Amsterdam - September 2025 (by Luke, October 2025)

We were able to tick Amsterdam off Gill’s bucket list in September 2025, and we managed to do it without any time off work. It says something about the sort of year that 2025 was when our first flight out of the UK for the year didn’t happen until the September! Visiting Amsterdam was worth the wait.

According to her bucket list Gill has wanted to go to Amsterdam since she was a little girl; but she can’t really put her finger on “why”. We managed to tick off most of the main sights in around 34 hours. What we didn’t quite manage to do was eat all of the food that she mentioned in her bucket list. But there is plenty more of the Netherlands to discover in the future when we can try to sample them.

My usual disclaimer follows now – this trip was definitely not done on a shoestring budget! It quite easily could have been and I do stick with what I have mentioned before about how cheap it can be to discover places. As we go through what we did I’ll mention where savings could quite easily be made but I am relatively sure that one could have an amazing experience sampling a lot of what Amsterdam has to offer for less than £500 per couple (dependant on flights, and where you stay).

Friday – overnight at Hilton Garden Inn Birmingham Airport

Friday was a normal working day. After finishing a day of working really hard from home and not thinking about the weekend at all we showered, completed the final bits of packing (including checking that the passports were packed multiple times), then got a taxi to the airport hotel. We don’t live far from Birmingham Airport but felt that it took some of the potential stress away from the Saturday morning by arriving the night before – this could easily be avoided to reduce the cost of the trip.

After checking in we went to our room to find out that they had put us in a twin room (not an issue apart from that we’d paid for a double, and they were a touch more expensive) so Gill phoned reception to double check and we popped back down to reception to get what we’d paid for. The room we ended up in was great. I do love a runway view, and we both spent ages watching the planes as night fell.

The food at the hotel was surprisingly good and we enjoyed a couple of drinks with dinner before going back to watch the lights moving around the now dark airport. Sleep was tricky due to the usual hotel pillow issues, and we were both awake well before we’d have needed to be to get to the airport from home on the Saturday morning!!

Saturday – Birmingham to Amsterdam, and miles of walking

We woke up to a notification on the easyJet app that our flight was a little delayed but “luckily” set off on the short walk to the airport at a decent time anyway. Security was busy and as we got through our ‘delayed’ flight was showing as ‘final call’ on the airport screens. When we got to the gate we stood and waited for a while, then got moved onto the plane where we waited for a longer while for any sort of action. It turns out that the flight was delayed but instead of having a chance to get a coffee in the airport easyJet decided to get us onto the plane where there were no facilities so we could wait there. Maybe 45 minutes after we were supposed to depart the captain turned up (he’d had to travel from Bristol in a taxi at short notice – easyJet did a great job of making sure the flight went ahead, but the lack of communication/organisation for our needs was very frustrating) and we finally (and excitedly) got on our way.

The flight itself was easy enough. We ate on the plane and by the time our coffee/hot chocolate was a drinkable temperature we were starting our descent into a rainy Schiphol airport. The airport is massive, and we taxied for ages, before walking for even longer to get to the huge queue at immigration. It took quite a while to get through but when we finally did, we set straight off to get the most expensive taxi in the world (part 1!)

What we should have done (and what Gill did suggest) is get the train, then a tram, then a bus to the hotel but that seemed way too involved, and time consuming for the short break that we were on. Alternatively, an Uber would have been a good idea…but we didn’t do that either, we just got an airport taxi from the rank outside.

There were lots of very cool buildings on the way into the city and 20 minutes and too many euros later we arrived at the hotel to drop our bags off so we could go out exploring. We had booked to stay at the Pestana Amsterdam Riverside. The staff were very helpful and quickly ‘pre-checked us in’ so we could leave our luggage and have a quicker process when we arrived back later in the day – we’d upgraded to a very nice room, and it wasn’t available for us to get into yet (which we expected would be the case with arriving early).

Gill switched her handbag to something more secure than she’d travelled with and we set off to explore Amsterdam on foot, dodging bicycles from the moment we left the safety of the hotel! We had spoken at length about what to see and it turned out that we did a really good job of getting around all of them using a combination of a route planned on ChatGPT as well as utilising Google Maps waypoints.

In places in did feel like pedestrians were an afterthought for the ‘footpaths’, with cycle lanes taking up the majority of the space, and cars crossing the footpath to turn down the side streets, but we both managed to survive. Once you got used to how it all worked it was actually quite easy to avoid what initially felt like a certain death. We walked around 13km in total on Saturday so had plenty of chances to get got!

