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So far, I've had the pleasure of visiting the unique and beautiful city of Amsterdam twice. but both times, I have visited with big(ish) groups of guys over the weekend. We tend to leave early (4am) Friday morning and leave late (10pm Sunday night) to maximise our time there. Both times we stayed at Bulldog (which has been great) and spend almost all of our time in and around Centruum / RLD. I have really enjoyed both my trips, I just feel I'm missing out a little.

Next time, I plan to visit mid-September, arriving on a Sunday afternoon and stay for 3 nights. I'm considering a solo trip, although 1 other person would be ideal. I was wondering when other people here prefered to visit, and how your experiences differed depending on when you go, and if you had any tips for planning the perfect chilled stay in Dam

Hi,

I've never been over in large groups, but I've been over with girl friends many times, and in small groups a few times.

In the last couple of years though, i've been over three times on my own, and I've loved it.

I'm self-employed and work from home a lot, so unless I actually get away, I don't actually get away from work. I find Amsterdam the perfect place to just give the brain a rest I like the fact that I'm beholden to no-one, and that I can choose to do what I want to do when I want to do it.

The fact that I'm going over at the same time as 420 this year has given me some specifics I want to do, but I'll take some time to enjoy my own company too

When I went over last year I made myself a little itenary of places to go (didn't make them all, but that's great thing about plans you make yourelf - you get to change them without getting any grief )

Where I did go that I enjoyed was :
The Palace of Nostalgia, O.Z. Voorburgwal 15-17 for ‘Burlesque Royale’
Bourbon Street Blues Club, Leidsekruisstraat 6-8
All the markets - Noordermarkt & Westerstraat in Jordaan, Albert Cuypmarkt, Waterlooplein - hours of fascinating browsing
My favourite time of all though was the Thursday afternoon / evening of Sail 2010, watching the hundreds of floating vessels (I hesitate to call many of them boats ) full of drunk, stoned (or both) people, trying to navigate their around the corner lock of the Singel and Brouwersgracht canals. I sat there for several hours, just smoking and watching some of the funniest stuff I've ever seen in my life Amazingly enough, nobody went in!

I highly recommend the chinese foot massage place on Zeedijk adfter you've been there for a couple of days - 20 Euros to 30 minutes of pure bliss

If the weather's good Vondel Park is a must.

Sadly, the RLD is not the place it once was.

However you do it, have fun

MK

Weekends have Amsterdam swollen with visitors and that's not my thing.

My preference is the mid-week, especially late-shopping Thursday evenings.

I love monday mornings in Amsterdam, about as chilled as you can get.

I hope it will be good for when I go, I avoided the weekends, Im going in peak time anyway (1st august-5th august) and that's a Monday morning to Friday afternoon

iv done weekends and through the week and id say i prefer weekdays.just a little quieter,less stag do's and stuff.and i love monday mornings when everyone else is heading to work and im just heading for the first smoke of the day

scoury wrote:iv done weekends and through the week and id say i prefer weekdays.just a little quieter,less stag do's and stuff.and i love monday mornings when everyone else is heading to work and im just heading for the first smoke of the day

Completely agree with this

Boner wrote:I love monday mornings in Amsterdam, about as chilled as you can get.

Monday afternoons are the same for me and lately have been my mornings..lol!

Weekdays are definitely better for a 3-5 day trips. Seats are always free in coffeeshops and restaurants, no tourist hoards on the streets and the biggest plus is that you're on holiday anyways! So, it always feels like the weekend.
All my Amsterdam trips start on Sunday or Monday these days unless the mate I'm going with can only go at the weekend. Solo trips are definitely weekday.