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Liberation Day 2024?

Hi,

I am planning to travel to the Netherlands this May and had slotted in a loop involving Edam-Volendam-Marken on May 5th, but then I saw this is Liberation Day. What I read says it is only a national holiday every 5 years but does often mean public transit closures and shorter hours. Can anyone enlighten me on how this may impact my plans?

Also, I will be sleeping in Amsterdam that night so if I can't go as planned on my day trip, are there special celebrations that day I should consider attending?
Thanks in advance!

Posted by
1604 posts

I recently wrote about May 4 and May 5 on this forum in another thread.
I will copy/paste it here;

May 4 is Remembrance Day where we remember those who died in wars since WW2. At 8pm a nationwide 2 minutes of silence will be observed. May 5 is Liberation day, where we celebrate our freedom. The festivities end in Amsterdam with the traditional open air concert on a floating podium on the Amstel river with our King and Queen in attendance. If you’re up to it I highly recommend you to attend.
More details about the May 5 celebrations in Amsterdam can be found here; https://www.iamsterdam.com/en/whats-on/calendar/festivals/events/liberation-day-amsterdam
They are considered holidays, but May 4 and May 5 shouldn’t impact your stay here. Restaurants, museums, shops etc will be open and public transport will continue to operate. The only exception to that is during the 2 minutes of nationwide silence on May 4 at 8pm. Public transport will come to a halt and people everywhere will stop what they were doing to observe the 2 minutes of silence. If you happen to be in a restaurant or somewhere else, it could be that they will ask all guests to stay silent for 2 minutes.

Posted by
322 posts

Thank you for your advice on this topic.

This was moving to read. I will be there and honored to participate in the respectful silence.

Thank you Dutch Traveler for sharing this explanation.

Posted by
50 posts

We will be in Amsterdam from May 2 - 6. Due to the weekend holiday/events as well as a lot of tourists there for the tulips, do we need to get dinner reservations on each of the days? We are staying at Hotel Estherea on the canal on Singel.