cover it and charge like $2 a viewing even though it wasn't his work (such disrespect :/)
I spent the rest of the afternoon at the hotel even though checkout was around 10-11am, but I just walked in and made myself comfortable on the lounge sofa and hooked onto the wifi browsing and making notes for upcoming blog posts and things I needed to catch up on through the rest of the week. While doing this I was munching on some poffertjes which are Dutch mini pancakes, from the Pancake Corner next to the other Bulldog located in Leidseplein Square. They were decently priced using the euros I had left and got these as a takeaway and they gave me a plastic pint glass worth of whipped cream!
I hope this inspires you to visit this rich cultured city, and that you can visit the majority of Amsterdam with only a couple of days if you are well organised and willing to put the effort in.
There will be more posts on my trip to Amsterdam coming soon! Look out on the blog or follow me on Twitter @BoldInOrigin for the latest updates. Ax
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