Visiting the Netherlands | An Insiders Guide
Visiting the Netherlands makes for a great place to visit for everybody from anywhere. Throughout the ages, the Netherlands has always been a place of immigrants and refugees. So you will recognize a lot of influences from different locations. And you will understand its colonial past.
At their own countries’ independence, many people from Indonesia (mostly in The Hague) and Surinam (mainly in Amsterdam) came to the motherland. This has influenced the language and cuisine (look for Spekkoek from Indonesia and Roti from Surinam). You will see grocery stores (called ‘Toko’) everywhere catering to this clientele.
In cities like Amsterdam and Rotterdam, just about every nationality in the world is represented. This is reflected in restaurants from all corners of the world, from Nepalese to Ethiopian to Argentine cuisine.
Language wizards
And because we are ‘traders’ (we have a history of international trade, that’s what made us rich in the 17th century, the Dutch Golden Age), we rely heavily on our economic ties, with Germany and England mostly. Therefore, we speak four languages. Most Dutch speak Dutch, English, German, and French. Announcements at the airport will be in all those languages. And indeed, the younger people all speak English. Expats even complain because we won’t let them practice Dutch with us. As soon as we hear someone is foreign, we switch to English.
When Visiting the Netherlands, beware of those that tell it like it is
When visiting the Netherlands, you must know, we are used to speaking our minds. To many foreigners, it may come across as rude. However, it is not. We never intend to offend anyone. We are just being straight forward. So, get used to it!
No rules when traveling in the Netherlands
The Dutch don’t like rules and hierarchy. We are used to working together as a people to keep the water out. As you may know, we pretty much wrought our country from the sea ourselves.
We are also an egalitarian people, which means that we sit everybody around the table to give everyone a piece of the pie and work out compromises that work for as many people as we can. This is called ‘polderen,’ which means we treat everybody equally. Also, we don’t accept orders. We call our teachers and bosses by their first name, and we basically hate rules. For example, you’ll see a lot of jaywalkers, wrongly parked bicycles, and you might encounter some rude drivers.
There are laws when it comes to drugs in the Netherlands
When visiting the Netherlands, be aware that we don’t like soft drugs. We do have some rules here, though, trying to please everyone, as usual. It is often thought that soft drugs are legal with us. They are not. We have a policy where we condone the recreational use of soft drugs. It’s not legal, but carrying a couple of grams, won’t get you arrested. It is assumed it’s for personal use. That is condoned. More than a couple of grams will get you arrested because the police will think you’re dealing. And that is illegal.
We have designated, licensed coffee shops where these soft drugs are sold. Don’t buy drugs in the streets because you don’t know what you’re buying. In 2014 white heroin was being sold as cocaine in Amsterdam, and some tourists died. Really, go to the coffee shops, if you’re so inclined.
When visiting the Netherlands, look for Coffeeshops to indulge in your pleasure.
Transportation options when visiting the Netherlands
The Netherlands is a small, densely populated country, with an excellent public transportation system to get around quickly. It may take you a couple of train and bus changes and maybe a ferry, but you can get pretty much anywhere within three to five hours. All you need is a public transportation pass (the ferries may be excluded, most of those are privately owned), available at the bigger railway stations (including the one at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport), and understand you have to check-in and out with every different kind of carrier (train, bus, tram) you use. They will remind you to check out too, though, in big cities like Amsterdam also in English. (By the way, ‘sprinter’ trains are all-station-trains, don’t be fooled by the name.)
There is more than just Amsterdam when visiting the Netherlands
When visiting the Netherlands, there are alternatives for Amsterdam. For example, you could visit Utrecht or Leyden instead. They have ‘walkable’ compact city centers, including canals and canal houses, like Amsterdam, and lots to see and do too. If you don’t want to leave Amsterdam but want to avoid the city center’s crowds and tourist traps, visit Amsterdam West instead. For instance, in ‘De Hallen‘ you will find film screens, food courts, and cafés, and shopping streets and the Ten Kate market are around the corner.
Finding your own way
You could book fully arranged tours, but finding your own way is really easy. The whole country is highly organized and used to catering to foreigners. Everybody speaks English, and you will find that people are happy to help you at every corner. All in all, being in such a small country, having an excellent public transportation system and everybody speaking English, it’ll be hard to get lost in the Netherlands!
