A Dreamy 3 Day Amsterdam Itinerary for Your First Visit!

Are you planning a trip to Amsterdam and wondering how to spend 3 days in this incredible city?

While Amsterdam is the capital of The Netherlands, it is quite small, especially compared to other European cities like London. However, despite its size, Amsterdam packs a punch, and planning a trip here can feel overwhelming because there really is SO much to do.

Between the world class museums, exciting nightlife, delicious food, and gorgeous canals, figuring out how to fit everything into 3 days is something of an art form.

That’s where this itinerary comes in! I spent weeks researching all the top things to do in Amsterdam and pieced them together into what I consider the perfect 3 days for first-timers.

(Well, we actually spent 4 days in Amsterdam, but our last day was almost entirely consumed by our day trip to Lisse for the tulips – more on that at the end of this post!).

So, if you’re looking for a grab and go 3 day itinerary for Amsterdam, consider your wish granted. Keep reading for all the details, and don’t forget to grab the free printable version of this itinerary below too.

Amsterdam Planning at a Glance

Don’t have a lot of time? Here’s a quick mini guide to Amsterdam to help plan your epic adventure!

Where to Stay:
Hotel Pagi (Budget)
The Highlander Hotel (Moderate)
INK Hotel Amsterdam (Moderate)

Must-See Spots:
Canal District & Jordaan neighborhood 🚲
Albert Cuyp Market 🧇
Brouwerij ’t IJ Windmill Brewery 🍺
Vondelpark 🌿

Activities to Book in Advance:
Anne Frank House ✡️
Rijksmuseum 🖼️
Golden hour canal cruise 🚤
Heineken Experience 🍻

Itinerary Overview

Before I share some details about arriving in Amsterdam and where to stay for your trip, here is a quick overview of what you can expect in this itinerary.

Plus, some tips on what I recommend booking in advance!

This itinerary assumes you have 3 full days in Amsterdam.

We arrived on a very early morning flight and hit the ground running on Day 1. But this itinerary will also work if you arrive the day before (and even better because you’ll have a full night’s sleep, haha!).

Arriving in Amsterdam

Unless you’re lucky enough to take a train to Amsterdam from a nearby city, you will most likely be arriving at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS), which is conveniently located 5.5 miles (9 km) southwest of the city center!

After clearing customs and grabbing your luggage (which did take awhile for us), you can make your way into central Amsterdam via a few methods.

We arrived at 5am and didn’t have the brain power to navigate public transportation yet, so we decided to grab an Uber directly from the airport to our hotel for around 30 euros. It took just under 30 minutes!

However, if you’d rather save some money (and time), you can hop on the train instead, which runs directly from the airport to Amsterdam’s Centraal Station in just under 20 minutes.

Tickets cost around 5 euro for this ride. You can buy tickets at the ticket machine in the Arrivals area of the airport (where you’ll exit into from baggage claim).

Or, simply tap your smart phone or credit card directly at the yellow card readers, and tap out when you leave. Easy peasy! This is a common theme with transportation in Amsterdam.

Depending on where you are staying in Amsterdam (more on that in the next section), you may be able to walk to your accommodation from the Centraal train station (where you will arrive from the airport). If not, you can hop on a bus, train, metro, tram, or in a cab/Uber from here to get to your final location.

✈️ If logistics like international flights, travel insurance, accommodation, money, and phone service stress you out, don’t worry! My Passport to Confidence guide is a $7 planning roadmap with a 6-month checklist so you know exactly what to do and when.

Where to Stay in Amsterdam

Like any major city, there are tons of hotels to choose from in Amsterdam. Personally, I think the location and neighborhood you choose matters way more than the actual hotel!

For your first visit, I highly recommend staying in or in between the Centraal or Jordaan neighborhoods.

Centraal and Jordaan are the two most popular areas of Amsterdam for tourists. Sandwiched in between them is the Canal Belt, also known as the Grachtengordel, where you’ll find those charming canal streets you’ve likely seen in postcards.

Of course, this is the most expensive area of Amsterdam to stay in, but for your first trip, I think it’s 100% worth the splurge. And there are budget options here too!

