What We Did Our First Time Visiting Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands

As we were walking through Schiphol Airport at the end of our trip, I said to Beth “We did a lot but I don’t feel like we did everything.” She laughed and said, “Amsterdam is a city you keep coming back to.” And I agree with this! Although this was our first trip to Amsterdam, it will not be our last.

Our total travel time for the trip was 9 days, so we had 7 full days to explore the city and its surroundings. We had a list of places and activities we wanted to see, but only a few were set in stone. This gave us ample wandering time as well as some rest time to sit in the “brown” cafes and soak up the vibe.

We visited Amsterdam in November (11th-19th) which is supposed to be the rainy season. Fortunately for us, it hardly rained at all. We were prepared with umbrellas and raincoats but mostly just used our puffy jackets since the temperature was around 9-13 degrees Celsius (48-55 F).

We asked the locals when the busy season was since we were not seeing many tourists and places were not crowded at all. One said that March-June was very crowded. Many like to come for the tulip blooms because the weather is usually sunnier. July and August had mixed reviews. One person thought it was a good time to come since all of Europe was on vacation in August. Another said it was not the best time to come since all of Europe was on vacation. Since we have been living in Europe, I can concur that most of Europe is on vacation. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).