With only one day in Amsterdam, you won’t be able to see everything this capital city has to offer. However if you follow our one day Amsterdam itinerary, you can tick off many bucketlist sites AND enjoy many delicious Amsterdam foodie spots!
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A One Day Amsterdam Itinerary for Foodies
One Day in Amsterdam – How to get around
This one day Amsterdam itinerary is completely doable on foot! Everything we planned out is within Amsterdam Centraal and we created the itinerary as a walking loop. We didn’t need to use any trams, taxis, trains, nor bikes. Amsterdam is a very walkable city, and we even did it while pushing our daughter in her stroller.
How to get from Amsterdam Schipol Airport to Amsterdam Centraal
It is very easy and quick to get between Amsterdam Schipol Airport and Amsterdam Centraal Station. Trains run frequently throughout the day and only cost €4.70. The journey takes between 18-22 minutes, depending on which train you take. We just used Google Maps to find out the best train times.
We used the self-serve ticket machines, punched in where we needed to go, and paid with our credit card. The machine then prints out a ticket which you tap to enter the train platforms.
Where to Stay for One Day in Amsterdam
We recommend staying right by the train station as it makes it easy to get off the train and drop off your bags at your hotel. There are many hotels to choose from, but we’ve stayed at both of the following hotels on Amsterdam layovers and would recommend them! Their locations are perfect for one day in Amsterdam.
Mid-range to high end: Park Plaza Victoria Amsterdam Hotel
Located less than 200 metres from Amsterdam Centraal station, the Park Plaza Victoria Amsterdam Hotel makes a perfect base for exploring the city! It’s super convenient to get to when getting off the train so you don’t have to walk very far with your luggage.
It’s a beautiful hotel with great service and comfortable rooms.
Budget to mid-range: Hotel ibis Amsterdam Centre
Located less than 300 metres from Amsterdam Centraal, this Ibis hotel is a great choice for something a little more budget-friendly. Rooms are on the smaller side but they are clean and comfortable, and make a great base for exploring Amsterdam!
What to see in one day in Amsterdam
There is a lot you can see right within a small radius in Amsterdam Centraal. You’ll see endless canals, beautiful historic buildings, cafes, coffeeshops (which are not the same as cafes), delicious restaurants, shopping streets, and a whole lot of museums along the way. However with only one day in Amsterdam, you’ll have to narrow it down to just one museum to visit, maybe two.
If you’d like to visit the famous Red Light District as well, check out our overnight Amsterdam layover guide. We’ve left it off of this one day Amsterdam itinerary since we were visiting with our 3-year-old daughter, and instead focused this itinerary more on food.
Below is the exact one day Amsterdam itinerary we followed during our December visit. We arrived in Amsterdam from London at 8am and departed the next day at 11am, so we had one full day in Amsterdam and one night. You can rearrange the times depending on your schedule, but this should give you an idea of what is possible to see all in one day in Amsterdam.
One Day in Amsterdam Itinerary:
9:00am Winkel 43
Begin your day with a delicious breakfast at popular restaurant, Winkel 43! Their Dutch Apple Pie is to DIE FOR. Seriously, it’s the best apple pie I’ve ever eaten. Well worth the slight line up. It gets packed inside, so we ate at a table outside in 2 degree weather and enjoyed every minute.
If you have a sweet tooth, come here! And if not, there are other delicious items on the menu. But the apple pie is what they are famous for, so we recommend you don’t miss it.
On Mondays, which is the day we visited, the area outside the restaurant is an open market called Lapjesmarkt, where you can find all kinds of trendy secondhand clothes and housewares.
And if you visit on a Saturday morning, you will find Boerenmarkt, where you can purchase all kinds of organic products.
Hours:
7am-1am Sunday-Thursday
7am-3am Friday and Saturday
Note: They don’t take reservations.
10:00am Anne Frank House
After breakfast, continue 500 metres down Prinsengracht to the famous Anne Frank House. This museum is a very popular attraction and a must-see on many visitors’ Amsterdam itineraries. It is housed within the original canal house where Anne Frank and her family hid for two years from Nazi persecution.
Due to its popularity, you must book tickets in advance for a specific date and time slot. Tickets are released every Tuesday at 10am CET for a visit six weeks later. Make sure you plan ahead and purchase your tickets online.
We unfortunately had to skip this museum as our daughter fell asleep and was just not up for a museum visit.
Tickets:
- Adult: € 16.00
- 10-17 years: € 7.00
- 0-9 years: € 1.00
Hours:
Daily 9am-10pm
11:00am The Royal Palace
After your museum visit, walk over to Dam Square and admire the beautiful Royal Palace (Koninklijk Paleis Amsterdam). The interior is accessible to visitors most of the year – just make sure to check the online calendar in advance.
