Amsterdam Girls Trip Sept 2025 (and Mini Solo Adventure to Rotterdam/Ghent)

When they announced Halifax would be getting direct flights to Amsterdam I knew that I would like to use one of my vacation weeks to go. My mom also had similar thoughts (clearly took the idea from me 😜). My plan was to go in October but then she went in booked it in September for her birthday along with her two sisters and her mom. I thought if we all wanted to go to the same place, I might as well see if my work could give me the same time off and I join in too rather than go solo. I got the okay from my supervisor and booked my trip! I booked my flight for a couple extra days compared to the rest of them so I would get some solo adventuring time in the end. Once I booked, my cousin also booked her flight. And thus it became a Girls trip for my mom's birthday in Amsterdam! 

Day 1

After an overnight flight we arrived in Amsterdam in the morning. Thankfully in the airport my family mentioned bringing a dryer and straightener so I was able to inform them that those would not be usable in Amsterdam as the voltage is different and would overheat or else we might have burnt down our hotel rooms! I had looked into taking the transit to our hotel but to make things easier my mom booked us a private transport. Easier in the end I suppose with our group of six. 

It was well before check in time by the time we reached Hotel Arena so we left our luggage in one of their storage cubicles so we would not waste any time exploring the city. Even when tired after a red eye flight we can't be wasting time! 

Once storage lockers were figured out and we all had a bathroom stop we began our walk to get acquainted with our new surroundings. There were lots of bikes parked in various locations and of course, many people riding bikes. We decided to head to McDonald's for some lunch. Searching on Google didn't give many food options around our hotel. The inside of the McDs had a very steep staircase going to the lower floor. I don't think it would pass safety precautions in Canada, haha. Later we would notice so many staircases like that in all the old buildings in Amsterdam. 

After the food we countinued meandering toward the city center and to where the canals are. So many of the bikes were painted beautiful colours. Some for decoration but some also for being used. There was a pretty one painted pink with pink flowers decorating the basket. 

Walking close to the zoo I remembered reading that there was a free garden area that had views of flamingos. So I led our group there to do that. We also passed through a little park that had a monument to Aushwitz with glass smashed with cracks. 

The streets surrounding the canals were fun to walk through with the buildings no higher than four stories and some painted different colours. There were some interesting stores to walk by as well such as, yummy food/dessert places, but then also lots of weed and adult stores. One store had turned cute little Grogu (baby yoda) into a bong and had him surrounded by numerous phallus shaped objects. 

I went inside a bookshop and found myself a Dutch copy of The Hobbit to add to my ever-growing collection of travel acquired copies. I was struggling to find it and my cousin ended up spotting it for me!

After our canal street adventuring we went to Hard Rock Cafe for some supper. While there I located a cookie shop somewhat along the way back to the hotel. We took the tram there got our cookies and then took the tram back to the hotel. They are so easy to use! Just tap with your credit card and tap before getting off. The cookie store was called Sea Salt & Chocolate and they were amazing cookies! Definitely the best we had in Amsterdam. Unfortunately a little out of the way from our hotel so we never ended up making it back there. We did get ourselves the famous Van Stapele cookies which are very good. I just think the Sea Salt & Chocolate ones were better and clearly severely underrated. They don't even really come up in conversation of best Amsterdam cookies. 

After a nice little snack of delicious cookies we got to bed early after the long day of flying and walking to rest up for the rest of our trip. 

Day 2

Today was our Anne Frank house tour. Time slots to book only come up so many weeks in advance and they always sell out. If you try to wait until you are in Amsterdam, you will not get a ticket.

We took a tram down towards the canals and headed toward a pancake house for breakfast before our 1000 ticket time for Anne Frank. We passed by some more lovely alleyways and canals. This time of year the trees are beginning to turn colours so we got some pretty red with the mostly green leaves. Add in the decorated bikes in front of the canals for beautiful photo spots! 

We then made it to the Pancake Bakery that had amazing reviews on Google. The place didn't look that big but once you went inside it went back quite a ways. You could tell that it was an old building redone to be a pancake house (like many of the restaurants and shops in Amsterdam). It really feels like you're back in  time in these buildings with the brick interior and wooden beams showing along the ceiling. Our waitress was very nice and recommended these little dough balls that we ordered with chocolate sauce. Then I got a pancake drizzled with honey with some cashews and spinach on it. It was yummy and quite different from my usual choice of chocolatey pancakes. 

The restaurant was pretty close to Anne Frank and we had some time before our time slot. So we decided to walk around the nearby canals and did a little window shopping.