You don’t have to stay right on the canal (we didn’t) as it’s definitely more expensive. But by staying in this general area, you’ll never be more than a 5-minute walk from a canal!

And if you want maximum convenience, staying closer to Amsterdam’s Centraal Station will give you plenty of options for travel each day (you can hop on a bus, train, tram, or Metro and be anywhere quickly).

Psst: I have a full guide breaking down how to get around Amsterdam (Coming Soon!), if you need some help figuring out all the transportation options! 🚇🚊🚌

We personally chose to stay just south of Centraal Station at the Highlander Hotel, which was in the perfect location for us! We had a tram stop right in front of our door, but we were also a 10 minute walk from Centraal Station if we needed to venture further. And right behind us was the Canal district!

In case the Highlander Hotel is sold out, here are some other Amsterdam hotel recommendations for you to check out:
– Hotel Pagi ($$) – Budget friendly rooms in great location
– INK Hotel Amsterdam ($$$) – Modern, lux rooms w/ top-rated restaurant
– Nova Hotel ($$$) – Modern hotel in a historic building with excellent location

Day 1

Early Morning: Arrival and Dutch Pancakes

Welcome to Amsterdam!! Now that you know all of the logistical information of arriving in Amsterdam, we can get into the fun part!

Again, this itinerary assumes you arrive first thing in the morning (or the night before), so you have a full day of exploring ahead of you.

After dropping off your bags at your hotel (or a quick power nap if you’re lucky enough to check in), it’s time to go for a walk and grab some breakfast.

If you’re staying in the Centraal/Jordaan neighborhood, you can head towards Centraal Station. I recommend walking up Damrak, a bustling avenue that connects the station to Dam Square.

Dam Square is one of the most historic spots in Amsterdam and absolutely worth seeing! Aptly named because there used to be an actual dam here along the river. Now, it houses the Royal Palace (Koninklijk Paleis), a National Monument honoring WWII victims, and a historic church (Nieuwe Kerk).

Once you’ve seen Dam Square, continue north along Damrak until you reach the small waterfront area, which in my opinion, is one of the most picturesque spots in Amsterdam!

The colorful, stacked buildings right on the water are the perfect photo op. You can walk down one of the pier slots for an even better vantage point too!

And on the northeast corner of the waterfront is your breakfast spot: PANCAKES Amsterdam! Make sure to get here early, as it’s a very popular spot (there was a long line when we left around 9:30am!).

Here, you can try the famous Dutch pancakes pannenkoeken, which are similar to crepes but much bigger! We tried two different varieties: my friend got the lemon sugar pancake, and I got the apple and cheese option with gluten free batter!

They were both absolutely delicious (though a little pricey). You can try more savory varieties like bacon and cheese, and they also have fluffy American pancakes too!

Late Morning: Walking Tour of Central Amsterdam

One thing that we did not do while in Amsterdam that I really regret is a walking tour! I try to do some form of walking tour on my first day in every new international city I visit (my first one was in Germany, but I’ve also done them in Iceland, France, and Japan!).

For this trip, we were going to do this Anne Frank walking tour on our first day, but then we ended up getting tickets to the Anne Frank house last minute (more on that in a bit!), so we cancelled the walking tour.

However, I wish we had done a normal walking tour like this one, to learn more about the history of Amsterdam and the Netherlands, as there is a ton of it!

This tour is only $23 per person has options at both 10:00am and 11:00am, so it’s the perfect thing to do on your first morning (after breakfast) to get the lay of the land and learn more about Dutch culture.

After your walking tour, I recommend heading to Café de Jaren for lunch and a drink – make sure to try the famous Dutch bitterballen, which is basically a fried ball with this delicious, creamy beef roux inside.

Afternoon: Exploring Jordaan and the Anne Frank Museum

Now that you’ve thoroughly explored the Centraal area (whether on your own or on the walking tour I recommended), it’s time to spend the afternoon wandering through the Jordaan neighborhood just to the west.

Jordaan was originally built for the working class several hundred years ago and used to house 4x times the amount of people it does today.

