Cold and Rainy Amsterdam: What to do?

Here is a scenario. You booked a nice city trip to Amsterdam. Flight tickets are booked and your stay at Amsterdam Teleport Hotel is confirmed! Now it’s time to get really excited. Evenings go by sitting at the couch, browsing the internet and looking at all the different places you want to visit. The number of places you are putting on your Amsterdam bucket list becomes quite overwhelming. There is so much to do and to see! But apart from not having enough time, what can go wrong during the trip you are asking to yourself? Then you realize there is one thing you haven’t checked yet: the weather! You add Amsterdam on your favourite weather app on your phone; you refresh the page a couple of times. Can it be true? Is the app working properly? You check other weather pages and that’s when you fully realize; it will be grey and rainy every single day of your trip! How is this possible you are wondering?

Here is a “comfortable” thought and explanation. Amsterdam has a mild sea climate with relatively warm winters and refreshing summers. Amsterdam gets on average 800mm of rain, spread out over 184 days, per year! But don’t worry; this is all normal for us! Local people are completely used to this type of climate. Most of us don’t even get bothered too much when the skies open up once again and we have to go bike to work, school or just for meeting a friend. And the good news is, since we have to deal with it 50% of the year, there is tons of exciting things to do even when it rains cats and dogs! So let me help you lift up your mood a bit and make you excited again for visiting our beautiful city!

Let me start by recommending two very cool places not too far from the hotel: Westergasfabriek and De (Food) Hallen. Both places are very popular cultural hotspots in the city and offer tons of different activities year round. Westergasfabriek has a big variety of different shops, coffee places, galleries, restaurants and bars. Once per month they organise a big largely indoor fashion, design and art market. Definitely worth a visi

If you decide to go a little bit further, by tram of course, why get under the rain when Amsterdam has such a good public transportation system, you get to De Hallen. De Hallen is a former tram depot that recently has been turned into a multipurpose cultural complex. Here you will find one of Amsterdam’s biggest food courts and lots of galleries and stores with unique souvenirs from Amsterdam. Those who are into cinema can eat their heart out as well. De Hallen has the largest independent movie theatre in The Netherlands which on top of that even has a one cinema hall (number 7) that is on the UNESCO heritage list because of its historical art deco interior.

I can hear you thinking: “This doesn’t sound too bad but what about the historical city centre”? Also in “old” Amsterdam there are many things to do when the weather is not cooperating. In the red light district for example there is the TonTon club. A cool, old school arcade hall where you can play lots of pinball machines and your all-time favourite classic racing, shoot-em-up games! After you had enough of game nostalgia you can go for a delicious local draft beer at Brouwerij de Prael or for those who want a bit more of a touristic beer experience at Brouwerij ‘t IJ which is located in a classic Dutch windmill. If gaming is not really your thing and you are wondering what to do, you should definitely go for a comfortable canal cruise. The easiest way to explore the city, all dry and provided with interesting historical information throughout the trip. During the winter months you might want to go for a special Amsterdam Light Festival watercolour cruise during the night.

After the canal cruise and getting to know you should visit one of the many museums Amsterdam has to offer. Get your skip the line ticket at the front desk of the hotel and get inside straight away while other tourists are waiting outside being all cold and wet! The Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh museum, Eye Film museum, Nemo Science museum, Anne Frank house, Tropical museum, Hermitage and Foam photo museum are just few of the exciting options that you have.

Another cool activity on a rainy day is to visit one of the many escape rooms Amsterdam has to offer. Sherlocked is located under the Beurs van Berlage, in the heart of the city centre. Other great options are Claustrophobia and Zombie escape.

Last but not least there are two places totally worth mentioning that are a bit further away. On the other side of the IJ river (behind Amsterdam Central station) there are the IJ-hallen. Here you can find the largest flee market of Europe. You have to be lucky though. The market is held only one time per month. The last place I think that should complete this list is The World of Food.  This food court can be found in the Bijlmer a.k.a. Amsterdam Zuidoost. This food court represents the true multicultural spirit of the city. Amsterdam people with roots from all over the world share their delicious food for affordable prices!

So nothing to worry about when coming to Amsterdam, there is always something to do! For those who are still a bit unsure and afraid of the bad weather, we provide free umbrella’s at Teleport! :)

This post is also available in: Dutch