Without a doubt, the Dutch street food most frowned upon by tourists, expats, and immigrants, is herring. Squeamish tourists often assume the fish is eaten raw, but that is not the case.
Herring is the Netherland’s national snack: If you’ve never tasted fresh herring you don’t know what you’re missing.
You’ll have plenty of opportunity to eat this Amsterdam street food delicacy. The 2019 Hollandse Nieuwe — ‘New Herring’ — season started on June 12. They are especially tasty this year!
Amsterdam’s annual Gay Pride Canal Parade is the second most popular event in town, with 80 floats and over half a million spectators. The popular parade is the highlight of a week-long of gay pride events.
2019 marks the 24th edition.
Public transport in Amsterdam requires the use of an OV-Chipkaart (OV-Chipcard) — a paper or plastic credit card-size ticket with en embedded memory chip designed to be read by ticket readers on board public transport vehicles.
For most tourists, day- or multiple day tickets are the best deal. They entitle you to unlimited travel through Amsterdam – day and night – by tram, bus and metro. Ferries across the river IJ are always free.
Note: all buses, trams and metros are cash-free. Buy your Public Transport Day- or Multiple Day Passes online right here.
Amsterdam is a safe city for women of all ages traveling alone or together, but normal safety precautions do apply.
Keukenhof, the world’s second largest flower garden, is open just eight weeks a year.
Yet it remains one of the most popular tourist attractions outside Amsterdam, and one of the top excursions in the Netherlands.
Learn when the tulips are at their best, the best days and times to visit, and what the name Keukenhof means.
In 2020, Keukenhof will be open from March 21 through May 10. The theme is ‘A World of Colours’, celebrating the fact that visitors come from every country and culture.
Each year 5.5 million Amsterdam visitors take a canal cruise, making a boat tour of the canals the city’s most popular tourist attraction.
No visit to Amsterdam — also known as ‘Venice of the North’ — is complete without taking to the water, hands down the best way to see the city.
In fact, many people take more than one cruise: a daytime tour is a good introduction. A romantic candlelight cruise at night creates another lasting impression.
And then there are the many specialty tours: dinner cruises, cheese and wine tastings, combination boat tour and museum entrance… whatever floats your boat.
Update: The brief return that didn’t happen
‘I amsterdam’ long was Amsterdam’s hugely popular marketing slogan. The set of giant letters — located at the back of the Rijksmuseum, and a stone’s throw from the Van Gogh museum — is among the most photographed of Amsterdam’s icons.
But now both the letters and the marketing campaign are history. Victims of their own success, as Amsterdam suffers under an onslaught of over-tourism.
The sign will be removed at the beginning of December.
The Rijksmuseum currently presents — for the first and only time — a unique, temporary exhibition of all 22 paintings, 60 drawings and more than 300 best examples of Rembrandt’s prints in its collection.
This special event is part of a year-long commemoration of the 350th anniversary of Rembrandt’s death.
Amsterdam remains the least safe city in the Netherlands, according to the 2019 edition of the Crime Index (Misdaadmeter) published annually by Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad.
The city held on to its position in the index even though there was a reduction in the number of the most common type of crimes.
The Anne Frank House is the third most popular museum in Amsterdam — after the van Gogh Museum and the Rijksmuseum.
The popularity of the small museum has made it necessary to introduce a new, online tickets only system, complete with timed entry slots.
While it can be quite a challenge to secure tickets online, there are benefits as well. Earlier, waiting times in the line to the box office easily topped 2+ hours.
Also: after two years of remodeling work the Anne Frank House has been renewed. See what’s new, and why you may want to re-visit.