Over time, however, Jordaan transformed itself into the trendy, upscale neighborhood of Amsterdam it’s now known for, thanks to artists and students flocking here in the 1970s.

Jordaan is one of the most popular neighborhoods in the city for both tourists and locals. This area is exactly what you picture when you think of Amsterdam: tiny streets lined with narrow canals and greenery, cute shops, bakeries and cafes, and colorful 17th-century homes that are leaning a bit.

It’s also home to the legendary Anne Frank House & Museum, which I recommend visiting this afternoon. More on that in the next section!

Besides visiting the Anne Franke Museum, fill the rest of your afternoon with some of the classic stops in Jordaan, like:

• Grabbing a cone of French fries at Fabel Friet (or, if the line is too long, go to Heertje Friet instead like we did!)
• Visit the Amsterdam Tulip Museum and the Amsterdam Cheese Museum (both are great places for souvenir shopping)
• Walk along the famous 9 Little Streets (De 9 Straatjes) for shopping
• Stroll along the many canals and bridges (lots of photo ops!)
• If you’re visiting on a Friday, check out the book market at Spui Square (I snagged a first edition Harry Potter book for 20 euro!!)

Visiting the Anne Frank Museum

Getting to go to the Anne Frank House & Museum was one of my favorite parts of visiting Amsterdam. Unfortunately, it’s not easy to visit – you can’t just walk up to the museum and buy tickets for that day.

Instead, tickets for the Anne Frank Museum get released 6 weeks in advance, every Tuesday at 10am CEST (that’s Central European Summer Time). 

If you know you want to visit the Anne Frank Museum, you should be ready on your computer at this time (6 weeks ahead of your trip) to purchase tickets.

Unfortunately for us, we finalized our trip only 5 weeks in advance, so by the time I went to buy tickets, they were all sold out. Luckily, I found this post from Gina on a Plane that explained how to get tickets, and her advice worked!

I woke up at 5am one week before our trip, and after waiting in an online queue for 45 minutes, I was able to snag tickets for the day we arrived in Amsterdam!

And let me tell you, this museum is absolutely worth waking up early to get tickets for. I was blown away by what I learned and saw as I walked through the attic where Anne Frank hid from the Nazis for two years.

No pictures are allowed inside the museum. But you will get to see the actual bookcase that blocked the entrance to the annex she hid in, as well as some of the original stairs and kitchen counters in the rooms. There’s even still markings on the wall where her parents kept track of her and her sister’s height.

The entire museum was extremely sad and moving, but I learned so much and I am so glad we went. If you can, I recommend reading The Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank’s personal diary) before you visit!

And if you can’t get tickets (either 6 weeks or 1 week out), consider this Anne Frank walking tour to fill the void and still learn about her incredible story!

⚠️ Make sure to buy tickets for the Anne Frank House exactly 6 weeks before your trip! The only way to get tickets is through the official Anne Frank website ⚠️

Evening: Dinner and Drinks in Spui

By now, the jet lag is probably starting to hit you hard (it was for me!!).

We visited the Anne Frank House around 3pm and took a much needed break after to check into our hotel, shower, and put our feet up before dinner.

Try really hard not to fall asleep! Instead, head back down to the Spui area of Centraal for dinner.

We planned to go to The Seafood Bar; however, we didn’t have a reservation and they had a long wait when we arrived.

So, we pivoted to Chop Chop down the street, and I am SO glad we did! This Asian restaurant had some of the best nigiri I’ve had outside of Japan! They also have an incredible cocktail (and mocktail) list, and many other yummy Asian dishes! And the servers were so friendly.

After dinner, if you still have energy, you can grab a drink at the Zum Barbarossa speakeasy (which is actually owned by The Seafood Bar). But, you will have to make a reservation in advance here, so it can’t be a game time decision.

After ringing the doorbell, you’ll head down a flight of stairs into the cozy basement speakeasy – super cute and good drinks too! They also have small plates here if you’re still hungry.

We used our 7pm drinks reservation as our motivation to fight the jet lag and stay awake until at least 8pm! Mission accomplished.

