My recent trip to Amsterdam was a busy one. Planned last minute with only a few days to do the things I wanted to do, I had been researching the best ways to see the sites. One thing that came up was the city card. Many places have options like this, a pay one price card that gets you free or discounted access to various tourist sites in the area. It’s not something I get very often, but I do the math of the costs of the spots I want to see and check out what is or isn’t on the list.
I think the City Card in Amsterdam is very worth its while, for the average tourist. There are tons of things included in the list, many of which are also outside of the city. Even walking distance in Amsterdam had a lot of popular spots. If you’ve read my blog post, most of what I did was included. The Rijksmuseum being the big one.
You can choose how many days you want the card for, and the per day cost drops the more days you choose. We picked the three day option at €115 euros. Though I am not sure it would be as worth it for one day unless you planned to really book it between sights.
Most of the places we went would have cost about €17 for entry, give or take a few euros. The Heineken Experience offers 25% off with the city card. We got a free canal tour as well. So over the three days seeing everything we wanted to see, we came pretty close to breaking even. Add in that the Amsterdam City Card includes the local tram and subway transit system for free, and I feel like we got our value, even if we did walk a lot of places.
Not all the key sites are included or offer a discount. The Van Gogh Museum and the Anne Frank House are not included. I had seen them before, and while I debated seeing the Anne Frank House again, we did skip it this time.
A 24hr bike rental was included with the city pass. It was a little tempting, but both time and ankle stability meant this wasn’t a great option for me. It was definitely a consideration, and one that makes the city pass quite tempting too.
The card is valid from the moment it’s activated for how ever long you bought for, so also consider when to activate it. We used it to take the tram to the train station our last morning, and as we missed the one we meant to catch, the timing ended up being a little tight for me, I made it with literally a minute to spare before it expired.
I say it’s good value, and I would get it again - but compare the list of locations to your itinerary. It may not be the best match everytime.
