There’s lots that’s cheap or completely free to do in the gorgeous Dutch capital says Ben West
Amsterdam is completely bizarre. It is at the same time bafflingly respectable and sleazy, old and new, traditional and alternative.
Book a trip here and you enter a world where you get some of the most squalid commercial enterprises ever thought up by man rubbing shoulders with magnificent ancient churches and monuments, where cute kids clothes shops share street space with clubs with dark rooms where you can be flogged stupid and more by a complete stranger while you’re legally tripping the light fantastic.
It has stunningly beautiful waterways lined by cosy cafes, and shops specialising in anything from coffins to condoms, and hammocks to hashish. Its picture postcard historic buildings successfully rub shoulders with some of the most innovative modern architecture Europe has to offer.
Amsterdam is small enough to explore by foot and unlike many capital cities does not overwhelm the visitor. Although its huge concentration of beautiful architecture gives it a gentle, stately ambience, it easily manages to have the buzz of a modern, cosmopolitan city.
Old, central Amsterdam is laid out over a series of concentric canals resembling a giant fingerprint. This network of 150 canals is spanned by more than 1200 bridges. Unsurprisingly, one of the most attractive ways of viewing the city is on a canal boat tour.
Taking a boat tour may seem a tad too touristy for many, yet unless you’re prepared to pay much more to charter a water taxi or private boat or have the energy and guts to navigate a pedalo on the often bustling waters, the typically hour-long tours chugging along the majestic canals and rivers are actually an excellent introduction to this waterlogged metropolis. Boats operate every few minutes around Centraal Station.
Young children will also love the regular, short free ferry rides behind Centraal Station over the IJ river. Most popular is the ferry to Buiksloterweg, ideal for attractions such as cultural centres EYE Filmmuseum and Tolhuistuin. The other main routes served from Central Station are to IJplein and to NDSM Wharf, which has numerous restaurants, cafes and cultural events.
Bicycles are cheap to hire (around £12 a day, try a-bike.eu) and plentiful, and an efficient network of trams criss-cross the city. Another great option is a bike or walking tour with a local: there are more than 20 offered on withlocals.com, for example.
Amsterdam boasts more than 50 museums including ones dedicated to sex, torture, cannabis and trams. Three of the best, though, conveniently stand next to each other on Museumplein (although each has an admission charge). These are the splendid Van Gogh Museum, with 200 of his paintings and 500 drawings; the extensive Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art, with works by Picasso, Cezanne, Kandinsky and Warhol as well as some stuff that’s either complete pretentious tosh or pushing the boundaries of contemporary art, according to your viewpoint.
Also on Museumplein is the massive Rijksmuseum, with antique furniture and dolls houses, porcelain and silver and a wealth of Dutch paintings from the 15th to 19th century by Rembrandt, Hals, Bol and others. It also has a pretty, tranquil garden usually overlooked by visitors and that is free to enter.
By the way, if you’re on Museumplein in need of refreshment nip into Coster Diamonds by the Rijksmuseum on the corner of Hobbemastraat. Amsterdam is famous for its diamond industry and Coster and several other firms offer free guided tours where you see diamonds being polished and set followed by complimentary drinks.
Other museums of note include the comprehensive Netherlands Maritime Museum (Kattenburgerplein 1) and the Amsterdam Museum (Kalverstrat 92), which covers the development of the city from 1300 onwards and which has a free exhibition of 16th and 17th century portraits in its Civil Guards Gallery.
Although there are ample museums to explore, if you’ve a memory like mine it’s not long before it’s hard to tell exactly which city that historic painting or broken piece of pottery was displayed. Therefore for me the best that Amsterdam has to offer is absolutely free and simply involves wandering its shops, galleries, streets and canals. Amsterdam has a huge variety of shops with wonderful stock you’re unlikely to have seen before.
Kitch Kitchen (Rozengracht 8-12), stocks lurid plastic furniture and furnishings and wildly colourful toys, games and bags. Mr Kramer (Reestraat 18-20) is crammed with antique dolls and a little doll’s hospital. The Condom Shop (Warmoesstraat 141), suitably in the red light district, offers one which plays ‘For he’s a jolly good fellow’ at the crucial moment. In case you were wondering, the shop has no fitting room. (By the way, don’t take pictures of the red light district’s staff showing off their undies if you want to keep your camera or face intact).
