I am a huge fan of staying active while traveling. This includes traveling to hike, trail run, compete in local sporting events, and road biking to sightsee.
Despite being a straight-edge girl, I wanted to visit Amsterdam to sightsee and bike. I’m sure you’ve heard that biking is huge in Amsterdam, and from my experience, it’s absolutely true!
And I wanted to share what we did, our bike rides, and some places we made time to see in the city!
First I’ll cover the basics of visiting then I’ll share our bike rides/experience!
Visiting Amsterdam:
Where is Amsterdam located?
Amsterdam is located in the Netherlands. It is well-known for its many canals, bike-friendly city, cannabis legalization, and the infamous Red Light District.
We flew into Amsterdam Schipol Airport, an international airport in Amsterdam. We took an Uber to our hotel and a bus/train directly to the airport when we departed. Both options worked fine. Uber was easier but more expensive.
Where to stay in Amsterdam:
There are TONS of lodging options. We found the Hotel V Fizeaustraat on booking.com and decided to book there. It was perfect for our short 3-night stay. The hotel is located away from the hustle and bustle of the city, only a short walk to a train/tram station and right next to a bus stop.
Another plus is that the hotel offered breakfast starting at 0700 (cost extra). This was great for us because we ate breakfast at the hotel before our bike rides. Overall, we had a great experience and appreciated their attention to detail!
How to get around Amsterdam:
Amsterdam is very bike-friendly but we found it wasn’t the best for sightseeing. It was nearly impossible to enjoy causally biking around. It was too chaotic during our visit.
I recommend using their GVB public transport system and your feet to explore the town. You can purchase a 24-hour pass that gives you access to all buses, trams, and the metro for pretty cheap. We paid 9 euros in April 2023 for our passes. You can get them online or at a local station. We purchased ours at the station near our hotel (Amsterdam Amstel Transit Station).
Bike rentals in Amsterdam:
There are tons of places to rent bikes in Amsterdam. If you’re staying at a hotel, your hotel may even rent bikes for a small fee. My guy researched road bike rentals and decided to go with Tour de Amsterdam.
The Tour de Amsterdam staff was extremely knowledgeable and gave great pointers about visiting Amsterdam. They even stayed open later for us because our plane was rerouted and delayed. If they didn’t do that, we wouldn’t have been able to bike early the next day!
We rented two road bikes, helmets, women’s biking shoes, and pedals. Our road bikes were in decent condition and worked great for our two 50-mile days. The only issue I had was that my water bottle didn’t fit in the water bottle holder. I stored it in my backpack, which led to me drinking less water than I should have.
Additionally, they provide Strava bike routes on their website that you can use to explore the city. We used their route for our second day of biking, which I have included below.
7 things to know before visiting:
We did a lot of research before visiting Amsterdam but learned some things while we were there from locals as well. Here is a list of things you should know before visiting.
1. Many places do not accept credit cards in Amsterdam – only debit cards or cash (Euros)! As someone who only uses a credit card to travel, I was surprised by this.
2. Book tickets to museums like the Anne Frank House or the Keukenhof Gardens, long in advance. If you wait until you get there, you may not be able to visit these places – they book up fast.
3. Don’t rent a car. Rent a bike or use public transportation.
4. While the bike paths are amazing in town, being a pedestrian can feel a little dangerous. The city has well-established bike paths that I confused with walkways many times. Never walk on bike paths and make sure you are observant and look both ways before crossing any paths. Bikers fly through the city and I almost collided with a few several times. It can be overwhelming during the busy hours!
5. Bike theft is huge in Amsterdam, be wary of locking your bike up in town if you have a nice bike.
6. Watch your belongings when in busy areas in town. Pickpocketing is common here. We even saw someone bust open a car window in front of our hotel in the morning.
7. You are NOT allowed to take pictures of sex workers in the Red Light District.
Recommended: Check out the pictures I took while in Amsterdam here.
The Bike Rides and Tulips
Our priority was to road bike through Amsterdam and visit the Tulip fields. On our first full day, we decided to road bike to one of the world’s largest flower gardens in Amsterdam. On our second day, we headed North of Amsterdam for a beautiful ride through some small cities!
At first, I wondered if we would regret having limited time to explore the city of Amsterdam but after walking around the city after our first bike ride, I was very happy with our decision to prioritize biking!
Day 1 in Amsterdam: Tulips Bike Ride
We woke up early, had a hotel breakfast at 0700, then biked about 25 miles from our hotel to the Keukenhof Gardens. Then we spent a few hours exploring the gardens before we biked back to our hotel!
According to Strava, the route was about 53 miles in total with only 123 ft of elevation gain. I would include our bike route here but it might differ depending on where you stay in the city. But if you find yourself here and in need of the Strava map, send me a message!
