We added a night to our pre-tour vacation and are arriving in Amsterdam @ 8:30am. We fly out to Rome the next morning @ 7:30am. 1. Where should we stay (close to the airport) for the one night?
2. With just one quick day, what should we see? We've got more energy than time - so what shouldn't we miss? Thanks
Posted by
Sacramento, California U.S.A.
10603 posts
We did something similar a few years ago. We arrived at the airport early in the morning, then took an early train out the next day. I would stay near the train station. It is easy and fast to train from the airport to Central Station. Because we arrived so early we stowed our bags in a locker at the train station. We took small personal bags to our hotel - Hotel Brouwer- and they stored them for us. I'm sure they would have stored our other bags if we had wanted them to. We took a walking tour, ending up at the Anne Frank House, where we had reservations in the late afternoon. We find it is good to keep moving that first day. We could have gone to a museum or two instead. After dinner we went to the hotel and slept. We had to leave too early to have breakfast there. You can see a good overview in the time you have.
Posted by
Lake Forest, CA, USA
1633 posts
Amsterdam is compact and easy to walk. Since you have only one day, determine what you really want to see. My list was Anne Frank's house, the Rijksmuseum (Rembrandt works including the Night Watch), the Van Gogh museum and a canal boat tour. If you can get tickets for Anne Frank, do so. The lines are long and they limit the number of people. We waited at least one hour. Do the museums and then take the canal boat ride after the other museums are closed. Can't remember exactly where we got the boat, but we just walked up and were able to get on. Might be more crowded in the evening. Pick up Rick Steves' tour book to check times and pick up a city map. It's an easy city to navigate but it helps to see it on a map. Have fun!