Tickets:
- Adult: € 12.50
- Students: € 9.00
- Under 18: FREE
Hours:
10am-5pm (until 6pm July-September, check calendar for exact dates)
12:00pm Shop along Kalverstraat
With only one day in Amsterdam, you probably don’t want to waste it shopping. BUT it’s worth strolling down Kalverstraat, which is a busy pedestrian shopping street filled with all kinds of shops. We enjoyed window-shopping here as it was quite lively and entertaining. Oh, and the fact that it has MANY sneaker shops was a big draw for Ryan.
If you are a sneakerhead like my husband, you will love it. Check out his post, Amsterdam Sneaker Shops – Ranked by a Sneakerhead. The sneaker culture is big in Amsterdam!
1:00pm Begijnhof
After a few blocks of busy Kalverstraat, break away to peaceful Begijnhof. This former women’s religious community is built around an inner courtyard and garden, dating from the 14th century, and contains a “hidden church”. It is a very tranquil place.
Make sure to stay on the marked paths for tourists, as these buildings are actual private residences and certain paths are blocked off.
Hours: 9am-5pm Daily
Cost: Free
1:30pm Van Stapele Cookies
After your peaceful Begijnhof visit, it’s time for another foodie stop! Walk over to the extremely popular Van Stapele Cookies. We knew these cookies were popular, but didn’t realize just how long the line was going to be! So, be prepared to wait.
However, the line moves fairly quickly and is managed very efficiently by the shop’s staff. We waited in line for about 20 minutes on a December afternoon mid-week.
If you are wondering if these cookies are worth the wait, I’d say so! I am a baker and am often disappointed when I buy baked goods as I find I can normally make them better myself. However, these cookies are in the top 3 cookies I’ve ever had!
They are served fresh and warm out of the oven. As you wait in line, you can see them rolling the dough, assembling the cookies, and putting them in and out of the oven.
The rich dark chocolate dough with the large melty white chocolate center is to die for. This cookie is the one and ONLY thing they sell here, and they have perfected it. It is perfectly crisp on the edges and soft and chewy in the center.
Due to its popularity, the store has a limit on how many cookies each customer can purchase. Each customer is only allowed to buy 8 cookies per day, so don’t think that you can just line up again to purchase more.
We were about to buy just one each, but after tasting them, we were very glad we purchased the box of 6!
Hours: 10am until the last cookie is sold (when we were there, they said that’s usually around 5pm)
Cost: €2.50 per cookie, or a box of 6 for €12.50
2:00pm Wander the pretty canals
After picking up your tasty treat, wander along the pretty canals in the immediate area. Since the cookie shop did not have any seating, we headed over to the canals and enjoyed our warm cookies while admiring Amsterdam’s beauty.
2:30pm Frens Haringhandel
Continue walking along the pretty canals and find yourself at Frens Haringhandel for another foodie stop. This is a popular stand for pickled herring and was featured on Anthony Bourdain’s show “The Layover”. As foodies, we have been trying to eat our way around the world and visit as many of Anthony Bourdain’s recommendations as we can, so we obviously had to stop here.
The pickled herring is served with pickles and onions, and is delicious! I personally don’t even really like fish nor pickled things, and I liked it.
Even our 3-year-old daughter asked for more! Better yet, it only cost us €3.50.
Hours: 11am-4:30pm Daily
3:00pm van Wonderen Stroopwafels
After your savoury snack, it’s time for another sweet foodie stop! Head back down Kalverstraat to popular van Wonderen Stroopwafels. This shop is very cute and Instagram-able, and it often has a lineup. However, when we visited in the late afternoon, we were lucky to walk right in without a queue.
The stroopwafels here come in all types of toppings if you wish! You can opt for Oreo, brownie, Smarties, or marshmallows, to name a few. You also have the option to choose your size of stroopwafel: mini, medium or mega!
Tip: If you order a medium or mega size, they will make it fresh!
Hours: 8:30am-10pm Daily
Cost:
- Mini: €6.95
- Medium: €8.45
- Mega: €9.95
3:30pm Damrak
Time to walk off those treats and head down lively Damrak! This is the avenue that connects Dam Square with Amsterdam Centraal. It is quite touristy, but worth a wander to admire the architecture and view the famous Beurs van Berlage building. If you want to purchase a souvenir, there are many souvenir shops along the way.
4:00pm Manneken Pis
Near the end of Damrak, you will come to another popular foodie spot: Manneken Pis. It looks unassuming, but you will probably know you are approaching it when you see a long line across the sidewalk. Even on a freezing cold Monday afternoon in December, we waited in line here for 20 minutes. And we don’t regret it! It was so delicious, we thought about lining up again later that evening haha.
