Tips from an online travel expert Glenn Fogel I first visited the city in 1983 as a student. Amsterdam is a city of contrasts, which is one of my favorite things about it. It is incredibly international, but geographically small. It’s a tourism hub, but also a center for business and tech in the region. There’s so much happening, but it runs at a more relaxed pace than many other major cities. WHERE TO GO AFTER YOU LAND If I am coming in the early morning from New York, I head to my accommodation and get a workout in – either at the hotel gym or, weather permitting, I’ll run in Vondelpark (Amsterdam-Zuid borough). I like to mix up where I stay. BEST PLACE FOR TEAM MEETINGS The Booking.com headquarters (Oosterdokskade) has some of the best views of Amsterdam, and any ...
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Amsterdam took a first step toward banning large cruise liners under broader plans to reduce mass tourism and pollution, officials said on Friday. Once implemented, the measures adopted by the city council would bring the Dutch capital into line with other high-profile European cities, including Barcelona, Dubrovnik and Venice, that have already cut cruise liner numbers or are considering doing so. The council approved the proposed ban on Thursday. "The motivation ... was to reduce the number of tourists, but also for environmental reasons," city spokesman Wouter Moll said. Viking Longship Mani, Expeditions ship Viking Polaris and Viking ocean ship Venus on the North Sea Canal, Amsterdam, Netherlands. Amsterdam's executive branch needs to work out details and it is unclear whe...
Read MoreA judge ruled Wednesday that the Dutch government cannot order Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, one of Europe’s busiest aviation hubs, to reduce the number of flights from 500,000 per year to 460,000, dealing a blow to efforts to cut emissions and noise pollution. The ruling came in a summary case brought by airlines and civil aviation organizations led by Dutch carrier KLM that sought to halt the planned cuts unveiled last year. FILE PHOTO: People wait for departure at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, Netherlands, June 16, 2022. REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw The decision by a judge in Haarlem, a city close to Schiphol, came a day after the airport announced plans to phase out all flights between midnight and 5 a.m., ban private jets and the noisiest planes, and abandon a project for ...
Read MoreThe city of Amsterdam, a popular destination for tourists who visit its marijuana coffee shops, will ban smoking cannabis in public in the red-light district as part of a campaign to clean up the area. Smoking the drug in the streets will be prohibited in a canal-lined section of town where there are brothels, sex shops and strip clubs, the city council said in a statement on Thursday. The move was called an "historic intervention" by Dutch Amsterdam's "Het Parool" newspaper and city council said the ban may be extended to the terraces of cannabis coffee shops at a later date. FILE PHOTO: A Dutch woman smokes a cannabis cigarette in a coffee shop in Amsterdam. REUTERS/Toussaint Kluiters It is part of a campaign by Amsterdam's first female mayor, Femke Halsema, to make the neig...
Read MoreSome art lovers make it a mission to visit and view as many works as possible by 17th-century Dutch master Johannes Vermeer, known for his expertise at rendering light and intimate household scenes. Starting Friday, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is making their lives a whole lot easier. Director of Rijksmuseum Amsterdam Taco Dibbits looks at Vermeer's painting 'Mistress and Maid' at an exhibition bringing together 28 works by Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer in Amsterdam, Netherlands February 6, 2023. REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw A blockbuster exhibition at the Netherlands’ national museum of art and history brings together 28 of Vermeer’s paintings from seven countries around the world. Not bad considering only 37 paintings are generally ascribed to the artist who lived from 1632-...
Read MoreAirlines industry not happy with the decision by Dutch Government Flights from Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport will be limited to 440,000 a year, 11% less than in 2019, to cut noise pollution, the Dutch government said on Friday, drawing praise from green groups but dismay from airlines bosses. The decision follows a move by Schiphol itself, in which the Dutch state is the majority shareholder, to impose a cap on the number passengers it can carry this summer - although that was due to staffing shortages. The government also pointed to the airport's impact on "nature and climate" for the cuts, following criticism from environmental campaigners and the left-wing opposition for its greenhouse gas and nitrogen oxide emissions. The move is intended to restore "the balance between a w...
Read MoreReintroducing European city tourism will be tough to balance with needs of locals
Since the emergence of low-cost carriers and budget forms of accommodation, the popularity of city break tourism has increased significantly within intra-continental travel across Europe, says GlobalData. According to the leading data and analytics company*, 38% of respondents stated that they typically undertake this type of trip, making it the third most popular globally, behind sun and beach tourism and visiting friends and relatives (VFR). Ralph Hollister, Travel and Tourism Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, constant year-on-year (YoY) increases in international tourism to cities such as Barcelona, Amsterdam and Prague caused anger amongst local communities, creating pressure on local governments.” FILE PHOTO: Mannequins are seen on an empty stree...
Read MoreAmsterdam substitutes ‘Pride Walk’ for canal parade in 25th anniversary of Gay Pride
Amsterdam capped a month of events commemorating the 25th anniversary of its first Gay Pride festival with a "Pride Walk" through the city's historic centre on Saturday that drew around 10,000 participants carrying flags and an enormous rainbow banner. People carry a giant rainbow flag in the 25th gay pride parade in Amsterdam, Netherlands August 7, 2021. REUTERS/Eva Plevier Usually one of the biggest events of the year in Amsterdam, the festival has traditionally ended with a flotilla along the city's canals, with parties, music and dancing on the boats, quays, and in bars and people's houses. But the canal parade was cancelled in 2020 and again this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. Saturday's Pride Walk was billed as chance for Amsterdammers to not just have a party but to...
Read MoreWith dazzling displays of colour including tulips in purple, yellow, and crimson, the Keukenhof flower garden outside The Hague usually rivals Amsterdam's top museums as one of the Netherlands' biggest tourist attractions. This year, for the second year in a row, millions of tulips in the park and nearby fields are blooming and will likely fade largely unseen, as the Keukenhof remains closed to visitors amid the coronavirus pandemic. Tulips are seen at the Keukenhof park in Lisse, Netherlands April 28, 2021. REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw "Keukenhof is only open 8 weeks a year, end of March until mid-May," said Managing Director Bart Siemerink. He said that given the country's current lockdown regime, his best guess is that the park will be allowed to open from mid-May. ...
Read MoreThe city of Amsterdam will allow residents of its historic centre to offer their homes to tourists again, after a court ordered it to scrap a ban on vacation rentals. Amsterdam’s left-wing city council last year issued an outright ban on rentals through Airbnb and other platforms in three areas that make up its central canal ring, in an effort to curb what it described as the nuisance caused by tourists in the old city centre. FILE PHOTO: People ice skate during a cold snap across the country at the Prinsengracht in Amsterdam, Netherlands February 14, 2021. REUTERS/Eva Plevier But in a case brought on by an association of property owners, a local court last Friday ordered it to lift this ban immediately as it had no legal basis. In a response, the city said that as of Tuesday ...
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