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Without kids: Amsterdam

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Jordaan, Amsterdam. Copyright Gretta Schifano

Jordaan, Amsterdam. Copyright Gretta Schifano

I love travelling with my kids but sometimes, as long as I can find someone to look after them while I’m away, I also enjoy travelling without them. Once a year I have a weekend away with three lovely friends without any of our partners or children. One such trip was to Amsterdam for four days in May – and it was great.

Getting to Amsterdam

There’s a wealth of flights connecting Amsterdam with the UK. Three of us flew with Easyjet from London Gatwick to Amsterdam Schiphol. 40 minutes after we had landed, our other friend, who lives in Italy, arrived on a flight from Turin. We all met up in the arrivals hall and then walked through the terminal to the train station to catch a train into the city centre. We queued for our tickets (€4.10 single) and took the 20-minute train journey to Centraal Station. From there we took a taxi to our apartment – we could have taken a tram but decided on a cab because of our luggage.

Where to stay

Three of us had been to Amsterdam before and we all agree that we’d like to stay in the Jordaan district. The Jordaan is a formerly working class area which has a peaceful, village atmosphere. It’s within walking distance of the cultural sites which we wanted to see and is away from the Red Light District. The four of us love hanging out together and we prefer staying in an apartment to a hotel. We booked an AirBnB apartment in the Jordaan online a couple of months before our trip and it worked well for us. It was in a traditional town house next to a canal and it was all very cosy. Unfortunately there were issues with the plumbing, and so I can’t recommend this particular apartment – although I’ve had very good experiences with AirBnB before.

What to do

There are many wonderful museums and cultural sites in Amsterdam but our trip was as much about relaxing together as it was about sightseeing and so we were very selective about what we did. We walked a lot. We ate a lot. And we went to the Van Gogh Museum, Rembrandt House Museum, the Museum Van Loon and on a boat tour around the canals. I’d already been to Anne Frank’s House on a previous trip – I’d definitely recommend going there once but I didn’t want to go there again. Here’s a short video of some of the places which we went to on our trip:

Van Gogh Museum

The Van Gogh Museum is the most visited museum in Amsterdam. The celebrated artist died in 1890 after selling just two paintings in his lifetime. Today his work is known across the world and sells for astronomical sums. The museum houses one of the best Van Gogh collections including hundreds of letters and is a great place to learn about the artist’s life and what inspired him. It’s definitely best to book ahead if you’re going to this museum as the queues to get in are very long.

Cost: €17,00

Rembrandt’s House

Rembrandthuis is where the artist lived from 1639 – 1658. It’s now a museum and is fascinating to visit. I loved the compact ‘box-bed’ where the maid slept in the kitchen – apparently beds were short at that time because people believed that it was best to sleep sitting up! You can also see Rembrandt’s studio at the top of the house and the drawing room which doubled as his bedroom. There was no queue at all when we visited this museum.

Cost: €12,50

Rembrandt's House, Amsterdam. Copyright Gretta Schifano

Rembrandt’s House, Amsterdam. Copyright Gretta Schifano

Van Loon Museum

The Van Loon Museum is an aristocratic townhouse on the Keizersgracht canal. Willem Hendrik van Loon, a descendent of one of the founders of the Dutch East India Company was given the house as a wedding present in 1884 and it’s still owned by his descendants today. The Louis XV interior is beautiful and there’s also a formal garden behind the main building with a coach house at the far end.

Cost: €9,00

Van Loon Museum garden, Amsterdam. Copyright Gretta Schifano

Van Loon Museum garden, Amsterdam. Copyright Gretta Schifano

Canal boat tour

We went on a wonderful Friendship boat tour of the canals. The boat was relatively small – there were probably about 30 passengers on board – and, apart from a small canopy at the front, it was open to the sky. It was a sunny Spring day when we went on the tour and all four of us really enjoyed it. The woman piloting the boat was very quiet initially but when we asked her to she gave us an interesting commentary on what we were seeing. The tour started from the canal next to Anne Frank House. It took about an hour and I’d definitely recommend it.

Cost: €15,00

Friendship boat tour, Amsterdam. Copyright Gretta Schifano

Friendship boat tour, Amsterdam. Copyright Gretta Schifano

Nine Streets

The ‘9 Straatjes’ is a three block square of nine streets in the Jordaan. There are very few cars here and it’s a great area to explore on foot. The houses in the @Nine Streets used to be lived in by servants of the grander canal-front properties but are now home to an eclectic mix of independent shops and cafés. We seemed to gravitate towards this area quite often and you could easily spend a few hours here exploring the shops.