The Keukenhof Gardens
The Keukenhof Gardens are one of the world’s largest flower gardens and the most well-known place to see tulips in the Netherlands. They are only open from March to May every year and require you to book your tickets for a specific time slot long in advance on their website.
You can track whether flowers are in bloom on their website to determine if you think it’s worth visiting while you’re in Amsterdam. We visited on April 8th to take advantage of the long weekend and many of the flowers had not bloomed yet. But we expected that!
If you are going to bike here like we did, I recommend arriving at the gardens as early as possible! We arrived at 10 AM and it was uncomfortably packed. All of the top photo spots in the gardens looked like ant farms. It was insane! Speaking of top photo spots, the park is HUGE. When you arrive, grab one of the free maps at the entrance to see all the different areas to explore!
We were told not to lock our bikes up outside the gardens because bike theft is huge there. But we decided to take our chances and locked up bikes on the bike racks outside the gardens with a heavy-duty lock. We had zero problems, when we returned our bikes were just like we left them!
Were the gardens worth it? Everyone recommended them, but I have mixed feelings about them. The gardens were so uncomfortably packed that they were a bit overwhelming. Don’t get me wrong – the gardens were beautiful, and I enjoyed myself, but I enjoyed biking through the tulip fields around the garden more. If you love gardens, I think it’s worth checking out!
AFTER OUR BIKE RIDE:
After we finished our bike, we cleaned up and then headed out to explore the city and eat. Here are the things we checked out and did.
- The American Book Center: huge English bookstore! We loved it because we lived in France then!
- Athenaeum Boekhandel: another bookstore with English books next door to the American Book Center.
- Early dinner at Batti Pascal: a Nepalese restaurant, arrived before opening for a table. Unique food.
- The Anne Frank House: walked by, but didn’t go in, requires reservations long in advance.
- Walked through the Red Light District: it wasn’t too crazy but there were ladies in windows!
- Explored Dam Square: a beautiful square, but massive and packed with people!
- Dessert at Winkels: stopped for a classic Dutch apple pie. It wasn’t the best but Latei’s was closed.
Day 2 in Amsterdam: Tour de Omloop
For our second ride, we did the “Tour de Omloop Small” bike route provided on the Tour de Amsterdam website. Here is the link to the Strava route we used from their website. You can find more details about the route on their website here.
To begin, we biked about 4 miles into town to catch a FREE ferry from the Centraal Station to Buiksloterweg. You can find the ferry schedule here. Once we got off the ferry, we started our BEAUTIFUL bike through the countryside.
Almost all of the pictures I took on this ride were below-average iPhone pictures but I’m sharing them anyways!
As far as the route goes, we used the recommendations from the website. We biked through a few towns like Broek in Waterland and Monnickendam.
We also stopped by Theehuis Overleek near Monnickendam for a quick sweet treat and warm beverage during the ride. The canal-side cafe is a perfect stop for bikers and a great recommendation from the bike rental company. Check to make sure it’s open before you plan on visiting!
After we ate, we made the trek out to the old fishing port town of Marken and got off our bikes here to explore on foot a bit. I think it’s worth biking here – it’s super cute and very picturesque! It’s recommended to eat some smoked mackerel or eel here, but we didn’t because we packed snacks!
If you can’t tell, this bike ride was my favorite. We saw several beautiful windmills, the expansive (and flat) countryside, many canals, and a few cool small towns! It was pretty chilly and gray but overall, still gorgeous.
If the tulips fields aren’t in bloom, I’d recommend heading North of Amsterdam for your bike ride!
After our bike ride:
Because we spent more time on today’s bike ride and in the cities up north, we had less time to explore the city. Here is what we did after our bike ride:
- Browsed the food selection/stores at Foodhallen: an indoor market in Amsterdam
- Dinner at Pandemie: We ate here twice! Subway station vibe downstairs, and a speakeasy upstairs.
- Dessert at van Wonderen Stroopwafels: very overhyped, but good stroopwafel. Super long wait.
My thoughts on Amsterdam:
We visited Amsterdam on Easter weekend in April. It was very busy, filled with intoxicated people and tons of tourists. While it was cool to visit Amsterdam, I wasn’t a fan of the city. It was not my crowd but this may have been because of the time of the year!
I am very happy we were able to visit Amsterdam and even happier that we spent the majority of our days biking outside of the city.
Overall, Amsterdam is a unique city worth visiting. If you like staying active while traveling and enjoy road biking to explore a new city, then you will enjoy visiting Amsterdam!
If I were to go back, I would probably stay in another city in the Netherlands and take a train into Amsterdam for the day. I found the surrounding cities to be much nicer and more inviting than Amsterdam. The people in the Netherlands were extremely friendly too. Everyone I encountered spoke fantastic English, so it was very easy to communicate.
Are you going to Amsterdam soon? Save my post on Pinterest below to come back to later!
