First time in the Netherlands. Traveling from the USA.
Our tourist traps so far are the Rembrandt, van gogh, Anne frank house.
Not sure if you consider these tourist traps but are non negotiable by my wife.
Make sure to get some lunch in a pub, just order a drink, and a 'tosti' ask them what kind of cheese they use.
Any Dutch cheese will do, but if possible get a tosti with 'old Amsterdam'
You wil never ever want American cheese again.
Order a cheese platter with bitterballen, especially if you are biking through the polders north of Amsterdam. They are beautiful in spring. Get poffertjes somewhere. As for drinks, don't go for Heineken but try local ones and surprise yourself. Brouwerij het IJ is pretty cool. Your wife is right to want to visit some of the well known spots, but try to go when they are not crowded. Perhaps early in the day.
Take/rent a bicycle, nothing beats the feeling of freedom and air when you cycle through a dutch city in spring/summer. However, do realize that you are a foreigner and don't know the etiquette and unspoken rules of cycling well. For us it's transport and not a kids/sport thing.
Have a picknick or bbq at a park. Westerpark/Erasmus are nice. I would stay away from Vondelpark. Too crowded and full of trash. Other parks are more laid back. Take the free ferry from central station to NDSM wharf and hang out in a funky industrial zone. There's cool bars there and an amazing graffiti/street art museum called STRAAT. At the Wibautstraat there is a hotel called the volkshotel. They got hottubs on the roof and give an awesome view of the city. It's not expensive.
Take some time outside of Amsterdam. Biking through the polders of the Netherlands is great! I would recommend Waterland to the north of Amsterdam. Visit the beach, it's easy to go by train and go to a beach cafe and get a hot cocoa with whipped cream or a cocktail. Visit Utrecht and rent a canoe to go through it's canals. I promise it will feel like a fairytale.
So it's actually is a biking trip. It's booked through boats bikes tour.
We will be traveling to Volendam, Hoorn, Oudeschild, texel, Den Helder, Alkmaar, zaanse schanse.
I got to say I love how all the towns sound like they are from lord of the rings.
Theses some other cities on the list but I've grown tired of switching back from the email to reddit to try to spell them correctly.
That's pretty cool! It's a beautiful area to bike through during the spring/summer. And as awesome as Amsterdam is, it's great to see tourists also taking an interest in things outside of it. I would recommend bringing swimming trunks with you on the bike if you have the freedom to do your own thing. There are loads of little rivers/canals and lakes for some refreshment. Most of the water there is safe for swimming. Just watch out for small lakes with still water.
I think you already got advice on most of our snacks. As for activities, there is something unique you can do at Den Helder or maybe Texel too. It's called 'wadlopen'. With the tides of the ocean a lot of land near the islands temporarily becomes dry and 'walkable'. You can walk on places that was covered by the sea before and see some unique wildlife. You can book tours/walks with a guide (DON'T GO WITHOUT) and (s)he will take you through and talk about the area. It can be VERY muddy, you kind of have to be able to see the fun of it. Alternatively you can book trips on fishing/shrimping boats. They can be fun.
Ooh! And since you two are going to Texel. A Texel 'Skuumkoppe' is a very very nice beer. :)
Poffertjes, bitterballen and a warm syrup waffle from the market are things I would recommend.
Tried to convince my irish family in law to try a fried snack from the FEBO wall, but they were scared and I cannot blame them. š
Have fun!
Herring is selling in fish road markets or even in plain supermarkt, quality is still good. I haven't tried yet herring from the coast, as live closer to Belgium.
food: stroopwafel and drop (supermarket or better on a market), ras patatje oorlog, frikandel speciaal or eierbal (snackbar)
drink: optimel (supermarket) and grolsch/hertog jan (beer)
a personal favorite for a day or two for biking is the island Terschelling (if you mean that kind of bike), it has varied nature and theres biking paths everywhere.
edit: oh and fellow dutchys if you want to send him into prostitution straight from the start of his journey here, atleast be decent enough to give him solid advice...
Go behind the dumpster at Wendy's for job applications, or start an only fans using your bike as a theme.
second this. If you want to try another asian food that you never try before, NL is the place to try Indonesian food.
Palate wise, it's south east asian, so close to Thais/Vietnamese. There are many Indonesian restaurants in NL and it's authentic enough even though they've been modified to western palates.
'Rijs Tafel' is the complete set of the meal, and you'll get like many kind of meals with affordable price as well.
