I was confronted with a jumble of mixed emotions as I boarded my KLM flight bound for Amsterdam. Still reeling from the travel high of my recent journey to Accra, Lomé and Porto-Novo, I was hesitant that regardless of wherever my next destination might be, I was bound to face at least some mild disappointment. Surely nothing could compete with the A+ adventure I had just experienced, right? This trip was also going to be complete 180 from West Africa: I would be making my way through the Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg) capitals, all three of which I had previously visited the summer after my senior year of high school. My memories from that vacation (the first time I went backpacking) were hazy at best, sitting two decades in the rear view mirror. To be honest, I chose to visit Amsterdam not out of some burning desire to see the Dutch capital again, but rather because I found a deal on airfare that I couldn’t pass up. Not exactly the stuff dream trips are made of.
Amsterdam has been making headlines in the past few years regarding their tourism industry, and not in a good way. The population of the Dutch capital, including the greater metro area, is roughly 1,150,000 people, with approximately 820,000 of those living in the city center. In comparison, 16 million tourists visited Amsterdam in 2017; the number rose to 19 million and 21 million in 2018 and 2019, respectively. Backpackers make up a large chunk of that number; Amsterdam only lags behind Bangkok as the number one destination for backpackers in the world. That’s tens of thousands of extra people flooding the sidewalks, parks and cultural attractions each day, not to mention taking up space in hotels, hostels and (formerly) Airbnbs across the city. The burden is compounded by the fact that Amsterdam is made up of a series of ringed canals, bridges and bike paths, leaving little physical room for the glut of tourists impeding the already cramped flow of traffic.
The income generated by tourism can be an economic boon, but without checks and balances, overtourism can destroy the charms of an area and become a nightmare for the community. Articles with titles like, “How Amsterdam is fighting mass tourism,” and “Overtourism in Amsterdam’s red-light district provokes local outrage,” began popping up all over. More recently, the Washington Post published an exposé in which locals were interviewed during Covid-19, carrying the headline: ‘The city is ours again’: How the pandemic relieved Amsterdam of overtourism. I can attest to the fact that the Dutch are friendly, if direct, people in one-on-one interactions, but how would I be received upon my visit to their capital? Would I be seen as part of the problem? How can one be a responsible traveler and take in the sights without being a hindrance to the local population?
Part of Amsterdam’s problem is the image it has built for itself over the years. Amsterdam, along with Berlin and Prague, have staked their tourist reputations on being the biggest party cities in Europe. Marijuana is legal and easily obtainable, as is prostitution, which is headquartered in the famed Red Light District, where you can walk down the streets and see naked women behind large glass windows enticing customers inside. This hedonistic combination of sex and drugs beckons to bachelor and bachelorette parties (or as they’re known in Europe, stag and hen parties) from all over the continent. Cheap flights between Amsterdam and London, Paris, Rome and Madrid make it all the easier for visitors to spend a rowdy long weekend in the city.
At the insistence of the citizens, the local government has finally intervened to help curb the abuses carried out by crazy foreign revelers. Fines have been raised to ridiculous amounts for littering, drinking on the street and public urination. You must pay the fines on the spot or be hauled off to the police station where you’ll spend the night in jail. Laws have also been enacted that ban the construction of new hotels and souvenir shops in the city center, as well as putting a halt to any tours through the Red Light District. (Photography is strictly forbidden in De Wallen- the Red Light District’s neighborhood- but that doesn’t stop dozens of tourists from receiving fines each night snapping pics.) In addition, a social media hotspot, the “I AMsterdam” sign, has been dismantled and removed to ease the follow of traffic near the Rijksmuseum. Most locals seem to still welcome tourists, but only if they behave.
There has even been discussion of capping the number of tourists who can visit the city on any given day. Not only has space on the sidewalk maxed out, but the city’s top museums, palaces and attractions can’t handle the high volume either. Take the Anne Frank House for example. When I visited Amsterdam in 2000 with my mother and younger brother, we simply walked up to the museum, bought a ticket and went inside. Now, all tickets are sold online and 80% of tickets go on sale two months in advance of each day’s visit. (Tickets for June 20th go on sale April 20th; tickets for October 3rd go on sale August 3rd.) The other 20% are sold online the morning of, but as you can see, I was 1247 in “virtual” line to get my ticket (I had failed to secure tickets two months out) and I never was able to gain admission to the museum on my second visit. I did manage to reserve spots at the Van Gogh Museum, Rijksmuseum and Royal Palace, but who wants to map out every detail of their daily schedule two months in advance? What about spontaneity and sense of adventure? It’s also difficult to enjoy your lunch when you know you have a 13:30 entry time to the Van Gogh Museum looming over your head. And these are just the stresses of being a tourist! Image if you lived in Amsterdam and wanted to take advantage of the cultural offerings your city has to offer. If I couldn’t get into the Anne Frank House, neither could they.
