Reisgids van Charming Amsterdam Houseboat

Please don't be offended. We welcome your straight forward answer in return.

Otherwise the Dutch get angry (incl. me)

Otherwise the Dutch get angry (incl. me) :)

So they're not really fond of tourists smoking pod on their porch

Even pedestrians stop at a pedestrian crossing

A canal boat tour is called the NR 1 experience in the world (!) by TripAdvisor. Go on a sunny day, for a medium sized boat (Ca. 30 p max) with a shipper. They have great stories to tell!

Head down to Zandvoort or Bloemendaal

The Netherlands has much more to offer. E.g. Delft is 1h trainride away and beautiful historic place - small Amsterdam.

Don’t rent a bike until you know the traffic rules (or you will get some very original Dutch swear words involving diseases thrown at your head… if you’re lucky). Trust public transportation instead. Go to a booth at Schiphol and someone will explain the whole proces (saving you a frantic 15 minutes trying to figure out the machines while impatient Dutch people are letting you know you are in the way)

Don’t buy drugs off the streets (heroin instead of cocaine is sadly a thing), don’t assume that we are all drug using, prostitute visiting, gay pride going, party animals. Most Dutch people are a lot more conservative than the tourists think. Even if we have liberal views, most of us have abandoned drugs and hard partying early in adulthood. Also realize that our weed is a LOT stronger than most tourists are used to.

Also, don’t stay in de city center. Most tourist will “do” Dam Square, Ann Frank’s House, Rijksmuseum, canal ride, etc. There is a lot more to see. The nine streets have great shopping, the Vondelpark is beautiful, there are a billion museums. But choose wisely, the sexmuseum, Madam Tussauds, the horror museum (I think that’s what it’s called, or maybe the torture museum) are tourist traps.

When visiting the red light district please remember that even though we try to keep things legal and take care of the women, many are not there because they want to be. Human trafficking is a big problem and most tourists aren’t aware of this.

Don't think waffles are Dutch. The plethora of waffle houses are not authentic. Waffles are Belgian, 'stroopwafels' and 'poffertjes' and 'pannekoeken' are Dutch. Try them, they are better than waffles!

Don’t confuse the holidays. We have king now, so Queens Day has been moved to April 27th and is now called King’s Day. Arriving a few days later, ready to party in orange will get you a tv-interview with a snickering reporter (it has become somewhat of an annual thing)

For a more traditional Dutch experience, if you have time, there are other lovely cities just around the corner. Utrecht has amazing canals and gorgeous houses, Delft and Gouda are very pretty, The Hague is our political capital and steeped in history (don’t talk about the brothers De Witt… it’s a sensitive subject), and Maastricht is very chique. You will get out of the tourist rut and still see the canals and gabled houses many tourists come for.

About halfway through November the Sinterklaas holiday starts and some time before that the decorations are already up. We call him black Peter and a lot of Dutch people are very fond and proud of him. Realize that the political and social debate has already started at the end of summer (for years now) and it’s a pretty polarizing thing. Even if you think a white guy entering the harbor on a ship with a few dozen blackface “helpers” is very racist…. try to keep your criticism quiet, since there will undoubtedly be someone in the crowd willing to explain...

...explain it to you (respectfully or physically). I guess our country needs some time to come to terms with our past and future. We’re working on it. Rest assured that nobody is celebrating racism, even if the symbolism might be a bit jarring.

Amsterdam used to be cool. It used to have local brown cafés (with carpets on the tables and lots of locals, "pianoman"-style), now it has coffeehouses. Dutch people can hardly afford living anywhere near the center. It’s slowly making the city a tourist wasteland. More coffee corners, Starbucks and waffles are not why you should want to come to Amsterdam. So try to book from legitimate owners renting out their own space or from people without 30 other addresses. Travel sustainably, so that there’s some Amsterdam left when you leave.