From the hotel we walked alongside the Amstel for a while before leaving the riverside and getting into the hustle and bustle (and finding that trams were another thing we needed to dodge!) Our first stop was ‘The Thinker’ in Rembrandtplein and from there we continued towards Dam Square, stopping multiple times on the way to admire the buildings, the water, the number of bikes parked… it wasn’t the quickest walk. Dam Square is the site of an actual dam from the 13th Century. It was full of people when we arrived, trying, like us to take pictures of the Royal Palace, the National Monument (commemorating the Dutch soldiers who died in WW2) and the Nieuwe Kerk (New Church).

Next up was the Stock Exchange, then the houses of Damrak, the Basilica of Saint Nicholas, Scheepvaarthuis and views of Centraal Station and the Nemo Science Museum.

We’d seen that there was a café with a view on the top floor of OBA Oosterdok, one of Amsterdam’s Public Libraries (and the second biggest in Europe after Birmingham Library), so we made our way there. Babel Café is definitely a hidden gem. We both enjoyed a nice lunch, a beer each, and some views of the city from a different angle. The weather was still making up its mind at this point, but it was dry, despite looking threatening.

Back down to ground level we set off towards the Jordaan district. On the way we stopped at the Floating Flower Market (bulbs and fridge magnets… definitely manage your expectations if you are planning a visit) and took so many pictures of bike storage, decorated bikes, bikes and bridges. There were so many buildings that were picture worthy too. De Krijtberg church for example – an imposing church set in a row of terraced houses.

We had entertained the idea of climbing the Westerkerk tower but this wasn’t open to coincide with our time there, so we took a few pictures instead and soaked up the atmosphere in the area for a while.

It was only 14:00 by this point so we decided to get a tram (mainly to humour Gill) to Centraal Station… I’m not sure whether the 2 stops we travelled scratched the ‘tram in Amsterdam’ itch but we tried. From Centraal Station we got the free ferry across the river – competing for space with cyclists of course! We visited the A’DAM Tower in North Amsterdam where we went up to the A’DAM LOOKOUT. This meant being whisked 100m up in a lift (with a bizarre light show) to see the city from up high. While at the top of the tower we went on the ‘over the edge’ swings, which were exactly what they sound like! The weather had cleared up a bit by this point, so we enjoyed partially sunlit views of Amsterdam with a couple of cocktails before heading back down (more of the lift based light show).

Back at ground level we took some pics of the very cool building that contains the Eye Film Museum, then got back on the ferry to Centraal Station. Here we found the most expensive taxi in the world (part 2) and set off to our hotel via the De Gooyer windmill. De Gooyer is the tallest wooden windmill in The Netherlands and is really well looked after. The windmill has been moved multiple times in the past and is now situated next to (but not linked in any other way to) a brewery. Historically, windmills were utilised in The Netherlands to move water but as far as I can see De Gooyer was always used to mill corn. After taking some photos of the windmill, we carried on to the hotel, where I had a well-earned snooze and Gill had a long luxurious bath!

We had a dinner reservation at the two Michelin starred Restaurant 212 this evening so after getting ready we set off on the 30-minute walk to there. As we were walking the sun was setting – it was really pretty looking along the canals at the sunset.

Restaurant 212 was incredible. I wrote about it separately here but it was a very different meal, with lots of ‘show’ as well as delicious food. The wine pairing was great, and the service was fantastic. There was a lovely, relaxed atmosphere in the intimate restaurant… I’d definitely recommend it.

We walked a different way home and could really feel the buzz of the city – there were pretty lit up squares with lots of people gathered eating and drinking.

Sunday – lots more walking, a boat, stroopwafels and the journey home

We both woke up early despite (or because of) the wine pairing with dinner last night. The first benefit of this was getting to see the sun rise over the Amstel - beautiful! I had a Viator message asking if we could meet 30 minutes earlier for our prebooked boat trip so having a slightly earlier start worked. After getting ready we checked out and popped our bags in the luggage room then set off for some more walking. Over the course of the day we walked around 10km… so it definitely wasn’t a lazy weekend away.

