We’ve booked a short break in Amsterdam in the not too distant future and were planning to simply wing it, seeing what took our fancy in and around the Dutch capital’s streets. We’d already decided we were going to hit the Rijksmuseum because we’re fond of a museum and it’s one, and we were probably going to see if we could visit Hermitage Amsterdam too simply because we’ve recently done the one in St Petersburg (a photographic write-up in the portfolio section of the site will arrive one day, I promise) so it would be fun to compare and say we’d done both. After that, we weren’t sure but figured the city would be sure to tempt us as we strolled along its canal walks and alleys.
And then I happened upon the I Amsterdam website and the City Card offer it produces in particular. A canal boat trip, free public transport (in case the Dutch weather is unkind to us), and discounts and free gifts in many places was enticing enough but it was the list of museums that really appealed. The site provides a great list of tourist attractions in Amsterdam, many of which we had no idea existed. My wife, for instance, likes the sound of the Diamond Museum, and I’m interested in the Photography Museum, but these are places that in all likelihood we wouldn’t have necessarily picked to visit by choice in our short time in the Netherlands and probably wouldn’t have ventured into while passing on account of their admission prices (you sometimes forget just how many museums are free when you’re living in England). However, with the admisssion included in the card for a lot of places (and discounted for others) our plans for the upcoming Amsterdam visit have changed immensely.
As you can tell from the featured image on this post I went ahead and ordered a couple of cards for us and elected to have them delivered as there’s plenty of time before we leave for Amsterdam so that we could do some proper, rough planning (you always want to be a bit flexible with travel plans). The delivery charge was a little steep but I can live with that. The I Amsterdam City Card package comes in a red, card folder and includes large, fold-out, detailed maps highlighting all the places with free entry or discounts or gifts, the cards themselves (of course), and a magazine. I’m looking forward to using it and will report back on what we ended up doing in due course.