Let's go on a fabulous journey through unforgettable Amsterdam, where marijuana and homosexual marriages are legalized, where the hippie quarter flourishes, real absinthe is born and tulip plantations grow happily. Only here you can visit the Red Light District, where the most "ancient profession" is considered a profitable business. In addition to the listed exotic attractions, Amsterdam has a lot of cultural, educational and very interesting places that tourists like to visit. Today we will tell you what you should definitely see in Amsterdam.
To save on entrance tickets to attractions and get various nice "buns", we recommend purchasing the Amsterdam Holland Pass or I Amsterdam city card. You can read all the detailed information in our life hack “How to save money in Europe. We buy a tourist card ”.
How to get from the airport to the center
So, our plane lands on the runway of the busiest airport in the world, Schiphol, and it's time to think about how to get to the city center. There are options and they are:
- a direct train arrives at the main railway station in Amsterdam. Departure of trains on this route is round-the-clock, three to four trains per hour at rush hour and from 1.00 am to 5.00 am - one train per hour. The fare costs 3.8 euros one way. The journey takes only 20 minutes. All train platforms (our 13th) are located underground, right under the main airport lobby. The ticket can only be purchased inside the building from the yellow-blue machine.
- in 30 minutes and 4.8 euros to the city center without any problems can be reached by bus number 197. Its departure is carried out every 15 minutes from 5.00 am to 00.00 am. At night, buses No. 72 and No. 97 run once an hour.
- if extra money is lost in your pocket, then you can get to the city by taxi. The fare will be approximately 40-50 euros. And in time such pleasure will take 25 minutes.
- if you need to get to the hotel, you can use the shuttle bus service for 14.5 euros. It departs from the A7 platform every 30 minutes from 6.00 am to 9.00 pm.
Having reached the center, any tourist will begin to get acquainted with the city and with all its delights. What, in principle, we will also do.
Canals, tulips, wooden shoes and windmills are considered symbols of Holland. A good opportunity to start your excursion from them.
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Tulip Museum
So, we got to the center and our first stop is the Tulip Museum, which is located in the city center, a 15-minute walk from the central station, on the opposite side of the Prinsengracht water channel, next to the famous Anne Frank House Museum. You can also get to the Tulip Museum by tram number 13 or 17 to the stop Westermarkt (Western Church) and by bus number 21, 170, 171, or 172.
On an area of 2,200 square meters, there are seven galleries, a theater flower bed and a shop. The Tulip Museum is open to the public every day from 10.00 to 18.00. But we do not recommend planning your visit on April 26 or December 25, as the doors of the museum are closed on these days. If you do not have the I amsterdam City Card, then the cost of the visit will be: 15 Euro for a family, 5 Euro for one adult and 3 Euro for students.
Anne Frank House Museum
Not far from the museum is the famous A. Frank house-museum (address: 263 Prinsengracht). In the secret place of this house, behind a movable bookcase, during the war of the Third Reich, Anna's father, whose name is Otto Frank, hid eight people in complete isolation for two years. Unfortunately, in August 1944, the cache was discovered by the Nazis. Only one father survived, the rest all died in concentration camps, including Anna.
Thanks to the diary of a famous girl, in which she described not only unforgettable events taking place, her own vivid experiences and exciting moments for her, now there is this museum, in which the atmosphere of that period of time still lives.
Photographs, excerpts from a diary, films, historical documents, as well as things and objects that belonged to those eight people from the cache, colorfully and vividly illustrate to the visitors of the house the events that once took place here. Anna's diary in the museum is a special artifact. Before visiting, we recommend watching the movie "Anne Frank's Vault" (1988).
Since at any time of the year the queues of those wishing to see this unique "museum" are very long, we recommend arriving after 15:00. Life hack from guruturizma.ru: in order not to stand in line for tickets, purchase them in advance at annefrank.org/nl. So you will have the opportunity to get to the museum through a special entrance, which is located to the left of the central one and save a couple of hours of precious time. It is forbidden to use photo and video equipment, but tourists still manage to take some good pictures.
A ticket for adults, at the time of publication of this article, costs 9 euros, for young people from 10 to 17 years old the price is 4.50 euros, and up to 10 years old it is completely free. Opening hours: daily except October 4, 2014 (Yom Kippur). From November 1 to March 31 9: 00-17: 00 (Saturdays until 21:00 hours), from April 1 to October 31 9: 00-21: 00 (Saturdays until 22:00 hours), from July 1 to August 31 9: 00-22: 00. Entrance to the museum no later than 30 minutes before closing.
Royal Palace
In the center of the city there is the Royal Palace, which is also an important landmark of the capital. It is used for state visits and hosts official events such as the Royal Prize for Painting and the Prince Claus Prize.
Visiting hours from 11.00 pm to 17.00 pm, ticket price for adults 10 euros, for children from 5 to 16 years old, seniors from 65 years old and students - 9 euros, free for children under 5 years old. You can buy tickets online and view the Royal Palace's opening hours at paleisamsterdam.nl. Be careful: filming is prohibited, including on a mobile phone. Photography is permitted provided that you do not use a tripod and flash.
Canal walk
In 2010, the Amsterdam canal network was added to the list of World Heritage Sites. There are about 165 canals in the city, not to mention the bridges, of which there are already more than 600. As the story goes, the first canals in Amsterdam were created to protect and manage water resources. In the Middle Ages, the city expanded significantly, and such defensive lines lost their relevance, but took on a more important role - these are "great" cargo transportation. And in the seventeenth century, the city government of Amsterdam had already proposed a project for the construction of a network of canals.