We walked along the Amstel and then alongside the Prinsengracht canal for over half of its length to the meeting point for the boat trip. We stopped on the way for breakfast at Village Bagels where I enjoyed a BLT bagel and Gill had a croissant with jam and a coffee each. We booked ‘room only’ at the hotel as we weren’t sure where the morning would take us. Between the trip being pulled forward and the spontaneous, laid-back breakfast that we found, I’m glad we did!

A short walk from breakfast saw us arrive at the boat. 'Jonckvrouw' was captained by Jan. He was a very cool dude who had stories for everything – from the informative to the silly. Built in 1928 the boat itself was really nice and had a history of being used by royalty.

It was a small and personal tour and Jan spent most of his time facing the group, sometimes even steering with his foot behind him. He joked that he knew where the boat was heading by the levels of panic on our faces! As we navigated the canal network, we learnt all about the history of Amsterdam, the canals, local traditions, the buildings and general stories about life on/in the water. Onboard we were able to help ourselves to traditional Fries suikerbrood (Frisian Sugar Bread, which was incredible with loads of butter on it), juice and coffee while taking in the sights from water level – you can see so much from down there. At around £40 each this cruise felt like really good value, I’d say a boat trip is a must if you visit Amsterdam and I’d definitely recommend the one we did.

We were dropped off not far from Westerkerk so stopped at the first place we found for a drink and to make a plan for the rest of the morning/early afternoon before our next planned activity. As luck would have it we happened to stop at a pub so had a beer and a coffee.

Up next on our walking tour (it sounds official, even though it was our own ‘go with the flow’ walking tour), was the Rijksmuseum and gardens, and a busy Museumplein (Museum Square) which also houses the Van Gogh Museum, and Stedelijk Museum. Across the road from Museum Square is a concert hall, which is a very impressive building. Museumplein was busier than usual due to it being the weekend of the Museumplein Polo Event – this is free to watch (we didn’t) and happens annually.

We walked in the general direction of where we needed to be later in the afternoon with the intention of stopping at somewhere on route to eat. We ended up at Brasserie Nel in Amstelveld. We had actually walked past here earlier in the day on the way to the boat and commented how nice it looked – in a square with trees all around and next to a canal (of course!) The sun was shining so we sat outside, and both enjoyed a sandwich and a drink.

While we were sitting we spoke about how strange it is being in a city that doesn’t really have any traffic noise. We’d seen a few cars (and the hotel was on a pretty main road) but the Amsterdam we’d seen to this point wasn’t anything like a normal city in that respect – it was mainly trams, bikes, EV’s and small cars. The illusion of quiet was soon broken on our walk to the De Pijp area when we moved away from the canal network and towards a more traditional city area.

The sun was still shining so we went for a walk around Sarphatipark – this English style garden is named after the doctor who founded it and has a big statue/memorial to him. We’d seen a few bits of wildlife this trip – parakeets disappearing into the distance with a flash of colour, a crested grebe while out on the boat, a juvenile cormorant on the water by the library, and a very noisy pair of Egyptian geese on a rooftop. Despite how busy Sarphatipark was with people enjoying the sun there was plenty of wildlife here as well, most notably (for me at least) multiple herons.

From the park we headed to our stroopwafel making class. We arrived a little early and waiting in anticipation surrounded by the smell (and a little bit of the smoke) from the previous lesson. There were 20 people in the group including some Dutch guests, Canadians, Americans and even a couple from Australia. The lesson itself was very well organised, and even total amateurs like us were able to successfully make sweet treats. We made two each, ate one while there and took the other home.

After saying goodbye to the ‘teachers’ and the group we went to meet our uber driver who took us back to the hotel to collect our luggage and then to the airport. We ended up getting to the airport pretty early as all the communication we’d seen was warning of delays, but the process was relatively smooth on the whole.

Amsterdam on a smaller budget - easy savings that could have been made

As I mentioned at the start there were quite a few ways that this trip could have been quite a lot cheaper than it was.

• We could have easily cut out the airport hotel before flying.

• Prebooking taxis would have saved quite a lot of money, using public transport even more.

• There are much cheaper hotels that you can stay at than the one we did - I loved seeing the sunrise over the river though so that made it worthwhile for me.

• Eating at a 'normal' restaurant rather than one with Michelin stars would have made quite a difference too.

With all those said it's important to mention that I don't regret any of our choices. We had an incredible time in this amazing city and managed to squeeze so much in without feeling rushed. We showed that it's possible to see loads of a place in a weekend without needing to take time off work, and still have a few treats while doing it. Amsterdam...completed it mate!