Their sign says they were voted #1 fries in Holland, and we believe it! They sell other snacks here too, but we skipped those, and just got an order of fries with two sauces. We ordered a medium size to share between the three of us, but that was a mistake. We should have ordered a large! It was so delicious, even our 3-year-old couldn’t stop pounding them back haha.
The fries are perfectly crispy and soft on the inside. They are piping hot when you get them, so be careful, but they sure warm you up on a cold day! And the sauces are absolutely delicious! They certainly don’t skimp on the sauces either. We went with the Amsterdam onion sauce and garlic sauce – so yummy! There are 24 different sauces to choose from and they are a highlight! Definitely order at least a couple to go with your fries.
Hours: 10am-11pm Monday-Thursday, 10am-12am Friday-Sunday
Prices:
- Small: €4.25
- Medium: €5.25
- Large: €6.25
- Sauce: €1.25 each
4:30pm Put your feet up at the hotel
After all that walking, head back to your hotel for a quick rest and put up your feet. If you stay at the Park Plaza Victoria Amsterdam Hotel as we suggest, it will be located only 3 minutes down the road from the fries shop.
6:00pm Canal cruise
After a bit of a rest, head back out to see Amsterdam from a different perspective! Hop on a canal cruise for a scenic evening ride through Amsterdam’s beautiful canals.
If you visit during December or January, you can admire the beautiful Amsterdam Light Festival on your cruise. The lights illuminate the canals and it just looks and feels so magical.
Both Stromma and Lovers have canal cruises departing from right by the Park Plaza Victoria Hotel. You can walk up and purchase tickets, but we recommend booking a time slot in advance to ensure you get the time and date you want.
7:30pm Dinner at Restaurant Long Pura
After your scenic canal cruise, hopefully you will have worked up an appetite for dinner because next up is a special foodie feast! By now, you may have noticed there are a large number of Indonesian restaurants around town. If you were wondering why this may be, a quick Google search of Dutch colonial history may explain it, as Indonesia was a colony of the Netherlands for a few hundred years, up until 1949.
We greatly enjoyed the food in Indonesia when we traveled there, so naturally we were excited to try it out in Amsterdam to see how it compared. Specifically, we sought out to try the famous rijsttafel, or rice table as it translates, which is a popular Dutch-Indonesian feast. It consists of a huge amount of side dishes, around 40 dishes, no joke, served with rice. The side dishes are all Indonesian, but the concept of this elaborate feast actually has a Dutch colonial origin.
There are many Indonesian restaurants in Amsterdam that have rijsttafel on the menu, with varying price points. We decided to go with one of the fancier options at Restaurant Long Pura, and recommend it! The service was excellent, with very friendly and attentive service. And the food was delicious, of course.
We were still somewhat full from snacking all throughout Amsterdam, so we didn’t order the full 3-course rijsttafel. Instead, we went with the 1-course rice table menu. With 12 dishes, we still found this to be a lot of food! We were glad we ordered just the 1-course menu, although we would have liked to sample more dishes if we had more room!
The dishes varied from vegetarian to meat, spicy to sweet – all delicious. We highly recommend ordering the rijsttafel for dinner for a unique dining experience in Amsterdam!
Hours: 5:30pm-11pm Daily
9:00pm and beyond Red Light District
After dinner, you may want to walk off all the food you’ve been eating today! If you do want to continue this itinerary into the night, check out our overnight Amsterdam layover guide. In that guide, we talk about the places we visited without kids 🙂
Next Day
8:00am Breakfast at Pancakes
I don’t know about you, but when I think of Amsterdam, I think of pancakes, or more specifically, pannenkoeken. So, if you have time for another breakfast during your one day in Amsterdam, we suggest a traditional Dutch pancake breakfast! If you’re not familiar with Dutch pancakes, they are larger and thinner than American pancakes.
Pancakes Amsterdam has a number of locations around the city, with one conveniently close to Amsterdam Centraal Station and the Park Plaza Victoria Hotel. Better yet, they open earlier than many other pancake restaurants, at 8am, so it’s easier to squeeze in one last breakfast before departing Amsterdam 😉
They have a ton of different flavours of pancakes, from sweet to savoury, and even gluten-free and vegan pancakes!
I went with the bacon and apple Dutch pancake, while Ryan got the apple crumble Dutch pancake. Both were delicious! Our daughter loved the fresh squeezed orange juice as well. We definitely recommend a glass of it!
When we paid for our meal, our daughter was even given a traditional Dutch wooden shoe keychain as a souvenir.
Hours: 8am-6pm Daily
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Itinerary Map for One Day in Amsterdam
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