Have the Perfect Layover in Amsterdam Without Smoking Weed

If you have more than five hours between your flights, I can’t recommend enough that you leave the airport for a wee adventure. (Photo by iStock. Design by Lauren DeLuca for Yahoo Travel.)

With so many flight connections taking place in Amsterdam’s Schipol airport, regular travelers to Europe, Africa, and Asia often find themselves with a sizable layover in the fine city of Amsterdam.

You can choose to hang at Schipol (best airport for a layover in the world, hands down) or take advantage of the incredibly fast, inexpensive local train for a jaunt around the city.

It’s on you.

I am going to start this story with the caveat that nowhere in this itinerary will you smoke some legal pot or see a live sex show. Sorry, bros!

Amsterdam has so much more to offer — history, art, culture, cheese, pancakes, and canals. I promise the eight hours you spend here before heading to your next destination will be best spent far from the red-light district, or at least not wallowing in it. Because no one wants to board a flight smelling like weed and hooker sweat.

On a recent stroll through the city on my own layover from San Francisco to Nairobi, I took an accidental wrong turn into the infamous district. I’m certainly no prude, but I promise there was nothing sexy about half-naked ladies standing in store windows playing Candy Crush on their phones.

One of the things that makes Amsterdam the perfect layover city is the ease of walking practically anywhere you want to go. It’s an incredible place to get off a plane and stretch your legs with a wonderful wander around. My husband likes to navigate the city via canal crossings. “Oh that’s on the fourth canal ring, two bridges over.” Google Maps also works just fine.

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Biking might just be the second most popular pastime in Amsterdam. There’s even a multi-story bike garage at the train station. (Photo: Jo Piazza)

Renting bikes is also a breeze at a rate around $8 an hour from any number of bike shops all over town. The Dutch are serious about their riding. If you’re walking, stay out of their bike lanes. If you’re riding, watch your back.

Leave your bags in a locker at Schipol and let your adventure begin.

Take the train into town

Amsterdam trains couldn’t be any easier. For just $7, you’ll zip into the city center in less than 15 minutes.

Indulge your inner tourist

Pop over to Dam Square and take a photo in the large wooden shoe in the tourist shop on the edge of the square.

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There was an old woman who lived in a shoe. (Photo: Jo Piazza)

You can pick up your own wooden shoes and any item at all covered with windmills.

Enjoy pancakes with an exclamation mark

You’ve never had pancakes like this before. At first glance you may say, “Oh, that’s a crepe,” but it’s not. It’s better. You can indulge in Dutch pancakes all over town, but do yourself a favor and head to Pancakes! (exclamation included) for the really good stuff.

Their savory crepes include a Camembert with ham drizzled with sweet raspberry sauce that will ruin you for the flapjacks we have back home.

Or try a banana pancake with chilies or a pesto with mixed nuts and ginger. Maybe the salmon and avocado tickles your fancy, or the apple crumble with vanilla ice cream. You can’t go wrong with anything on this menu.

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Our waiter entreated us to wait an additional five minutes for freshly made raspberry coulis. It was worth it. (Photo: Jo Piazza)

Find the best museum for you

There’s a museum for just about everything in Amsterdam: cheese, tulips, bags and purses, sex, hash and some words that are simply impossible to pronounce. Some of them are downright cheesy, pun intended, and others teach you an awful lot about cheese.

Related: 7 Museums for 7 Days in Amsterdam

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Take a photo in the Cheese Museum and then learn everything you’ve ever wanted to know about milking a cow. (Photo: Jo Piazza)

Unless you love lines, make sure to book an advance ticket to the Anne Frank House or risk spending your entire day in an interminably slow queue. Tickets sell out as much as two months in advance and are limited for each date, so nab them as early as you can. It’s well worth the wait, but it will cost you most of your time in the city.

Almost every tourist makes haste to the Van Gogh museum, but real art lovers claim the Rijksmuseum is the real gem of an Amsterdam museum visit. Located in Museum Square, the Riiks is the Netherlands national museum and devotes itself mainly to Dutch history and art and contains incredible works by Dutch artists including Rembrandt and Vermeer.

Vintage shop

Amsterdam is home to a vibrant, stylish vintage scene of incredibly fashion-forward Dutch designers from the past 90 years.

Start your vintage spree at Episode if you’re in need of a stylish secondhand jacket or sweater. Most people miscalculate the temperature in Amsterdam no matter the season and this is the place to nab something that is both warm and will cause you’re friends back home to go green with envy.

I had been told by the kind of people who ought to know that 1953 Retro & Chic is the very best vintage shop in Amsterdam—and I have to admit they were spot on. Their selection of jewelry, shoes and clothes does not disappoint.

Related: Amsterdam’s New Breed of Coffeehouses

Laura Dols will delight you with its selection of picture-perfect party dresses from the ’20s to the ’90s. They even have a gorgeous selection of vintage wedding dresses that would make the ladies over at Stone Fox die!

Cruise the canals

Unlike waterway tours in most cities, the Amsterdam canal boat tours don’t bombard you with a wealth of information about the streets lining the canals. We certainly missed this, but the rest of the boat’s passengers seemed pleased by our captain’s choice of Metallica to replace a discussion on the 17th century tulip crisis.

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Is this the houseboat of our dreams? (Photo: Jo Piazza)

Grab a ticket for one of the hop-on, hop-off boats (sold all over town) and utilize the narrow passageways as transportation while you gawk at the adorable houseboats.

Grab some delicious Indonesian food

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Cafe Kadijk is owned by two best friends, both born in Indonesia. They offer incredible dishes at reasonable prices with plenty of local beers on tap. (Photo: Jo Piazza)

The best Indonesian food outside of Indonesia? In Amsterdam? Of course.

The islands of Indonesia were a Dutch colony up until the mid-20th century, and the intermingling of the two cultures has created a vibrant Dutch-Indonesian fusion scene in Amsterdam.

Order the “rice table” as your main dish (you can even split it between two) for a healthy heaping of rice with a tapas of various meats and veggies simmered in Indonesian spices.

Wheels up

Same drill as the morning except for one little annoyance. The trains heading back to Schipol could stand to be better marked.

Don’t risk getting on the wrong train before your flight. Ask about the destination before the doors close.

If you’re exhausted, Uber also operates in Amsterdam at very reasonable rates.