A Few Tips For The Perfect Amsterdam Weekend

Being an avid Amsterdam tourist I have visited and experienced most of what this great city has to offer, during all seasons of the year. From my personal point of view, the best time to visit Amsterdam is during the spring around April and/or May. Given that the weather is what is should be sunny of course and quite warm walking around and taking part of what this great city has to offer is a great experience.

First off, getting from Schiphol Airport into town really is a no-brainer. There are trains directly underneath Schiphol Plaza just outside the exit from the airport. Tickets are sold at the counters close to the escalators or from the yellow ticket vending machines and will cost you around four Euros for a one way ticket. It will only take you twenty minutes to get to the central station.

I always prefer walking downtown from here, but then I am in great shape. For the less resilient there is always the option of hopping on the tram to get to where you are going. If you are visiting Amsterdam for the first time I highly recommend bringing a city map. All the streets of central Amsterdam follow the rivers which go round in circles. This makes it a bit hard to get your bearings when navigating around the town.

Visiting the Heineken museum is a must. It is located at Stadhouderskade seventy eight which is in the southern part of Amsterdam city. The tour will take you through the old brewery where you will learn how beer used to be made the old fashion way which is very interesting. There are also treats along the way; you will pass two different bars along the way and a beer in each is included in the ticket price of fifteen Euros.

Once you have washed down your beers at Heineken, a unique experience at the Van Gogh museum is only a five minute walk to the west at the Museumplein. The museum contains the largest collection of paintings by Vincent van Gogh in the world. It provides the opportunity to keep track of his developments, or compare his paintings to works by other artists from the nineteenth century in the collection. The museum also holds an extensive offer of exhibitions on various subjects from nineteenth century art history.

A brisk two kilometer walk to the north east will take you to the Rembrandt House Museum where Rembrandt lived and painted for a number of years. The house is located at Jodenbreestraat four. Rembrandt purchased the house in sixteen hundred and thirty nine and lived there until he went bankrupt in sixteen hundred and fifty six, when all his belongings went on auction.

When you are done reminiscing about Rembrandt, head due west for about one and a half kilometer to Prinsengracht two sixty seven and the Anne Frank House. Anne Frank was made famous due to the diary she kept which was later published posthumously when in hiding from the invading Nazis during the German invasion of Holland and Amsterdam. The house used to be her father Otto Frank's office building. Make sure to get there early as the line to the entrance can grow hundreds of meters long.