You’re seldom far from a street with some great shops sandwiched between lovely canals. When I visited recently, the sun was shining on the many colourful window boxes Amsterdammers fool themselves into thinking are front gardens and one of the city’s nine carillons was chiming in the background as I joined the locals downing delicious coffee at one of Amsterdam’s countless cafes. What could be more blissful?
A word on cafes. These split into different types. ‘Brown’ cafes are cosy bars with wood-panelled walls and tobacco-stained ceilings; there are also some grand cafes, a cross between the better Parisian cafes and Viennese coffee houses; tasting houses are bars, known as proeflokalen, geared to providing liqueurs and schnapps and flavoured spirits including jenever (Dutch gin). Cafes focusing a bit more on food are called eetcafes, while coffeeshops, confusingly, specialise in providing cannabis rather than hot beverages.
Budget eateries include Koffehuis de Hoek (Prinsengracht 341) where you can get a stack of pannenkoeken (pancakes) and a coffee for just over five quid; Singel 404 near Amsterdam Museum does satisfying sandwiches for around the same price; Toastable Koningsplein (Singel 441) lets you build your own delicious toasties for a similar price.
Classical music lovers will enjoy the excellent free lunchtime concerts at the Concertgebouw (Concertgebouwplein 2-6) on Wednesdays at 12.30pm, but arrive early as it’s eternally popular. The Stadhuis-Muziektheater (Waterlooplein 22) has free lunchtime concerts also, on Tuesdays from October to June. For more live music options buying discounted gig tickets online after 10am on the day at lastminuteticketshop.nl can save a pretty penny.
Unless you turn up very early or late, there are usually long queues to enter the cramped house at Prinsengracht 267 where the young diarist Anne Frank hid from the Germans in World War II.
Yet a visit for free to The Hollandse Schouwburg at Plantage Middenlaan 24 reveals other aspects of how Amsterdam’s Jewish population suffered under the Nazis. Formerly a theatre, in 1942 it became an assembly point for Dutch jews destined for the concentration camps. Now a memorial to them, there are photos, film footage and other chilling memorabilia. A candle burns in a small chapel containing a wall of surnames of the war victims.
It’s easy to miss, but if you walk through the arched entrance at Gedempte Begijnsloot off Spui you are magically transported away from all the bustle of the busy street into a hopelessly pretty, peaceful courtyard garden lined with 15th and 17th century houses and churches. This is the Begijnhof, one of the best of numerous almshouses dotted around Amsterdam. Although the almshouses are private residences now, quiet and considerate visitors are usually tolerated during the day and there is no entrance charge. Others include the delightful cobbled Karthuizerhof at Karthuizerstraat 21-131 and Zon’s Hofje, Prinsengracht 159-171.
For open space, Vondelpark is great for kids, having a good playground, animal enclosures, buskers and other entertainments. Just outside the park, at 20 Roemeer Visscherstraat, there’s an interesting row of houses built in the styles of seven countries.
Also nearby, tucked away at Vondelstraat 140, is one of Amsterdam’s best-kept secrets, the Hollandsche Manege, an elegant neoclassical riding school. You are free to admire the beautiful interior and enjoy a drink at its cafe as you watch the instructors conducting lessons. A few doors away is the Vondel Church, designed by celebrated Amsterdam architect Pierre Cuypers in 1880.
Cat lovers will enjoy stepping aboard de Poezenboot (the Cat Boat) at 38 Singel. Free to visit, usually it is open from 1-3pm except Wednesdays and Sundays, but can vary. It has been taking in Amsterdam’s stray cats for many years.
For a wider selection of animals, go to De Dierenpijp city farm outside the centre at Lizzy Ansinghstraat 82. As you approach, it seems impossible a farm could be tucked away in this housing estate, but calves, chickens, goats, rabbits, peacocks, sheep, a pony and aviary are all crammed in. There’s a children’s playground, sand pits and a small herb garden – and its free.
Accommodation: Between Art and Kitsch B&B (between-art-and-kitch.com) has double rooms from £73
Getting there: easyJet flies from several UK airports from under £35 return; trains from Schiphol Airport to the city centre are under £4.50 each way