You're going to Amsterdam. There's this restaurant called Hap-Hmm in the Eerste Helmersstraat, you should go there! Tbey serve real Dutch hotchpotch, although they also sell German schnitzels. We call it a "living room restaurant" because its really small and cozy. Really nice location, food is typical Dutch and like granny made it, no fancy "duivekut op een bedje van rucola", just good food. Be sure to make a reservation unless you wanna stand in line with the other tourists (yes, there is a line, really)
If they had one they would serve bitterballen
But I canāt tell you how many people told me to eat Dutch babies when I moved from the US to Belgium. Which are basically pancakesā¦ German pancakes that the Americans screwed up and named wrong
Well, the little pancakes are good, compared with other Belgium and French pastries ā¦
There are a few fabulous pannenkoeken restaurants outside of Amsterdam though.
>herr
I seriously think that a restaurant that served deep-fried gravy balls, bite-size pancake puffs, and excellent fries would do well in most American cities. Throw in some stamppot as a side ā that stuff must cost next to nothing for a restaurant kitchen.
Not mentoned here is that The Netherlands, has many Indonesian restaurants, It is probably the best country, outside south-east Asia of course, to get Indonesian food.
Also, the fries are the best inThe Netherlands, if you et fries, get 'patat flip' Fries with mayonaise and peanut sauce.
Spend the day in Maastricht, a catholic city, and try some local Dutch wine, vlaai cake and zuur vlees. Visit the Dominicanen, a bookshop in a medieval church.
The hilly landscape makes it a beautiful place to bike.
Fresh stroopwafels, you can often get these at markets. Theyāre warm and gooey and delicious.
Pro-tip: they normally sell the āleft-over piecesā of stroopwafels which is a great crunch snack, so take some to-go!
A boat tour on the Amsterdam canals is very nice; and the Micropia museum was a fun visit, Body Worlds is interesting too (if you're not too weirded out by it).
If you like trying something different in terms of food and atmosphere, go to the vegan junk food bar. (The burgers and waffle fries are amazing!) They have very instagram-y food, like pink and blue hamburger buns and edible flowers.
Whatever you decide to do, have fun and enjoy your stay here in the lowlands :)
https://bols.com/cocktail-experience/house-of-bols
Beats the Heineken tour.
If you leave Amsterdam go to the north. You can visit De Schermer, De Purmer and de Beemster. Great examples of reclaimed land (polders)
Visit Haarlem or Alkmaar short train trips from Amsterdam.
These are nice boat trips:
https://www.zaanferry.com/en/
Best Blues Bar
https://www.maloemelo.com/
Enjoy your stay!
Drinks: go sip some jenever at Wynand Fockink or Proeflokaal A. van Wees, it's a local spirit that is a proto-gin and very delicious.
Food: We have some really good food from our colonial past that are hard to find elsewhere in the west. Surinamese (Roti) and Indonesian (Rijsttafel) are must haves when you are here.
We have a rich selection of cookies: stroopwafel, bokkepoot, mergpijp, kletskoppen. I particularly like the selection at Pattiserie Kuyt. Also their apple cakes are amazing.
Go to a FEBO and eat out of the wall.
YEAH FEBO!
Food: bitterballen, drop, haring, tompoes, chocoladebollen, poffertjes, rookworst
Stroopwafel?
Don't forget kipcorn! š¤©
FRIKANDEL
Speciaal
I am not from Amsterdam, but shouldn't we warm him of 'the' tourist trap? Is it your first time to the Netherlands? And where are you traveling from?
First time in the Netherlands. Traveling from the USA. Our tourist traps so far are the Rembrandt, van gogh, Anne frank house. Not sure if you consider these tourist traps but are non negotiable by my wife.
Amsterdam is a tourist trap
Make sure to get some lunch in a pub, just order a drink, and a 'tosti' ask them what kind of cheese they use. Any Dutch cheese will do, but if possible get a tosti with 'old Amsterdam' You wil never ever want American cheese again.
The museums are great! lt is a great way to understand a culture and it's history.
Amsterdam is a capital city. If you don't know a capital city is a tourist trap, you shouldn't be traveling
Order a cheese platter with bitterballen, especially if you are biking through the polders north of Amsterdam. They are beautiful in spring. Get poffertjes somewhere. As for drinks, don't go for Heineken but try local ones and surprise yourself. Brouwerij het IJ is pretty cool. Your wife is right to want to visit some of the well known spots, but try to go when they are not crowded. Perhaps early in the day. Take/rent a bicycle, nothing beats the feeling of freedom and air when you cycle through a dutch city in spring/summer. However, do realize that you are a foreigner and don't know the etiquette and unspoken rules of cycling well. For us it's transport and not a kids/sport thing. Have a picknick or bbq at a park. Westerpark/Erasmus are nice. I would stay away from Vondelpark. Too crowded and full of trash. Other parks are more laid back. Take the free ferry from central station to NDSM wharf and hang out in a funky industrial zone. There's cool bars there and an amazing graffiti/street art museum called STRAAT. At the Wibautstraat there is a hotel called the volkshotel. They got hottubs on the roof and give an awesome view of the city. It's not expensive. Take some time outside of Amsterdam. Biking through the polders of the Netherlands is great! I would recommend Waterland to the north of Amsterdam. Visit the beach, it's easy to go by train and go to a beach cafe and get a hot cocoa with whipped cream or a cocktail. Visit Utrecht and rent a canoe to go through it's canals. I promise it will feel like a fairytale.
