My Very Unplanned 3-Day Trip To Amsterdam That Turned Out To Be A Success

My partner and I purposely decided not to plan anything for our short trip to Amsterdam, here’s what happened when we got there.

Before we get started, and just for context, you need to know I am a control freak.

I wasn’t too happy with the idea of traveling without a plan. If it was up to me, I would have done an itinerary so that we could make the best out of the time we spent in the city. However, as a collective decision, we decided to take it easy and let it be, as we both just needed to relax and take a break from all the stress of our daily routine.

Here’s what happened during our unplanned trip to Amsterdam.

Day 1. Vondelpark, Rijksmuseum, Robo-Sushi Bar 🍣

We landed at Schipol airport at around 7.30 pm on Monday the 9th of January 2023. By the time we arrived at the hotel it was 9.30 pm, we had something quick to eat, a drink and then went straight to bed (that’s why I don’t really consider it our first day). However, I did get some nice pictures of the city by night, which we both liked a lot.

When we woke up the next morning we had a huge breakfast at the hotel and then decided to start off with a walk to the park that was 10 min walk away from our hotel (Vondelpark), followed by a museum of my choice. The park was huge and had plenty of dogs walking around, which we love to see as professional dog watchers. During our walk, we spotted a cool bar right in the middle of the park which we decided to go back to for a drink some night before we left.

On the first day, it was my turn to pick a museum so I went for the Rijksmuseum, which had beautiful art pieces from the 1600s to the 1900s. The museum is divided into three floors, each showcasing art from a particular century. My partner and I found it extremely fascinating as it wasn’t just about paintings but also about objects, statues, jewelry, and many other reliquaries.

We ended up being there for more than three hours — that definitely proves that it’s worth a visit. The downside was the price (around 47 euros for two tickets) which I think was a bit too much for a museum, but we made sure we got the best out of the experience.

After our visit, we decided to walk around and explore the city, but the weather wasn’t on our side. The rain and wind were so strong that we ended up going from bar to bar until it was time to eat. A few hours before dinner we booked a sushi restaurant nearby that had robots making cocktails — it was such a cool experience!! And the food was so tasty. I highly recommend it.

We couldn’t avoid going to a coffee shop, so we did. It was a strange experience, for me at least, being in a room where people are allowed to smoke, but not drink alcohol. It was like everything I always knew was upside down. While in the coffee shop, you kind of have to order a drink — which can be tea, coffee, or fizzy drink, anything non-alcoholic. I loved being able to order pear juice without feeling judged.

Day 2. City Centre, Stedelijk Museum, De Hallen Food Hall 🥡

After our usual huge breakfast, as the weather looked better, we decided to go for a walk to the city center so that we could explore the city a bit more. Walking around the canals was magical, I absolutely loved it. It is also a cheap activity to do if you want to travel on a budget. However, you cannot get too lost in the landscape ever if you care about your life: bikes are everywhere and they don’t really care if you’re in their way (I nearly got killed so many times).

What I loved about the city is the diversity of small local shops and restaurants: they all look extremely different and unique. There were plenty of restaurants offering cuisines from all over the world, and a lot of vegan restaurants as well. Everything looked delicious to be fair.

After our walk, it was museum time again, so my partner decided to book tickets to the Stedelijk Museum which is all about contemporary art and design. I loved visiting this museum so much as everything was pretty recent and could understand the context of the paintings a bit more (I study International Development in college). There was a lot of art on migration, colonialism, urbanisation, and multiculturalism — a beautiful mix of art and recent history.

After the museum and on our way to the hotel we went for a drink in the cool bar we found inside the park — it was surprisingly quite cheap as well. There we ordered some arancini which were delicious too.

For dinner, we ended up in De Hallen Food Hall — an enormous place full of stalls serving food from all over the world. We stopped for a glass of wine and some traditional meatballs that I loved (although I was tempted to go for sushi again). The place was quite full and was hard to find a seat — if you are planning to go I recommend going before 7.30 pm.

Day 3. BodyWorld & Flight Back Home 😔

The third day was quite sad because we really didn’t want to leave. After our usual breakfast, we clocked out from the hotel at 11 am and walked about 30 minutes to a place near the train station where we left our bags until it was time to go back to the airport (5 pm). My partner and I agreed that our last museum would be the BodyWorld one, where the human body is explored in a detailed but interactive way. I loved that museum as it was completely outside of my general knowledge and learned loads from it. When we went the main theme was happiness, so everything was analyzed through those lenses. I found it very fascinating.

On our way to the train station, we stopped for a pint and then got the train that brought us to Schipol in less than 20 minutes. Overall it was a great experience and we made the most of it, trying to make it balanced between stuff I wanted to do and stuff that Abe wanted to do too. The funny part was that, when we asked ourselves which museum we enjoyed the most, Abe picked the museum I chose and I picked the one he chose. That surely means that compromising is not that bad after all!

Could I be converted to support unplanned trips? Maybe. I’ll keep you updated 😉 In the meanwhile, enjoy this picture of me petting an iguana in Amsterdam!

Thank you for reading and for being part of my journey here on Medium! I would like to thank JamieWrites for writing about Amsterdam in a way that inspired me to write my piece (in the article “Getting To Know Amsterdam”), and Jillian Amatt - Artistic Voyages for writing the article “Sometimes Travel Plans Don’t Work Out” — which gave me some peace of mind about my ‘non-planned’ trip. I highly recommend following both of them as I truly enjoy their writing and their travel experiences.

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