Homomonument

This is a monument to people who are or who have been persecuted for their sexuality. The monument takes the form of a slab of pink granite jutting out in to the canal by the Westerkerk, just along from Anne Frank’s House. I was moved to read that the shape of the monument is based on the pink triangle symbol that gay men and women were made to wear during the German occupation of Amsterdam during WWII.

Homomonument, Amsterdam. Image copyright Gretta Schifano

Homomonument, Amsterdam. Image copyright Gretta Schifano

Where to eat

One thing that really struck me about Amsterdam was that everywhere that we ate was excellent. We found some places by reading guidebooks, some by looking at online reviews and some by just coming across them as we were walking. Places such as the funky Wolvenstraat 23 where we had a quick lunch on our last day – we just came across it in the Nine Streets area when we were feeling hungry and it was fantastic. Or De Prins on the Prinsengracht. We found it in our Lonely Planet Amsterdam guidebook and ate a delicious dinner there on our first night. Or Long Pura where we ate marvellous Indonesian food one evening. Either we were lucky or Amsterdam is a great place for eating well.

Cycling

Amsterdam famously has more bikes than residents and there are people cycling all over the place in the city. It’s easy to hire bikes if you’d like to but we didn’t get around to doing that. Maybe next time!

Over to you

Do you ever travel without your kids? Would you like to? What would be your dream destination for a trip without your kids?

About Gretta Schifano

I'm a freelance journalist and blogger specialising in family travel with teenagers, trips when parents manage to travel without their kids, and 50+ travel. I also write about vegetarian travel, parenting teenagers, adoption, SEN, ADHD and anxiety. My work's been published by the Financial Times, Guardian, Independent, National Geographic Traveller, Lonely Planet and others. I've lived and worked in Italy and Spain and am now based in rural south-east England with my husband, adoptive and birth kids and our dog. I previously worked as a social action radio producer for the BBC.

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Comments

  1. Mari says

    Gosh I haven’t been to Amsterdam for years, I would love to go back and to go without the children really makes sense. I’m going to be 50 next year so I’m looking to go somewhere with my husband for a long weekend, Amsterdam is a strong contender but also Barcelona … decisions, decisions.
    Thanks you so much for linking up to Time Traveller, I’ve really enjoyed your stay in Jordaan.
    Mari recently posted…Time Traveller| The Everglades & Buffalo Tiger| 2007My Profile

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  6. Jennifer says

    It looks wonderful and I love your video, it really gives a flavour of the city. I visited with my husband a few years ago (before children!) just for the day and we managed to pack lots it, it’s a lovely city, I’m hoping to return with the children because I’ve heard good things about it as a family destination. I’ve had a couple of breaks away from the children with just my husband and it’s been great, we travelled a lot before having children and it was nice to return to the old days, if only briefly! Visiting from #timetraveller
    Jennifer recently posted…Our favourite family attractions in BarcelonaMy Profile

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  10. Nikki Thomas says

    Amsterdam sounds amazing and I have read a lot about it but never visited. I love that you have listed some great places to visit, it sounds like a great place for a family trip.

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  11. chickenruby says

    I loved Amsterdam I lived there when i was 17 for several months, but didn’t see half of what you did in 4 days, it’s somewhere i’d love to revisit. All holidays now are child free since they left home, but are usually trips back to the UK to visit the kids, I’m off to Canada on wednesday for a child free holiday to meet a twitter buddy for 3 weeks
    chickenruby recently posted…Week 24 – My Sunday PhotoMy Profile

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  13. Life Loving says

    Sounds wonderful. I’ve never put Amsterdam on my ‘must-visit’ list because of the bad reputation it has for stag and hen dos, so it’s nice to see how much it can offer outside of the stereotype. I bet you were exhausted after that though?

    Sally @ Life Loving Blog
    Life Loving recently posted…Shopping in DubaiMy Profile

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    • Gretta Schifano says

      We spent lots of time relaxing too so we weren’t too tired. We didn’t see any stag and hen dos – I think that they’re probably all in the Red Light District, which we didn’t go to.

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  18. christy spencer says

    I am going to Amsterdam without the children for our 1st wedding Anniversary, we shall hopefully be visiting the Van Gough museum amongst others. thank you this has been a very interesting read.

    Reply

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This is a personal blog written and edited by me, Gretta Schifano. Sometimes I’m given products or sent on trips to review, but I always make this clear and give my honest opinion. See my About page for full details.