Amsterdam City guide
welcome to amsterdam
Amsterdam was the first stop on our April 2018 Eurotrip. You can read the full account of our trip here (days 1 through 5 of the trip).
We found April to be a great time to go. The weather was a little chilly but warmed up toward the end of our five days there.
Some people may question Amsterdam as a family-friendly vacation spot, but we found it to be very much so and all three of us had a great time.
how we got there
We flew Delta from JFK to AMS in Delta One, booking with Flying Blue points. We found the lie flat seats in Delta One, as well as the food and service to be top notch.
where we stayed
We stayed at the Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam. The hotel spans six 17th century canal palaces. We had breakfast daily in the lower-level restaurant (also home to Librije's Zusje Amsterdam, a two Michelin star restuarant that we did not eat at). We also spent time each day in Peacock Alley, the lobby lounge, where we had coffee and pastries and enjoyed afternoon tea.
While the hotel isn’t the most baby friendly since the actual entrance is up a flight of 10 stairs, there is a handicapped entrance, though we actually only used that once since there was always a doorman ready to carry our bags and stroller up the stairs (sometimes with Hallie still in it!). Also, every time we sat down anywhere (Peacock Alley, concierge, check-in), someone came over with a new coloring book and colored pencils for Hallie. She also got multiple Waldorf stuffed animals.
Our room was a king deluxe room, which we found to be fairly spacious. We had a crib, which we kept near the door as far from our bed as possible. The bathroom was large with a shower and a tub (which I dropped my iPad in on the first night).
The Waldorf was a true five star experience. Our room and all facilities were well appointed, everything was new, clean and luxurious. There is an indoor pool, which is beautiful, but its more of a spa pool (no real seating around it). The staff was incredibly helpful and welcoming. They were so helpful that on shabbat, the concierge actually walked us across the street to a museum and purchased tickets for us. Also, the room service staff had no problem storing and heating our shabbat food and delivering it to us for shabbat dinner and lunch.
where we ate
Bakers and Roasters - A New Zealand-Brazilian-Dutch café that’s popular with tourists. Sort-of a high-end coffee shop that serves coffee, eggs and other breakfast foods, as well as lots of over the top pastries.
La Perla - One of the most popular pizza restaurants in Amsterdam. The restaurant has two sides on opposite sides of the street – one side has a huge pizza oven and barely any seating and the other side is more of a dining room with a bar. Don’t believe what you read online about reservations - they say they don’t (as did our concierge) but when we got there we kept hearing people coming in with reservations. Pizza is good with thin crust, although odd that it comes uncut and they give you a fork and a knife. They also charge for bread, but at least it’s warm and delicious.
The Cafeteria at the Jewish Museum - Typical museum cafe with dairy food, including sandwiches. Everything is “kosher” but not hechshered. They do have some kosher packaged food.
Peacock Alley - We had coffee and pastries daily in the Waldorf lobby. Like everything else in this hotel service and quality were impecable. We used this time to relax/re-energize at the end of long days before turning around and getting ready for dinners.
Breakfast at the Waldorf - We had breakfast at the hotel almost every day of our stay. Breakfast featured a cold buffet with a great selection of fruit, cheese, yogurts, breads and pastries. Hot items, freshly prepared, were also included in the price (which was steep, but worth it). The best item was the waffle, which was a traditional liege waffle and came with berries and vanilla pastry cream. It was like dessert.
Vlaams Friteshuis Vleminckx - The line looks worse than it is at this tiny hole in the wall that sells nothing but french fries in a paper cone. We waited about ten minutes and while they were pretty standard fries, fries are a Dutch tradition (I think) and the place has been there since 1957. Worth a stop.
