So I’ve finally got round to writing this post which is all about the places you have to go if you're off to Amsterdam anytime soon. Granted I went to Amsterdam in June and it’s now September but I haven't forgotten how great all those places were and I would go back in a heartbeat. I’ll start with where we stayed which was in the Hoxton Hotel which I have always wanted to stay in and it did not disappoint. It was in a great location right on the canal and in walking distance to everywhere we wanted to go, the only time we used the tram was when we headed to the zoo as it was 40 minutes too long of a walk for us. I love the aesthetic and interior of the Hoxton Hotel and it wasn’t much more than just your bog standard hotel so worth the extra few pounds. Something that I definitely wanted to make sure I did was visit the Anne Frank House, we booked this in advance and even then a lot of the days were sold out and we were lucky to get tickets. Definitely book in advance and we chose to do a half an hour talk just explaining who Anne Frank was and her family, this was the only ticket available but I’m so glad we did. It’s of course very sad but I feel like you can’t not visit the Anne Frank House if you’re going to Amsterdam.
Another thing we booked in advance was the A’dam Lookout and the swing, this was my favourite thing we did in Amsterdam! It’s across from the main train station and you catch a free ferry across and they come every 10 minutes which is so convenient. It’s basically a rooftop & lookout point, there’s also a restaurant and bar but the main reason we were there was for the A’dam swing experience. You swing out over the edge of the tower looking out across Amsterdam, it was the most amazing experience! For me, a person who doesn’t like heights this was kind of terrifying but worth it, it was the most amazing view which was only 5 euros extra. You do have to pay extra to keep the photos, of course, it’s all in the small print but still worth the few extra euros not to mention they get a great shot of you almost crying over the top of Amsterdam, that’s if you don’t like heights!
A must see and quite bizarre experience was the Sex Museum, not everyone's cup of tea but you get to have a photo next to a giant penis, do it for the gram… I had a great laugh taking photos next to the giant penis pulling questionable expressions and then after that, it all got a little too weird for my liking. Especially when I noticed a few older creepy looking men who seemed to be taking the whole thing very seriously not to mention they were creeping around on their own so we did make a quick escape with our penis photo and moved on to the next stop. The second great photo opportunity was next to the ‘Wake me up when I'm famous’ wall which is easily found and I have tagged the location on my Instagram photo if you need any help finding it. There’s not much more to say other than this makes a great Instagram photo but it’s also in such a nice area so I’m sure you’ll find a cute coffee shop to re-energise in after. A slightly out of the way trip was the trip to the Artis Royal Zoo but still such a nice day although I’m not completely comfortable with Zoo’s, I did pick up a sloth teddy however which I still don’t regret and is now comfortably sat on my bed, 20 euros well spent.
We only went to one more museum as we didn’t have time to go to any more and this was a much better museum than the giant penis one and slightly more cultured, it’s the Moco Museum. I specifically went there to see the Banksy exhibition which, of course, was amazing and I picked up another exhibition poster to add to my un-framed collection building up in the corner of my room. We just managed to squeeze in a canal tour at about 10pm on the last night which was such a nice way to see Amsterdam. We sadly realised there was so much more we hadn’t seen so another Amsterdam trip is definitely on the cards.
We ended our Amsterdam trip with the Iamsterdam sign and the choice of soft denim was not a good one as I slowly slipped of the giant e letter. A shout out to the lovely woman who took our photo and managed to not get anyone else in it even though there seemed to be hundreds of people around trying to get the same exact photo. I would go back to Amsterdam in a heart beat and there’s so much more I want to see and do!
To see more photos from my trip to Amsterdam head over to my Instagram _caitdavies, and keep an eye out for an Amsterdam - Where to eat post that should be up soon!
Places to see:
Hoxton Hotel
Anne Frank House
A’dam Lookout & Swing
Sex Museum
‘Wake me up when I’m famous’ wall
Artis Royal Zoo
Moco Museum
Canal tour
Iamsterdam Sign
