"Amsterdam - more than coffeeshops & red... " a Amsterdam Travel Page by Airpunk

Amsterdam has different meanings for me. The first thing coming into my mind is Schiphol airport, which is not only my gateway to the Netherlands, but also the place where I changed planes when I fly to Venezuela. Now, as I don’t have the money to fly to Venezuela and the situation has become bad there (and by the way, KLM gave up the route), I just start every Netherlands trip there. My second thought is high prices. OK, perhaps it’s my first thought because I am a little shocked by the hotel and hostel prices when I am looking for an accomodation before the trip. Then comes sex, drugs and tourist traps. That’s the reason most people visit Amsterdam, which is a pity. When I say that I am travelling to Amsterdam, some people think that I would just visit coffee shops. Don’t understand me wrong, I appreciate the liberal attitude of the Netherlands towards sex and drugs - but that's surely not my reason to visit Amsterdam. However, Amsterdam has more to offer than sex and drug tourism. This brings me to my last but most important thought: Amsterdam is a city full of life and full of culture.

Leidseplein was one of my favourite places. Here, you have street artists and surrounding cafés. It’s a great place to spend time after walking through the city. If you are looking for authentic dutch food, this might be the wrong place. Look first for the prices (some may be tourist traps) and start into a nice evening.

Amsterdam has some good museums. However, if time is scarce, you should at least visit following four:
-Anne Frank Huis
-Historisch Museum
-Rijksmuseum
-Van Gogh Museum

Another highly recommendated museum is the Scheepvaart museum. Anyway, you should not visit it, if you don't like ships... Avoid Holland Experience (see "tourist traps") - its really not worth its money.