H. Baron - Kosher steakhouse in the Jewish neighborhood of Amsterdam. The restaurant was good, but it’s still a kosher restaurant. They only have one high chair, and even though we made reservations and called ahead specifically on this point, the chair was in use by another table throughout our meal. Food was interesting. It’s not totally clear what kind of cuisine they’re going for, but appetizers were good (dutch bitterballen filled with meat were tasty but the pulled beef appetizer was disappointing as it turned out to be a salad with cold shredded corn beef), steak was solid, and desserts were inedible. Service was slow. As it’s kosher, it was of course expensive and overpriced, but if you’re in need of kosher meat it’s worth making a trip.
Jacob’s Kosher Catering - We ordered shabbat food and had our hotel store and heat the food for us. We were pleasantly surprised. While expensive, everything was very tasty, including the chulent and kugel and chicken. They were also very easy to deal with.
Starbucks - I wouldn’t normally note a Starbucks, but the Starbucks at Utrechtsestraat 9 (near the Waldorf) is one of the nicest I’ve ever visited. Starbucks calls it a “concept store” - located in a subterranean space in the vault of a historic bank, the Starbucks is just really well designed and has lots of seating and more food and drink options than the average Starbucks. We actually got coffee in a regular mug and drank it there (something you can do at any Starbucks but may actually want to do here).
Food Stalls at the Museumplein - This is the plaza/park that faces the Rijksmuseum (where the IAmsterdam sign is) and I honestly can’t tell you with any certainty what food you’re going to find here on any given day. There are some permanent food stalls that sell burgers, sandwiches and other stuff. We got a tuna sandwich that was decent (and the only tuna I found in the whole city). If you go on the right day (ask your concierge and or try googling), you can catch an outdoor market here with lots of temporary food vendors. Tzvi had a great grilled cheese sandwich, and we got poffertjes and stroopwafels, all from little stands/food trucks.
A note about stroopwafels and poffertjes
Stroopwafels are basically two very thin layers of waffle with caramel spread between them. You can find them pre-packaged in shops around the city, or you can get them fresh from food stalls at the Museumplein or the Albert Cuyp Market. We suggest the latter. Watch them made in front of you and eat them while they’re still hot. So delicious.
Poffertjes are delicious mini pancakes, but slightly thicker and fluffier than traditional pancakes. They’re usually served with powdered sugar and syrup.
what we did
Van Gogh Museum - This is a great museum - it’s not too large and very manageable. We didn’t get the audio guide but got a good sense of the painter’s life through the descriptions on the wall. If you’re a Van Gogh fan it’s a must-see, but even if you’re not, it’s a great museum and impressive body of work. Note that tickets are only available online.
Jewish Cultural Quarter - The JCQ is the name given to the scattered Jewish historical sights around the formerly Jewish neighborhood in Amsterdam. The JCQ is made up of the following sights:
Jewish Historical Museum (Joods Historisch Museum) - The museum is housed in a complex built out of four former ashkenaz synagogues, including the Great Synagogue of Amsterdam. The exhibitions focused on the former synagogues that occupied the space, Jewish rituals, and Jews in Amsterdam.
Jewish Children’s Museum - The Children’s Museum is part of the Jewish Historical Museum and is made up of a number of different rooms over three floors. There’s not much museum here, but it’s a great play space. In addition to toys, games, a room full of musical instruments to play with, and some videos, museum guides are available to braid and bake challah with kids. Hallie had a lot of fun here - we were the only people here during our visit and the guide spent quite a bit of time with us preparing the dough and baking the challah.
Portuguese Synagogue - A synagogue that dates back to 1675. It’s beautiful (and cold) inside and fairly quick to walk-through. Note that if you want to daven there on Shabbat you need to make reservations in advance. When we visited on Friday afternoon we asked about services and were told to call the main office to be put on the list. They’re protective about visitors on Shabbat to keep tourists from using prayer as a mean to visit on Shabbat (when they’re otherwise closed).
National Holocaust Memorial Hollandsche Schouwburg - The Holocaust Museum and Holocaust Memorial are across the street from each other. The memorial is housed on the site of the Hollandsche Schouwburg, the Dutch Theater. During the Nazi Occupation, Jews were rounded up and taken to the theater, where they would wait for deportation to the camps. This was an extremely moving visit.