Day 2

Early Morning: Albert Cuyp Markt

Today, it’s time to get out of the Centraal neighborhood and venture a bit further south and east! I called this day our beer day, since we hit two different breweries. But first, food!

And not just any food, but my favorite type of food: street food! For incredible street food in Amsterdam, I highly recommend visiting Albert Cuyp Market in the trendy De Pijp neighborhood.

Depending on where you are staying, you can hop on the metro or a tram to get here! We took the No. 52 Metro line from Centraal Station and reached the market in just 20 minutes.

Note: Albert Cuyp Market is closed every Sunday. So if day 2 of this itinerary falls on a Sunday for you, I recommend swapping day 2 with day 3!

Once you arrive at Albert Cuyp Market, your senses will be overwhelmed with the variety of different food and drink options.

Here were our favorites:

• A fresh, homemade stroopwafel from the stand in the below photo (we got ours filled with chocolate and it was one of the best things I’ve ever eaten in my entire life!!!)
• A jianbing pancake (which is basically a Chinese crepe) filled with bacon, sausage, spinach, egg, and potatoes (SOOO good – even according to my best friend who is Chinese!)
• A fresh fruit juice (I got a passionfruit orange juice combo, so good)
• A coffee (obviously) – there are also plenty of coffee shops in the area if you want something fancy

Late Morning: The Heineken Experience

Once you’ve had your fill of food at the market, it’s time to make your way over to the Heineken Experience, which is just a 5-10 minute walk away.

Now you might be thinking, the Heineken Experience.. really?

I was pretty skeptical about visiting this particular place in Amsterdam because I was worried it was going to be overpriced and touristy.

And while it is definitely a little touristy, it was actually really fun!! It’s not the most local experience, but you are a tourist, after all! And I have a more local beer experience on the itinerary after this to make up for it.

We booked our tickets to the Heineken Experience through GetYourGuide because it’s easier to cancel or reschedule if you need to change your plans (which we did before our trip!). And, it’s the same price as booking through their website!

You will need to select a time slot when purchasing your tickets – I recommend around 11:00-11:30am for this itinerary. To avoid long lines at the entrance, I’d get there no later than 12pm.

Once you arrive, you’ll queue up and wait for the next tour to start! The entire experience takes around 1.5 hours, but you can stay longer at the bar at the end.

I wasn’t sure what to expect on the “tour” when visiting, as I hadn’t read many reviews. In my opinion, they do a great job of mixing different styles to keep it interesting. Let me break it down!

Or, check out my full guide on the Heineken Experience here! 🍺

• You start with a guide and go through a couple of rooms with them (with some crowd interaction), learning about the history of the brewery (this location is literally the old brewery and they’ve kept a lot of the structure so you can visualize what you used to occur there)
• Next, there’s a self-guided museum portion where you can read or listen to an audio guide on your phone, learning more about the history of the brand and how it became a global phenomenon
• Then you’re back with a different guide to learn more about the beer making process, where you get to see the giant copper tanks they used to brew beer in
• After this, there is a somewhat cheesy section where you’re in a theater room “becoming the bottle” to learn about the packaging and shipping process. You can also get a beer bottle printed with your name!
• Then, you’ll get to taste your first Heineken beer (which is included in the tour cost). We learned this beer gets trucked in every morning, so it’s the freshest Heineken you’ll ever have!
• After that, there are some fun photo ops and other rooms with interactive elements
• Lastly, you’ll exit into the bar area, where you can collect your 2nd free Heineken, take part in the draught challenge, and stay as long as you want! There’s also a cute gift shop before you leave

So, now you know exactly what happens inside the Heineken Experience and decide if it’s right for you! If you do decide to visit, I highly recommend booking your tickets in advance for before 12pm to avoid long lines when you arrive!

When we left around 2:00pm, the line was crazyyy long!

Afternoon: Lunch and Windmill Brewery

You’ll probably be hungry once you leave the Heineken Experience, and I have two different choices for lunch!

If you want to sit down and eat immediately, head over to Bali Brunch (literally right next door) for some Indonesian food!

