I Amsterdam pass (and Hop On/Hop Off to Edam etc)

Most big-city sightseeing passes don't save me money; Budapest's did, but only slightly, and only because I knew I wanted to take the two included walking tours. I don't think anyone can give you advice that's better than your own analysis will be. For example, you know best how much use you'll get out of the transportation portion of the deal. Central Amsterdam is fairly compact. I'd be walking almost everywhere.

You're not planning to visit three of the major sights covered by the pass on this trip, which seems to make it less likely to pay off for you. [Edit: Mike L's post below indicates it's not possible that all three mentioned sights are covered by the card.]

I don't see how a 25% discount on the Hop On/Hop Off bus is useful. You'd be spending the better chunk of the day making that loop, right? You'd spend a pro-rated 30 euros for that pass day and save just 7 euros on the HO/HO.

I'd agree with acraven... your best bet is to simply sit down with paper & pen and sketch out what you want to see and determine if the card works for you. I've been 75+ times to Amsterdam and never used one, so I cannot offer a critique.

For transportation, you can get an OV Chipkadt at the AMS airport or Amsterdam Centraal Station (and at plenty of other locations). Simply top it up to what you think you'll need (you can always add more!). It's good on the trains, trams, metro, and buses in the area.

I too would agree with the 2 opinions above. I can’t comment on the 1 Amsterdam Card. To my recollection the only time I bought a “tourist card” was for a museum pass in Venice. We felt it was worth it for the museums we were interested in. We were in Amsterdam Sept. 2019 for 5 nights. We stayed in a BnB in Museumplein and walked everywhere. We did take a cruise that was considered “HOHO” but we did not get off the boat. It was more like seeing Amsterdam from the water. We also hired a guide for a Jewish Walking Tour. Highly recommend Jewish Amsterdam Tour with Naomi Koopmans. If interested: www.jewishamsterdamtour.com

Check out localbus.nl before the HOHO bus. It is 10€ and takes you to these spots. They have 3 different routes. If you can go on a Wednesday, Edam has the weekly cheese market. Everyone is dressed in traditional clothing and they even have a small band. It was a wonderful morning. Get there early for a decent seat. We purchased cheese there, took the bus to Markam and went to the museum and purchased bread and wine and had a little picnic. Then we took the ferry, part of the pass, to Volendam. Had tea and dessert on the ferry. Took the bus back to Amsterdam. It was a fun day,

I went to multiple museums in Amsterdam in July 2019. I did not buy the I Amsterdam pass. I am happy I did not buy it. It does not or did not cover the Van Gogh museum. I forgot whether it coves the Anne Frank House.

(I say, the Van Gogh- museum should be closed down and the collection distributed to other museums, the museum is totally not worth it unless you are a hard core fan of his work. The museum has barely enough Van Gogh- works to justify its existence. I went for irrational reasons even though i prefer old Dutch very detailed paintings and maybe other old very detailed paintings - but I don't know much about art yet.)

All city passes obligate you to rush around to see enough covered sites within the time limit, to justify the passes purchase; I have no use for city passes. I prefer to pay for each site separately. But i did buy both the ticket for the Franz Hals museum and peter Teylors museum, both in Harlem, from the tourist office in the town hall in Harlem, saving me some small amount. There may be multi-ride tickets for transportation. I forgot the details.

A few years ago we used the Waterland Bus Pass to visit many of the towns you have mentioned. It cost €10 then and was convenient and easy. We purchased it at Centraal. As I recall we walked around to the back (facing the water) to purchase our tickets. Safe travels to beautiful Amsterdam.

The waterland bus’ website is localbus.nl. Also, we purchased the museum pass, not the I Am Amsterdam card, which is a little different. We find that if the city Is crowded, the museum passes are worth it just to bypass the lines. We might loss a few dollars but we save time and aggravation.

In recent years some popular museum and historical sights have started requiring timed tickets. Be very careful about city passes and museum passes. Does the pass alone get you inside, or must you make a time-specific reservation? I know at least one of the major museums in Amsterdam started the timed-ticket business 2 or so years ago. I don't know whether any of the Amsterdam sightseeing passes obviate the need for a timed reservation.

My fiancee and I purchased the iAmsterdam cards after a Baltic cruise in August 2019, and it was worth it for us, but it did involve some careful planning to make the best use of our time. Most of the attractions in Amsterdam have early closing times at 17:00, even in the middle of summer.

We got the 72-hour pass for 93 euro, ordered online at home before the trip, and picked up the passes from their booth at the airport. The airport to the city bus was not covered by the pass.

While we unpacked at the hotel, we reserved a fairly immediate entry time to the van Gogh museum. Unlike other city passes (like Paris), this was pretty much the only site where the pass allows you to skip a long ticket line, so it offers very little of a time-saving benefit. Fortunately, there was hardly much of a wait at any of the other museums we went to. The Anne Frank House is not included in the pass.

Day 1: van Gogh museum, Rijksmuseum, Stromma nighttime canal cruise from Centraal station

Day 2: Maritime Museum, Dutch Resistance Museum, Rembrandt House, discount to Red Lights Secrets house

Day 3: Coster Diamond Museum, Amsterdam Museum, Hermitage (both exhibits included), Our Lord in the Attic, Tulip Museum (quick peek here solely because it was included, before our scheduled time at the Anne Frank House)

We did an average of 4 tram rides per day included with the pass. However, you can always buy just the stand-alone transit pass, it was about 18 euro for a 3-day pass back in 2019. We didn't use any of the shopping or restaurant discounts included with the pass.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions, and happy planning!