National Holocaust Museum - At a certain point the Nazis ran out of room to detain Jews in the Theater, so the children were separated from their parents and taken across the street to a building that had actually been used as a kindergarten (and they would wait for deportation there instead). Next door to the kindergarten was a teachers college, and over time the Dutch resistance worked with the teachers college to smuggle 600 children out of the kindergarten underground through the teachers college. The museum is housed in the teacher’s college but as of April 2018 it was brand new and still under development. All of the exhibits are temporary exhibits as they haven’t actually created the permanent exhibits yet.
Museum of Bags and Purses - A nice canal house that takes you through the history of bags and purses - you start in the middle ages and make your way through the rooms to present day. We spent about an hour here (and even that was a stretch). Not a must-see but nice if you have nothing else to do (we did this on Shabbat because it was quick and across the street from our hotel).
Heineken Experience - The experience is housed in the former Heineken factory and is basically an ad for Heineken. The experience is a walk-through with guides randomly placed throughout giving history of Heineken. Part of the experience takes you into 3 different 4D rooms with lights and sounds. There’s also a tasting room and a bar where your admission ticket gets you two free drinks (or two non-alcoholic drinks for kids). One thing to note is that we didn’t see anything online about pre-booking tickets and entry times, but apparently that’s a possibility; when we arrived the line was fairly long but somehow having a stroller allowed us to bypass it (we didn’t know what happened but we didn’t ask any questions).
Anne Frank House - There’s not much to say here - this is obviously one of the most popular tourist sights in Amsterdam and a must-see when visiting. All we can do is give you some advice.
Book early. Plan your visit as early as possible and also be careful to check the website. When we visited they weren’t selling same-day tickets so you had to pre-book online, and they fill up really fast.
Bring nothing. We read only that you cant take strollers around and have to put them in a closet. What we didn’t know is that we wouldn’t be able to leave anything else in that closet, so we had to carry everything with us, and they also don’t let you have bags on your back, so Tzvi had to carry the diaper bag on his front.
No photos. They really mean no photos. You can’t take pictures anywhere at all in the house, so don’t even bother bringing your camera.
We also did quite a bit of walking around on our trip. Amsterdam is a pretty walkable city with the charm that’s typical of many European cities that makes it a really nice place to walk around. Some of the areas that we walked through were:
Museumplein - As noted above, this is the plaza/park that faces the Rijksmuseum (where the IAmsterdam sign is). When we were here during the week we didn’t see much activity, but when we visited on the weekend there was a large open air market with shops selling art, crafts, jewelry, etc. (as well as food, as described above).
Red Light District - An interesting sight and worth a walk-through. We didn’t really see rowdy or drunk guys and apparently the whole neighborhood is being gentrified (as of 4/2018).
Dam Square - we saw the monuments here, but the highlight was the pedestrian only street branching off that was lined with American stores (yeah, we like touristy like that).
The Nine Streets - this is just a quaint neighborhood of Amsterdam made up of 9 streets with restaurants and shops. Nice area to walk around.
final thoughts and what we didn’t do
We had a really full and really fun trip, but there’s a lot that we didn’t do. Having a two-year old with us made certain things more difficult and also limited how much we could do in a day, so we opted for giving ourselves more down time and not cramming too much into the day. We were also looking to have a more relaxed trip so we didn’t try to kill ourselves.
We didn’t make it to a lot of museums that we hear are really worth going to (like the Rijsksmuseum). We also didn’t get a chance to ride bicycles - had we been alone we would’ve done it, but we were nervous to rent a bike with a child attachment in a city where there’s more bike traffic than car traffic.
Lastly, we didn’t partake in the local “coffeshop” culture, both because it’s not our thing and because it’s not an activity you do when traveling with a two-year old. That being said, we rarely smelled pot smoke. Despite the city’s reputation for being a place to party, we really felt like it was a good place for a family vacation.
