Travel report: (the) Netherlands
Date of visit: July 2013
My travel experience in the Netherlands is limited to two weekend trips to Amsterdam. The first trip took place in July 2013, the second in November 2017.
This is rather an article about false expectations than about the Netherlands in general. Because the first trip to the Netherlands was my first real disappointing one.
Amsterdam I
Amsterdam is a popular city. Not only Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction but also all my friends were raving about the capital of the Netherlands. Not without reason Amsterdam is sometimes called Sin City of Europe. It is without a doubt one of the most liberal city in Europe. Think about the coffee shops or the red-light district.
Therefore, Amsterdam seems to be a city where everything goes. Needless to say, this obviously attracts young people from all over the world, who want to party or enjoy a 420-friendly weekend.
My first trip to Amsterdam was in 2013, the time when I started visiting one European must see-city after another. However, Amsterdam was one of the first cities I have traveled to. As many of my friends told me that Amsterdam was their favorite city, you can imagine that my expectations were more than high. You often hear Amsterdam named in the same sentence with London, Paris, Berlin etc so that I thought that the Dutch capital was sort of a European flagship city.
Unfortunately, Amsterdam didn’t live up the expectations. What shocked me the most was how dirty the city was, especially in comparison to other European cities. It was a city with a lot of trash, vomit, dog poo et cetera on the streets… the cute streets of Amsterdam around the canals just didn’t look as charming anymore.
In 2013, I was also at an age when nightlife was particularly important. There are a lot of bars and nightclubs in Amsterdam, but I found it online average. One bouncer didn’t let me into a bar, because I was apparently looking “too formal”. We still had fun, but I found the nightlife in Amsterdam a bit overrated.
The sights and attractions in the city weren’t my cup of tea either. We paid the 20 euros for the Grachtenfahrt to explore the canals. Unfortunately, I could barely see anything from the boat, while the tour guide told us something about the houses we were passing by. “Which one is he talking about?” I asked myself several times.
While we were floating down the canals, a (private) boat with five to six drunk Germans in our age passed by. “Booooring!” one of them maliciously yelled at us. “He is absolutely right,” I thought.
Unfortunately, this whole trip was a disappointment. I expected Amsterdam to be the epicenter of fun but it didn’t really fascinate me.
Amsterdam II
It wasn’t my last trip to Amsterdam though. Amsterdam is together with Berlin and London the cheapest destination when it comes to airfares from my home town Basel. You have several flights per day, and you usually even pay less with KLM than with the low cost carriers.
That wasn’t the real reason why I wanted to revisit Amsterdam. I wanted to know if I had just bad luck with the weekend back then. Perhaps, I would see the city differently almost four years and 40 countries later. Sometimes, it’s nothing but fair to give a city a second chance, and that’s why I booked flight tickets to the capital of the Netherlands one more time.
I wasn’t as critical about Amsterdam on this second trip, because I knew what I would get. My expectations were lower. It was November, the weather wasn’t nice anymore, and the rain came and went that weekend. When I was walking along the canals, I said to myself that Amsterdam is indeed a very picturesque city. As a matter of fact, I enjoyed all these canals and bridges a bit more than during my first visit.
However, not everything changed for the better. Hotel prices drastically increased between the four years of my two visits. We stayed in a hotel at the edge of the city center on our second trip, as all the hotels near the canals weren’t affordable. But anyway, if prices don’t fall again, Amsterdam will remain one of the most expensive cities in Europe in terms of accommodation.
All in all, there wasn’t a huge difference between the two trips, as I have done more or less the same things: sightseeing in the center, shopping and nightlife. Nightlife turned about to be disappointing again. Oh, and obviously I didn’t do the Grachtenfahrt anymore. It was still a cool weekend though.
Nevertheless, Amsterdam and I will never be good friends. I fully understand why many people like this city, but the capital of the Netherlands is just not my cup of tea. It’s too touristy, the sights are not very intriguing to me, it’s expensive and nightlife was boring on both trips.
What I think about the Netherlands as a travel destination
The Netherlands are not only Amsterdam. The truth is that we were even thinking about going to Rotterdam or Utrecht before our second trip, as these cities are not far from Schiphol Airport. We didn’t do it though, but this might be an option for the future. The Hague is another interesting city that might be worth a visit.
Although I’m not a fan of Amsterdam, the Netherlands have some good things to offer. I’m not only talking about delicious sweets and Dutch beer. The best thing in the Netherlands are the people in my opinion. I met many Dutch people when I was in the Netherlands and during my travels, and I think they are together with the Irish the most easy-going people in Europe. However, you will most likely not meet these people in the city center of Amsterdam… I was told that the locals tend to avoid this area like the plague.
What else could get me back to the Netherlands? The tulip fields and the windmills won’t. 🙂 But why not making a road trip through this country? The Netherlands have some beautiful landscapes, National Parks, beaches etc. I won’t expect mountains though, as the country is flat and 26% of it is under sea level.
Anyway, I don’t think that I will revisit the Netherlands for its countryside in the near future, as there are more appealing things to do in Europe right now. However, I must visit other parts of the Netherlands at some point. I truly believe there are better things to see in the country than the capital.
Find the travel reports of the other countries I’ve visited here!