So what’s the answer? Not to go to Amsterdam at all? I don’t think we have to go to those drastic measures. After all, the city is popular for a reason and it would be a shame to miss out on finding out for yourself. A great suggestion is to visit during the off-season. Literally millions descend on The Netherlands in April and May to see the famed tulip fields outside the capital in full bloom. July and August are busier still. Visit in March or September/October and avoid the crowds. When booking museum entrance times online, choose the earliest available or even during lunchtime when the throngs thin a little as tourists venture to cafes and restaurants instead. Lastly, there’s more to Amsterdam than the Red Light District, Rijksmuseum and a canal riverboat cruise. Check out one of the lesser-known museums or stroll through one of the parks farther from the city center. I never felt guilty about being a tourist in Amsterdam, but I remained keenly aware of my place in the city’s ecosystem.
If you’ve followed this blog for any amount of time, you know I love hostels. They’re always my first choice of lodging when visiting any city, and while Amsterdam does have its fair share of hostels, I found them to be outrageously expensive. The airfare may have been a steal, but private hostel rooms would have maxed out my daily Benelux budget in no time. Airbnb, which has since been severely restricted in Amsterdam since my visit, was one of the few financially-viable options available to me. I had always shied away from using the platform after feeling like it had become corrupted from its original intent. In a nutshell, when Airbnb was created, it allowed hosts to rent out a spare bedroom in their house or apartment to A) generate some extra income and B) share their city and culture with a visitor. As a traveler, you were welcomed into a local’s home and given an inside look into daily life in a given location.
Over the years, Airbnb has been taken over by landlords who maintain multiple properties on the platform. The idea of cultural sharing has been thrown out the window and worse, thousands of apartments, condos and houses have been taken away from prospective local renters and buyers. This drives prices in the housing market threw the roof; hotel and hostel rates become inflated too and everyone loses except the landlords. Although I did stay in this charming Airbnb pictured above, I made sure to select a dwelling where the owner would be living with me on site. As Airbnb is being pushed out of Amsterdam, rents are beginning to creep down as more apartments become available for Dutch citizens to occupy. Amsterdam needs to first and foremost be a city where people live and can maintain a high quality of life. The needs of tourists must come second. (As a New Yorker facing many of these same pre-Covid problems, I greatly empathize with the Dutch.)
I think part of the reason my flight to Amsterdam was so discounted was due to the fact that it arrived at 4:00! I breezed through immigration and customs, hopped on the convenient commuter train that connects Schiphol Airport to Amsterdam’s Central Station, and was in the historic center by 5:30. My Airbnb host, Edwin, was kind enough to meet me and take my backpack for safe keeping, but I wouldn’t have access to my room until noon. The early morning sunlight filled the air and neither tourist nor local had stirred from their slumber. I was in a city with an overtourism problem, and I had the whole place to myself.
The historic heart of Amsterdam was established by the 12th Century, but it is the 17th-Century concentric canal rings, known as the Grachtengordel, that have become the capital’s trademark feature. There are over 100km (62mi) of canals in Amsterdam, which sit alongside 1500 bridges and 90 islands. Although Amsterdam garnered the nickname “Venice of the North,” the Dutch city actually has more canals than its Italian sister. Perhaps Venice should be the one dubbed “Amsterdam of the South.”
As if Grachtengordel wasn’t enough onomatopoeia for one city, the three main 17th-Century canals were bestowed such awesome names as Herengracht, Keizersgracht and Prinsengracht, and were declared UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 2010. This brings the ancient buildings a level of protection from developers wishing to make alterations to the skyline, but it has also been a sounding bell for tourists to flock to these three rings. (It’s perfectly fine and expected for visitors to take photos, but remember that these are people’s homes and you should respect their privacy when they are entering or leaving their domiciles.)