Now you might be thinking… Indonesian food? That’s odd.

Well, there’s a reason! Due to over 300 years of The Netherlands colonizing Indonesia, there is a large crossover of Indonesian culture and food in Amsterdam!

Which is great news, because Indonesian food is amazing! And the Indonesian food we had in Amsterdam was almost identical to the food I had in Bali!

However, if Indonesian food isn’t your vibe, you can just head straight to the next stop and eat there, which is: Brouwerij ‘t Ij, or as I like to call it, the Windmill Brewery.

This brewery is a little out of the way but is well worth the visit! It has a much more local vibe and is a nice change of pace from the Heineken Experience lol.

We got here by taking the No. 42 Bus from Centraal Station, but you can also hop on the No. 14 tram too!

The brewery has an indoor and outdoor section and is located beneath a windmill (which is a rare site in the city center!). We sat outside in the beer garden and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, especially once the sun came out!

We also ate lunch here and had the most amazing sausage I’ve ever eaten (we ordered a second plate of it), plus some yummy cheese, pickles, and French fries!

And if you want to learn more about the brewery, they also give guided English tours at 3:00pm on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Unfortunately we arrived too late and weren’t able to attend, but it’s definitely on my list for next time!

Evening: Dinner and Sunset Drinks at LuminAir

To wrap up an amazing second day, I highly recommend heading to the LuminAir bar for sunset drinks!

Called “The Bar Above Amsterdam”, this elevated sky bar is located on the 11th floor of the DoubleTree hotel (just east of Centraal Station) and offers striking views of Amsterdam’s skyline!!

We made a reservation in advance for the seating in the bar area about 45 minutes before sunset, but they also have normal dining tables, as well as an outdoor terrace.

It was definitely too cold and windy to sit out there when we visited, but we still popped out to admire the gorgeous views of the sunset!

The cocktails were very yummy and cost around 20 euro each – to be expected at a place like this. We also ate some appetizers as dinner here, since we had a late lunch at the brewery. The food was just okay, so I’d recommend grabbing a bite to eat before or after visiting instead.

Day 3

Morning: Museum of Your Choosing

Today is already your last day in Amsterdam – can you believe it?! Don’t worry though, I have some suggestions in the next section on how to extend your trip 😉

To start out your final day, you have to visit one of Amsterdam’s incredible museums! Did you know Amsterdam actually has the highest museum density in the world?!

Some of the top ones to choose from (or you can squeeze in more than one!) are the Rijksmuseum (where we visited), the Van Gogh museum, and the Moco museum. Luckily, all three of these are right next to each other, in case you do want to tackle more than one today.

In fact, this area of Amsterdam (which is not far from the Heineken Experience) is called the Museum Quarter (or Museumkwartier in Dutch!). From the Centraal area, you can hop on the No. 2 tram and be there in 15 minutes!

Now, I’m not really a museum person, but I still really enjoyed our 2 hours at the Rijksmuseum. Similar to the Heineken Experience (literally the only way these two places are similar), tickets to the Rijksmuseum are timed, and you can enter anytime during your one-hour slot.

I booked our time for 10am, so our time slot was 10am-11am. We actually slept in this day, so we didn’t get there until right at 11am, but we had no issues getting in!

While I’m not going to cover every piece of art we looked at in the Rijksmuseum, here are my must-see’s: Cuypers Library, Rembrandt’s The Night Watch, Van Gogh’s self-portrait, the William Rex Dutch ship model, and the doll houses!

Afternoon: Lunch and Vondelpark

After spending time in a museum, I always love to spend some time outdoors and relax a bit. Luckily, the Museum Quarter of Amsterdam is located near the largest city park in Amsterdam: Vondelpark!

Before heading over to the park, we had a really nice steak lunch at Café Loetje. However, there are plenty of options between the museums and the park too, like another Seafood Bar or an Indonesian restaurant if you didn’t have that yesterday!

Once you’ve eaten, head down to the west end of the park and walk east! Where we entered, there were tons of doggies playing – what a dream! I love how dog-friendly Europe is.

