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Our little bonus stop on the way home was in Amsterdam! We only had a day there so it was a bit of a whirlwind visit but it was fantastic to get a little taste of the city. So I thought I’d share how I spent one day in Amsterdam and my tips.

Culture

Amsterdam has multiple museums and cultural sites to go and visit and with one day I would say stick to one, max two so you can really enjoy them instead of just rushing around. We went to the Van Gogh exhibition which I would highly recommend!

There were massive lines at all the museums which we were lucky enough to avoid with pre-booked tickets. We made the mistake of not looking into tickets early enough and missed out on the Anne Frank House which you have to book for two months in advance. So if you don’t want to spend your entire day in lines, I recommend looking into what you want to do early and book!

Shopping

We were very lucky and happened to be in Amsterdam on Thursday – their late night shopping day! Everything closed at 9 leaving plenty of time to walk around and do some good shopping.

There are a bunch of different areas in Amsterdam that cater for different styles of fashion. There are beautiful little boutique stores on ‘The Nine Streets’. If you’re looking for the classic H&M and Zara-like stores, head to Kalverstraat. For slightly pricier brands like All Saints and & Other Stories, Heiligeweg has you covered. And for the big spenders Pieter Cornelisz Hooftstraat has brands like Sandro, Maje, and the classic designers like Dior. There are also a bunch of department stores around like Magna Plaza and de Bijenkorf. Lastly, a little bonus stop was the streetwear/hype store Concrete on Spuistraat that is definitely worth a visit.

Food

Amsterdam has fantastic food and coffee and we definitely made the most of it. My favourite place was a cafe around the corner from our hotel (Le Pain Quotidien on Spuistraat) that had the most beautiful smoked salmon and ricotta breakfast.

I had an absolute blast in Amsterdam and will definitely be returning next time I’m in Europe. One thing I loved was just walking around the city through the canals. And with that the Europe trip was over – I can’t wait for the next time I can travel!

I’d love to know your favourite travel destination you’ve been to or want to go to in the comments!

Leah x