Architects had to adhere to very strict city regulations when it came to designing the residential structures along the Grachtengordel. The designers were afforded little width or depth, necessitating the tall, skinny homes you see to be constructed, requiring ropes and pulleys to load furniture into the upper levels of each house. Churches were afforded a little more leeway, but not much. De Krijtberg Kerk, pictured above, is a Neo-Gothic Roman Catholic Cathedral completed in 1883 that had nowhere to go but up. De Krijtberg, which translates to “The Chalk Mountain,” was allowed to take up three plots of land after the Dutch ban on Catholic churches was lifted in 1853.
If tourists aren’t clogging the sidewalks, you’re sure to spot them on the ubiquitous canal cruise boats that swarm the waterways from midday through the late evening. An hour ride will cost you about €20 ($23US), but an evening cruise complete with dinner and drinks will set you back €75 ($87US). These cruises land on a lot of Amsterdam Top Ten lists; call me a snob all you want, but you couldn’t pay me to ride around in one of these things. To me, these canal cruises are the definition of a tourist trap. I could just as easily explore the Grachtengordel on foot, and since all the boats are enclosed with hard plastic coverings, you can’t even take good photos of all the sights you glide past. An interesting side effect of the Covid pandemic is that the canal boats have not been running for months and the canal water is cleaner and clearer than ever. Aquatic plant and animal life has returned to the canals (just as it has in Venice) and we are seeing the toll these dozens of daily cruises were taking on the environment.
Right next to the Anne Frank House sits De Westerkerk, the second largest protestant church in the city center. Anne wrote in her diary of how she liked to listen to the church’s bells in the morning before they were removed by the Germans and melted down to make ammunition. The church was built in 1631 and you are able to ascend the 85m (278ft) tower during the summer months for a bird’s-eye view of the canals. (I missed being able to climb the tower by a few weeks, but trudging up the stairs seems to be one of the city’s more hidden-gem attractions.) Westerkerk is also notable for containing Rembrandt’s grave, although the exact location of his resting place under the church is unknown.
Accommodation comes at high cost for the backpacker and the luxury traveler alike, especially if you are insistent on booking a room with canal-facing views. Perhaps no hotel is more impressive than the 19th-Century Hôtel de l’Europe, which was built out of the remains of a medieval fortress. Alfred Hitchcock used the hotel for scenes from Foreign Correspondent in 1940 and the building was declared a national landmark in 2001. Suites begin at €1250 ($1450US) per night; a Michelin Star restaurant is located on the ground floor. From hostel to hotel, if you’re looking for budget, you need to move away from the Grachtengordel.
As soon as I strayed beyond the rings of canals, I found I was the only tourist walking the suddenly less-congested sidewalks. One of my favorite neighborhoods in the city was De Pijp, which has the best restaurants in town, bar none. As you can see, there might not be any canals in sight, but the residences still retain their quirky Dutch charm. There’s also no reason to be scared of booking accommodation outside the city center. The Amsterdam public transit system is widespread and easy to use; I bought a five-day unlimited pass and made good use of it. By staying in an outer neighborhood, you’re also helping ease the overcrowding of the inner rings.
Just like every other world capital I’ve visited, Amsterdam was able to subvert my expectations, even if I had to work a little harder to uncover unique experiences. So much has been written about Amsterdam, from official guidebooks to bloggers to YouTube travel vloggers documenting their travels, that you start to wonder if there’s anything left in Amsterdam that calls out to be editorialized. Are there any surprises that remain in the Venice of the North? And then you look closer and realize all the travel authors, both professional and amateur, are hawking the same ten attractions over and over again. I was nearly put off from coming after reading the reports of overtourism in the city, but here I was on my very first morning, peacefully wandering through the Grachtengordel as if it were an abandoned movie set. All you ever read about, especially from younger bloggers, are the copious amounts and drugs and sex to be had, and sure, that exists, but there’s SO much more to Amsterdam than pot and pros. As I discovered, the city has a treasure trove of contemporary and modern art (as well as a healthy dose from the Old Masters), the historic Jewish quarter has some unjustly neglected museums and a ferry ride across the Ij River to Amsterdam-Noord takes you to an industrial, yet up-and-coming neighborhood with one of the best vegan restaurants in the city. Once we find a way to move past Covid, let’s return to Amsterdam in the most responsible and respectful ways possible. I’ll leave you with some scenes of the canals at night and let you witness the beauty that has enticed millions to the city year after year.