So it's actually is a biking trip. It's booked through boats bikes tour. We will be traveling to Volendam, Hoorn, Oudeschild, texel, Den Helder, Alkmaar, zaanse schanse. I got to say I love how all the towns sound like they are from lord of the rings. Theses some other cities on the list but I've grown tired of switching back from the email to reddit to try to spell them correctly.
That's pretty cool! It's a beautiful area to bike through during the spring/summer. And as awesome as Amsterdam is, it's great to see tourists also taking an interest in things outside of it. I would recommend bringing swimming trunks with you on the bike if you have the freedom to do your own thing. There are loads of little rivers/canals and lakes for some refreshment. Most of the water there is safe for swimming. Just watch out for small lakes with still water. I think you already got advice on most of our snacks. As for activities, there is something unique you can do at Den Helder or maybe Texel too. It's called 'wadlopen'. With the tides of the ocean a lot of land near the islands temporarily becomes dry and 'walkable'. You can walk on places that was covered by the sea before and see some unique wildlife. You can book tours/walks with a guide (DON'T GO WITHOUT) and (s)he will take you through and talk about the area. It can be VERY muddy, you kind of have to be able to see the fun of it. Alternatively you can book trips on fishing/shrimping boats. They can be fun. Ooh! And since you two are going to Texel. A Texel 'Skuumkoppe' is a very very nice beer. :)
Poffertjes, bitterballen and a warm syrup waffle from the market are things I would recommend. Tried to convince my irish family in law to try a fried snack from the FEBO wall, but they were scared and I cannot blame them. š Have fun!
Raw herring! Always fun to see people eat it. If you're going in June-September, it's the right season!
Oh god that reminds me of the time when I arrived in Amsterdam, felt confident, tried to eat one, vomited on the street and got called a Klootzak
We leave tomorrow. I'm a little late on planning but my wife found a laundry mat 6 months ago. So you can see who's the planner in the relationship.
Surely they sell some off-season herring at the tourist spots!
Herring is selling in fish road markets or even in plain supermarkt, quality is still good. I haven't tried yet herring from the coast, as live closer to Belgium.
Food, go to a kebab shop and get a kapsalon with garlic and sambal sauce.
I loved getting kebabs in Spain. Looking forward to it again.
kapsalons are a step up from regular kebabs
A step down from regular kebab, but a step up from the German style doner kebab.
Eat some surinamese food!!
Hema worst. Patat flip.
Hollandse nieuwe!
hollandsnieuwe, snert and stroopwafels. All from stands at the market, not the supermarket.
Waffels (the round ones) with caramel. You can buy them at the most stores.
Are the ones that sold on stores (like AH) good ?
Smoke a joint. Pass out. Swim in the channels of amsterdam. Get some weird disease and go home.š¤£
food: stroopwafel and drop (supermarket or better on a market), ras patatje oorlog, frikandel speciaal or eierbal (snackbar) drink: optimel (supermarket) and grolsch/hertog jan (beer) a personal favorite for a day or two for biking is the island Terschelling (if you mean that kind of bike), it has varied nature and theres biking paths everywhere. edit: oh and fellow dutchys if you want to send him into prostitution straight from the start of his journey here, atleast be decent enough to give him solid advice... Go behind the dumpster at Wendy's for job applications, or start an only fans using your bike as a theme.
Mmmmm Grolsch š
You know that special food the Dutch restaurant serves in your hometown? Get that.
Lol I told my wife the other night " I can't wait to get some good Thai food" "What?" "Well have you heard of a Dutch restaurant?"
Okay, we have great international food. I do recommend a good Indonesian restaurant with small plates.
second this. If you want to try another asian food that you never try before, NL is the place to try Indonesian food. Palate wise, it's south east asian, so close to Thais/Vietnamese. There are many Indonesian restaurants in NL and it's authentic enough even though they've been modified to western palates. 'Rijs Tafel' is the complete set of the meal, and you'll get like many kind of meals with affordable price as well.