The construction was completed by 1660 and contributed to the growth of the capital fourfold. A fleet of a thousand barges actively transported goods to every corner of the city. Nine floating markets that served the entire population of Amsterdam, and thousands of warehouses located and flourished on the city's venerated canals.
But by the 20th century, cars and other land transport began to dominate, which forced the population to fill many canals with earth and make streets and quarters in their place. As a result, now, at present, only 25% of the surface of Amsterdam consists of shipping lanes.
Canal travel is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the capital. A huge fleet of varied boats offers water cruises with different itineraries. The entrance fee to a local boat, which has both indoor and outdoor comfortable seats, is 20 euros for adults, and 10 euros for children aged 5 to 12.The cost of a pedal boat is approximately € 7.5 plus an outpost of € 50 per person per hour.
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Mills
In the Netherlands, the national holiday of the Mills is celebrated on May 11, and on this day, the heroes of the occasion are decorated with flowers, garlands, figures and the Dutch flag. You don't have to go far to see them, they are just a few minutes away, for example, by bike. Of the eight mills, only two are open, especially for curious tourists.
If you are a beer lover, then you can combine the useful and the pleasant by visiting the windmill, whose name is Gooyer or Fuenmolen. It is located in eastern Amsterdam on Fuenenkade, where the brewery still produces and sells Dutch traditional beer.
Red Light District and Erotic Museum
One of the main attractions of the capital, which attracts dozens, hundreds and even thousands of tourists here, is the well-known red light district where prostitution, legalized at the state level, flourishes. The street, filled with red light pouring from the windows, where they stand together, offering their services, confused at a price of 50 euros, or the closed curtains are meaningfully silent. In the center of the Red Light District, you can see an old warehouse illuminated by a neon sign above the entrance with a defiant and attractive inscription "Erotic Museum".
The museum houses a three-story shop of erotic trivia and souvenirs and a red room with a girl, from the quarter adjacent to the museum. There are also old collections of erotic photographs and masterpieces of erotic art. This establishment was specially created in order to reflect the life of the famous De Wallen street. In it, you can freely take pictures of everything, which, it should be noted, is dangerous to do outside the premises before the will. The museum is open from Monday to Thursday and Sunday from 11.00 to 1.00. The ticket price is 5 euros.
Museum of marijuana, hemp and hashish
You can also find it on one of the blocks of the famous Red Light District. The attraction can be divided into two parts, one of which tells about all kinds of drug use and some of its properties, and the second is devoted to the history and traditions of the use of this culture. For 9 euros, Amsterdam provides the opportunity to visit one of the few original establishments that thrives on a par with art museums.
Red Light District "is adjacent to chinatown, where there are many decent restaurants of different cuisines, shops and a real amazing Buddhist temple.
Museum of Sex
The next museum that you should definitely visit is the Museum of Sex. On Damrak Street, in the center of the lively city bustle, practically opposite the railway station, there is a spectacular and unusual museum of the most delicate sphere - the sphere of human sexuality. The institution consists of named rooms, in each of which a kind of muffled music sounds.
For more than two decades of its history, the museum has managed to collect and organize all this in a very interesting way more than one hundred works of art, unique objects and rare old photographs without straightforward pornography. Every day, from 9.30 am to 11.30 pm, the museum welcomes its guests, not younger than 16 years old. The ticket price is 4 euros.
Torture museum
If you are a lover of horror and fantasy, adrenaline and extreme, then the Museum of Torture, which costs 5 euros for an adult, was created just for you. It is one of the most unusual, intimidating and interesting museums in Amsterdam. In this room, you can easily merge into the atmosphere of the dirty and difficult criminal justice system that reigned over the people five hundred years ago.
The small, dimly lit rooms contain some eerie relics of torture that still evoke feelings of terror and dread. The museum is located on the left bank of the Singel Canal, near the Muntplein.
Most of us would love to meet Ronaldinho, Barack Obama, Lady Gaga in the Netherlands or Madonna. Since 1971 Madame Tussauds wax museum provides this opportunity for only 22 euros. In Dam Square, equipped with professional animators and multimedia effects, modernized to match the royal palace, the museum attracts the attention of visitors of all ages.
Cat museum
In honor of our smaller friends, a cat museum was built, which is located on Herengracht in an old patrician building. Why is it bad to get acquainted with art, which represents the whole genus of felines for only 6 euros?
Paintings, sculptures, books and posters dedicated to these animals are displayed at professional serious exhibitions. Here you will unwind from rigorous scientific stories and facts and experience fun and amusing exhibits that will surely bring a smile to your face.
To visit Amsterdam and not visit a particularly famous one, known for a hundred years and the largest flea market not allowed! It is in this market that you can enjoy the Amsterdam atmosphere and find almost everything at the lowest prices in the city.
If you plan to stay in the capital for more than a few days and visit as many attractions as possible, then do not forget to take care of purchasing an Amsterdam Pass or I amsterdam City Card. This is a pass that includes a pass for all types of public transport, except for taxis and the train flight of the railway station-airport, a chip card for completely free admission to many famous museums, as well as a nice booklet with discounts in cafes, restaurants and even amusement parks. Learn more about the opportunities and bonuses these cards provide here.
Another useful life hack from Guruturizma.ru: if you don't have a language barrier and you know English perfectly, you can register for a free tour of Amsterdam at newamsterdamtours.com. This excursion is absolutely free, but you can leave as much "tea" for your guides as you see fit.
I also recommend diversifying your vacation in the Netherlands by visiting the village of Giethoorn - the Dutch Venice. A very interesting and atmospheric place.
Where to stay in Amsterdam
We offer some great options:
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