A guest post from the talented Katie Lauren.
Amsterdam… the city of beautiful canals, windmills and narrow houses. Being one of the most popular city break destinations in Europe, the streets are flooded with tourists and Instagram is flooded with selfies on bridges. A huge positive for a trip to Amsterdam is the cheap travel, with flights being less than £45 off-peak return, and the new Eurostar route being less than £80 off-peak return. But when it comes to hotels, you’re lucky to get a central hotel for less than £400 for 5 nights, which is extremely off putting!
Being a student with heavy wanderlust, I look for the cheapest ways to explore the world.
The cheapest way for me to explore Amsterdam was to take a Ferry trip over using P&O, my friend and I got an off-peak deal in February that meant we only paid £45 each for the trip. Which included two nights on a ferry travelling from Hull to Rotterdam and a day to spend exploring Amsterdam. Since we only had a short time in Amsterdam we made sure we pre-planned where we wanted to go and what we wanted to see.
Pre-panning is so important when you’re visiting somewhere for a short time, it means you don’t waste time deciding what to do, you can get there and get on with the sightseeing straight away. Here’s an overview of what we managed to squeeze into just under 10 hours in Amsterdam.
- Anne Frank House – A must do in Amsterdam, such an iconic moving museum to visit and pay respect to Jewish wartime diarist Anne Frank while in the city, surrounded by some beautiful canals.
- Dam Square – The historical centre of Amsterdam with a vast amount of transport links and common to hold events depending on the time of year you visit.
- I AMSTERDAM Sign – Such an iconic must-do sight popular on the ‘gram since it’s a perfect photo opportunity to show off where you are.
- Magna Plaza Shopping Centre – The monumental ex-Post Office with a variety of great shops including Swarvski and Lacoste perfect for some quick retail therapy.
- The Fault in Our Stars Bench – Being young John Green fans we couldn’t pass up a visit to the (substitute) iconic bench full of love locks.
- Canal Cruise – A great way to see as much of the city as you can in a short space of time, canal cruises are spotted all around the city, there is also options to pre-book these.
Not to mention we had time to purchase some souvenirs and have some lunch (albeit at McDonald’s since we wanted to see the different menu). Trams are ultimately the best way to travel around Amsterdam since they are everywhere, and passes are available. Alternatively, most things we went to see were close enough to walk between. That way you can see all the quirky shops, streets and bridges en route.
We had such a great time on our flying visit to Amsterdam, but I would love to go back again for a little bit longer to do things at a slower pace and experience more of the culture and dine at some of the cafés and restaurants. Likewise, I’d love to go on the A’DAM Lookout Swing – how incredible does it look?!
As for now I’m extremely happy and accomplished with our little flying visit to Amsterdam which I believe worked well purely due to the pre-planning and pre-booking tickets for Anne Frank House and the Canal Cruise. You couldn’t go wrong spending £45 for a lifetime of amazing Amsterdam memories!
Until next time, ‘dam!
—
Follow Katie Lauren on Instagram and Twitter to stay up to date with her travel adventures!