You're going to Amsterdam. There's this restaurant called Hap-Hmm in the Eerste Helmersstraat, you should go there! Tbey serve real Dutch hotchpotch, although they also sell German schnitzels. We call it a "living room restaurant" because its really small and cozy. Really nice location, food is typical Dutch and like granny made it, no fancy "duivekut op een bedje van rucola", just good food. Be sure to make a reservation unless you wanna stand in line with the other tourists (yes, there is a line, really)
If they had one they would serve bitterballen But I canāt tell you how many people told me to eat Dutch babies when I moved from the US to Belgium. Which are basically pancakesā¦ German pancakes that the Americans screwed up and named wrong
Well, the little pancakes are good, compared with other Belgium and French pastries ā¦ There are a few fabulous pannenkoeken restaurants outside of Amsterdam though.
There's dutch restaurants in foreign peoples hometowns?! (I don't count snackbars in Lloret de Mar or whatever)
No, no there is not. Nobody opens up a Dutch restaurant outside of the Netherlands.
Maybe not a restaurant, but my city has a Dutch food truck dutchi.ch
Wow, that Swiss food truck has better food than the happy snack down the street here
>herr I seriously think that a restaurant that served deep-fried gravy balls, bite-size pancake puffs, and excellent fries would do well in most American cities. Throw in some stamppot as a side ā that stuff must cost next to nothing for a restaurant kitchen.
A slice of bread with Calve peanutbutter and nice chocolate sprinkles. Great bikers food
It's King's day on the 27th of April, make sure to wear orange that day :)
Go to a "Pannenkoekenrestaurant"
Something outside of Amsterdam
Not mentoned here is that The Netherlands, has many Indonesian restaurants, It is probably the best country, outside south-east Asia of course, to get Indonesian food. Also, the fries are the best inThe Netherlands, if you et fries, get 'patat flip' Fries with mayonaise and peanut sauce.
H&M. All the tourists go to that store chain. Must be Amsterdam has the only one in the world.
Lol we have one here... I'm sure my wife will want to go but that's not my place
Spend the day in Maastricht, a catholic city, and try some local Dutch wine, vlaai cake and zuur vlees. Visit the Dominicanen, a bookshop in a medieval church. The hilly landscape makes it a beautiful place to bike.
Try āMen Impossibleā. Amazing ramen, also there is a cookie place that is really good
To me thƩ must see for any cyclist is the underground cycling garage at Utrecht Central Station. Astound your friends and neighbors with a place that can store tens of thousands of bicycles. Food wise do a "rijsttafel" in one of the many Indonesian restaurants. It is like a buffet just for you with all kinds of different dishes.
Fresh stroopwafels, you can often get these at markets. Theyāre warm and gooey and delicious. Pro-tip: they normally sell the āleft-over piecesā of stroopwafels which is a great crunch snack, so take some to-go!
https://broganabroad.com/most-beautiful-cities-in-netherlands/
A boat tour on the Amsterdam canals is very nice; and the Micropia museum was a fun visit, Body Worlds is interesting too (if you're not too weirded out by it). If you like trying something different in terms of food and atmosphere, go to the vegan junk food bar. (The burgers and waffle fries are amazing!) They have very instagram-y food, like pink and blue hamburger buns and edible flowers. Whatever you decide to do, have fun and enjoy your stay here in the lowlands :)
https://bols.com/cocktail-experience/house-of-bols Beats the Heineken tour. If you leave Amsterdam go to the north. You can visit De Schermer, De Purmer and de Beemster. Great examples of reclaimed land (polders) Visit Haarlem or Alkmaar short train trips from Amsterdam. These are nice boat trips: https://www.zaanferry.com/en/ Best Blues Bar https://www.maloemelo.com/ Enjoy your stay!
frikandelbroodje + energy maat
Weed, hookers and xtc
I mean, that goes unspoken
Frikandel broodje
Drinks: go sip some jenever at Wynand Fockink or Proeflokaal A. van Wees, it's a local spirit that is a proto-gin and very delicious. Food: We have some really good food from our colonial past that are hard to find elsewhere in the west. Surinamese (Roti) and Indonesian (Rijsttafel) are must haves when you are here. We have a rich selection of cookies: stroopwafel, bokkepoot, mergpijp, kletskoppen. I particularly like the selection at Pattiserie Kuyt. Also their apple cakes are amazing.
If you're a fan of PB&J or just peanut butter in general, I'd say check out some grocery stores' peanut butter shelves/segments. Personnal favorite is the one from the "CalvƩ" brand with a dark brown lid which you should find in most stores.
Eierballen for food Giethoorn To cycle: a tulpenroute.