Thinking of having a weekend break away in June for my birthday with the Missus. Coincides with the Euro quarter-finals which is a bit of a bugger but never mind. Now i am not one for museums ( sorry Zippy ) and art galleries but have heard that Amsterdam is pretty good on that count. Of course visiting the redlight district would be a must do Would anybody recommend Amsterdam ?
Seriously - forget about amsterdam - by all means go to holland and visit amsterdam but dont tay there - there are far better places and cities to be in than amsterdam. If you want some true dutch culture, then go to Utrecht, or Eindhoven. All fairly short train rides away from amsterdam if you want to see the galleries. If yu're taking the missus, i rekon you'd be looking for something a tad romantic, which amsterdam is NOT. Try Utrecht. I couldnt stress this any more.
Don't not go to the coffee shops if you're gonna regret not going in the future, by Jan 2013 only locals will be allowed to buy weed in the shops. Which in my opinion is going to epically hurt tourism there.
i have been a few times and felt the same each time, it was alright but had nothing there for me, i would have liked to have visited anne franks house though. its very busy there and i personally felt quite uneasy there. if you want a lovely weekend away with the missus i would say prague, i would love to go back there
If you're going with the missus, I would say make a base in Utrecht, you're only 20/25 mins from A'dam with trains every 15 mins and you can avoid the usual tourist riff-raff.
Worth a look alright... I really liked it, plenty to see and do. I went along to Anne Franks House, and apart from the ridiculous amount of queueing we had to do to get in. The Heineken brewery was good too I don't imagine you'll stay in a place like this, but i'll warn you anyway - avoid this hotel: http://www.tripadvisor.ie/Hotel_Review-g188590-d535117-Reviews-or20-Travel_Hotel-Amsterdam_Noord_Holland.html#REVIEWS Was on a bit of a low budget when i passed through Amsterdam and ended up staying there as it was so cheap. In hindsight, i'd have felt safer sleeping on a park bench.
