Well, you have to walk the Red Light District at night—no cameras. On your way there from Centraal Station you can stop in at the Sex Museum, too.

One of my favorite Mexican restaurants is at the edge of the Red Light District: Cafe Pacifico.

But since we only did evening trips to Amsterdam from the place we were staying, I can’t tell you where to stay.

What’s your budget?

If you have a friend in town who is living on a houseboat, stay with him/her and experience Amsterdam.
El cheapo is the hostel. With a lively bulletin board.

Oh, by all means do a canal tour boat. You’ll see the narrowest house in Amsterdam.

@bob My budget is around 1000–1500 USD including hotel and all.

There are a lot of hostels there. Just search on the internet. There are reviews and you can make reservations online. Plan on $20/ night. My daughter spent several months over there last year.

@Otto_King And how many nights?

@bob Only from friday to monday, so 3 nights.

I’d recommend a trip to Keukenhof

You can get there by train easily, and it’s well worth a visit.

@Otto_King $1,500 for 3 nights? Now that’s what I call a budget. Stay at a nice hotel, see some suggestions here.

Go to the Red Light District and take the canal tour, as others have said.

Have a kaassouffle.

Make sure you try some Jenever too!

@bob @cubozoa @CyanotucWasp @anartist @perspicacious
Thank you for the advices, I think I have now enough information for choosing the right place to stay, and the right thing to drink. But @bob, isn’t that a hash-cookie? :) I’ll try that too… ;)

It really depends on what your interests are. If you have a friend that lives there, have them show you some of the hidden courtyard gardens that 99% of tourists don’t know about. If you like museums, there are plenty of those. Rijksmuseum (I consider it the Dutch Louvre), the Anne Frank house, the Van Gogh museum.. Vondelpark is one of my favorite places in the city, you can spend an hour or two wandering around and/or chilling out on the grass if the weather is cooperative.

Wandering around is pretty great, too.. the city is small enough to make seeing it by foot possible and you’ll stumble across beautiful architecture, statues, plazas. The tram system is fairly easy to navigate and you could also rent a bike, if you want to save your feet.

Lastly, watch out for bicyclists and don’t walk on the bike paths! They are super serious about the bike riding there and have little patience for the tourists who don’t get that. If you’re not careful, you could get mowed down or piss off the locals.