Feel free to relax in any area of the park you want to! We made our way through the Rosarium garden (a little too early for spring blooms) and then headed to Groot Melkhuis, a waterside cafe in the middle of the park!

This spot has outdoor patio seating along the man-made river that runs through the park. It was truly the perfect place to sit and enjoy the afternoon sunshine with a cold Dutch beer!

Further into the park, there’s another great spot to grab a drink or snacks – ‘T Blauwe Theehuis (aka The Blue Teahouse), which is owned by the same brewery you went to yesterday!

Evening: Canal Cruise and Red Light District or Remembrandt square

It’s your last evening in Amsterdam, which means it’s time for the final must-do activity in this itinerary: a canal cruise!

You’ve explored the canal-lined streets thoroughly by this point, but seeing the many buildings and bridges from the water will give you a whole new perspective!

I highly recommend doing your canal cruise around golden hour (aka 1-2 hours before sunset), as everything will be bathed in a beautiful orange glow!

I will warn you: there are sooo many canal cruises in Amsterdam to choose from. After researching for a few hours, I landed on this small-group luxury saloon boat cruise for a few reasons:

• The saloon boat held less than 20 people, so we had plenty of room to spread out and get comfy
• I specifically wanted an open-air boat, not the fully enclosed ones that are packed with people (they even gave out blankets cause it was a little chilly!)
• We had unlimited drinks for the entire 1-hour journey, which made it even more fun!
• It had over 4,800 reviews with an average rating of 4.6
• The pick-up location was very close to our hotel in Central Amsterdam!

Overall, we really enjoyed this boat cruise, especially the crew! I did expect to spend more time in the inner canals, but a lot of the cruise was actually around all of Amsterdam.

The guides gave some fun facts and history of Amsterdam as we cruised, but they didn’t talk the entire time, which was kind of nice. However, this is another reason I recommend a walking tour at the beginning of the trip, so you can learn more about Amsterdam!

After your canal cruise, grab dinner nearby. We ate our last meal at Brassiere Marie, a nice French restaurant on the canal! Or, you can head down to Remembrandt Square (Rembrandtplein in Dutch), a bustling area with lots of patio seating to soak in the views on your last night in Amsterdam.

There are tons of restaurants, bars, clubs, and everything in between here – this guide from Amsterdam.org has tons of recommendations to choose from!

And lastly, I can’t write an Amsterdam itinerary without mentioning the iconic Red Light District. This famed neighborhood, which is known for its legal prostitution establishments and girls standing in the windows, is part of what makes Amsterdam famous.

We decided to at least walk through the area to see it, and I do recommend you do the same. I mean, how can you not? It’s definitely not kid-friendly at night, so be aware of that.

We were honestly shocked by the amount of people in this area on a Saturday night. Not just walking around like we were but actually in line for live sex shows… crazy.

Again, it’s totally up to you whether you visit the area. We actually went inside the Red Light Secrets Museum, which was a bit cheesy, but we also learned a lot about the history and legality of prostitution in The Netherlands!

Final Thoughts and Extending Your Trip

Now you know exactly how I recommend spending 3 full days in Amsterdam, based on exactly what I did on my trip!

As you can probably tell from this blog post, we absolutely adored Amsterdam. Between the breweries, the museums, the green spaces, and of course, the food, it was the perfect introduction to the Netherlands!

And like I mentioned at the beginning of the post, we actually spent 4 days in The Netherlands – our last day was fully dedicated to exploring the tulips in Lisse (about 45 minutes outside of Amsterdam), since we were visiting at the beginning of April. You can read my full day trip guide to Lisse here!

However, if you’re visiting at a different time of year, there are plenty of other day trip options I recommend adding to your itinerary to extend your time in The Netherlands! The most popular option (besides tulips) is to see the charming windmill village of Zaanse Schans.

Or, you can head to Rotterdam & The Hague, other Dutch towns near Amsterdam, or even to the tiny Belgian town of Bruges!

If you’re sticking to Amsterdam only, make sure to check out my guide on Getting around Amsterdam (Coming Soon) to help you navigate the city better!