My family and I traveled to Europe in April, starting our trip in Amsterdam! We then went on to Paris and Disneyland Paris, those being in a separate blog post forthcoming. The trip was amazing, a bit chiller then we were expecting, but a vacation to remember forever. The hardest part of this blog post is deciding what photos to include! Here is how we spent three nights in Amsterdam.

We flew red-eye from JFK airport in New York directly to Amsterdam. I was fortunate to have no one in the middle seat between my husband and I, and got some decent sleep. The three children (ages 18, 16, 12) prefer to all fly in a row together so no one has to sit next to a stranger and honestly it’s been so great flying this way. We arrived tired and weren’t able to check into our hotel yet, therefore quickly adjusting to the six hour time change.

day one

We stayed at Hotel des Arts and took the train from the airport to the hotel, which was a two minute walk from the Rokin station. The location of our home base was perfect! The hotel was in a building right on a canal in a central location. We were able to do a lot of walking from there. The historical nature of the hotel was charming and we slept comfortably in one of their family rooms.

Once checked into our hotel in the afternoon of our first day, we walked to the Anne Frank House. I had purchased tickets online six weeks prior, the moment they went on sale on a Tuesday morning at 3 am my time. A definite must do! I had bought my family each a copy of Anne Frank for Christmas and we had been doing family book club meetings the months leading to our trip. Such a wonderful, somber, educational opportunity for us. Visiting Anne Frank house was the #1 item on my list of things to do in Amsterdam.

We spent a little over an hour at the Anne Frank house and then walked to Dam Square and ate dinner at Majestic. I had an amazing tulip spritzer drink there :) From there we walked back towards the hotel and stopped at van Wonderen Stroopwafels for dessert. I’m lactose intolerant and didn’t have one, but my family still talks about their stroopwafels and how they were one of the best things they’ve ever eaten. We had other stroopwafels over the course of the trip and they all say van Wonderen were the best; worth the hype and the line to get in! We went to bed early that evening.

day two

The next morning we grabbed a quick breakfast and walked to the Riksmuseum for a 10 am ticket entry. This was also something I booked ahead of time. The museum was a lot more enjoyable than I imagined! I had planned for us to only be there for about two hours and we ended up staying longer, eating lunch there, and staying until about 2:00, when the crowds began to increase.

The Night Watch by Rembrandt was a particular highlight of ours at the museum, as well as many of the Van Gogh art. My favorite part was the old library! It is stunning and an actual “working” library, with students studying at the tables below. The gardens around the museum were worth taking a stroll around as well. We did this before entering the museum.

After taking a small nap back at the hotel, we walked across the street and got on a canal boat ride. We used the Reeder’J P. Koo’j company and it was awesome. For only having three nights in the city, this was the perfect way to see a lot more of Amsterdam than we had time for. A canal boat tour was at the top of the list our hotel had of things to do and we agreed, after the Anne Frank House of course.

After our boat ride we walked along the Bloomgarden and had a light dinner at Pancake Company (pancakes are a big thing in Amsterdam, much to the delight of the kids). We then again went to bed a bit on the early side.

day three

We had a slower morning on day three and used the morning to walk around the city and see some bridges. We loved the Staalmeesterbrug bridge and views from there! I had made reservations at Blue Amsterdam and we had an amazing lunch with amazing city views from the top floor.

From there we hopped on the train and grabbed a bus at the Europaplein station to head to Lisse. I booked the bus and bought tickets ahead of time for Keukenhoff Gardens and the ease of the transportation booked directly with the gardens was so worth it! We grabbed an earlier bus than scheduled for and they did not care because there was so much traffic around Keukenhof that we arrived when we should have anyway. This was a Saturday afternoon in April, maximum capacity had been reached that day.

Even though it was extremely busy we loved Keukenhoff! It is not something to easily describe, the size of this place was impressive. We spent a few hours there, having food and snacks from their many food venues and walking around happily. From the large windmill you can see tulip fields beyond, so stunning. We left the gardens with much awe.

Because we needed to get up very early the next morning we again went to sleep early that night. Our Eurostar train left Amsterdam around 7:30 am and because it was so early we had no other choice but to get an Uber to the train station (or walk 20 minutes with luggage!). That was our first time not taking the tram/train or walking. I was impressed with us :)

Amsterdam Centraal station is a piece of art itself! We had trouble finding our track and then worried for a while that we were on the wrong one; make sure you give yourself plenty of time if you are taking the Eurostar anywhere! Once settled on the train to Paris I sat back and watched my view go from Amsterdam to Brussels, into France and enter into Paris. The ride was relaxing!

Have you been to Amsterdam before?