Inside Anne Frank we couldn't take any photos. It is an experience I would recommend everyone do if they have the chance to visit Amsterdam. It is such a devastating part of human history and it is very important to be informed about the past. The museum takes you through the very house that Anne Frank and her family had lived and where she wrote her diary.

We now had some time before our canal cruise. So we explored some more of the canalways and streets of shops. Every street looked so unique and picturesque to us. We walked through a little market type area. My cousin got a pair of sneakers for a great price. There are always so many cool things we want to buy, but we did carry on only and only had so much space! We eventually found our way into the Red Light District. We walked through one street with the woman standing in windows with lingerie on. We went through at a normal walking pace. My aunt reached the end and thought we had gone to quickly and went back down the street. Those of us who waited at the end of the steet got a little laugh when my aunt went to look at her phone and the woman started banging on the glass. You are not allowed to take photos (though my aunt wasn't going to anyways, she was just checking something, haha).

In an open courtyard around Dam square there were so many pigeons! Some people were getting photos with a bunch of birds on them. I wasn't about to risk getting a bunch of bird poop on me! Some of us were planning to do the Amsterdam Dungeon (a top pick for my aunt), so beforehand we went to Burger King for a quick bite to eat. The Burger King was a bit bizarre. The chicken tenders did not look like Burger King. They looked and tasted very similar to McDonald's!

We also stopped by uniqlo and I got myself a cool Pikachu shirt.

It ended up being just myself and my two aunts who went to the Dungeon. The others didn't want to be scared. It did end up being pretty fun. The actors were really good and we got to learn a little of the darker history of Amsterdam in a fun interactive way. My aunt had to go up "on trail" for one of the rooms we were in which was quite amusing. 

Afterwards we reunited with the others, afterwhich we learned they had seen Gavin Rossdale. They were all like "you'll never guess who we just saw". I was thinking some British actor like Tom Hiddleston or Benedict Cumberbatch. They showed me the picture and I had no idea who he even was, and still don't really know. Sorry, I don't listen to Bush, haha. I'm happy for them that they were so excited to meet this man.

From there we enjoyed a beautiful rainbow over the canals before heading towards our canal cruise. We had booked ourselves the cookie cruise as we all loved our cookies! 

We enjoyed the relaxing cruise through the picturesque canals. I loved that all the buildings are so narrow and unique in shape. While they all have the long narrow appearance they are not uniform, but some shorter and some taller. We had our cookies lowered down to us in a similar fashion that furniture would have to be raised into the actual buildings themselves, via pulley rope. The stairs inside are way too narrow to bring up large items.

The end of the cruise gave us all a laugh when my aunt really really needed to pee. They had to pull over and drop her off near their headquarters so she could run to the washroom. Definitely a funny memory none of us will forget. Her and my grandmother were like Jason Borne getting out of the boat so fast! When you gotta go you gotta go.

After reuniting with the them off the boat we started to make our return to the hotel. We stopped at a chicken place for some supper and chilled at the hotel the rest of the night. My mom and I went over our route to Giethoorn again for her birthday the next day! 

Day 3

Today was my mom's 50th birthday. She wanted to visit the town of Giethoorn and I made sure we would make it happen.

We got up early and took the tram down to the central station by 0800. From there we took three trains to reach Steenwijk. There are no train stations actually in Giethoorn, so you have to either bus or bike to reach it. While in Steenwijk we had a little snack at the cafe before renting our bikes for day. Four of us went by bike and our two other group members would meet us there by bus. 

The bikes took some getting used to. I usually ride a mountain bike or hybrid bike. This one had higher handle bars than I was used to. Similar to the bike I used in Marrakech actually (the tour I did there was actually owned by a Dutch couple I believe). Getting out of the town was a little slow going as we had to keep stopping to check Google maps to make sure we were going the correct way. Once we left the town and were traveling through side roads it was more straight forward. 

It was a beautiful day to bike. The sun was out and it wasn't too hot either. A lot of the way was on a designated bike lane with beautiful green fields to the side of us. My mom was at the front of the pack and I felt like she was going so fast! I was quite a way behind sometimes, but I wanted to enjoy the scenery while I cycled. I said when we reached Giethoorn that I felt it was like she was in the Tour de France. 

Once in Giethoorn we had to try and meet up with the other two. We cycled through the little town which was so nice. Giethoorn doesn't have any motorized roads so the only traffic we had was pedestrian. Which is almost a little more stressful. Didn't want to hit anyone! There were also quite a few steep ramped bridges that we had to hop on and off the bikes to get across. Once we were reunited, we put our bikes in the bike stands and went exploring through the town by foot. 

Walking through Giethoorn was like walking though a fairytale village. Some of the houses reminded me of hobbit holes.  It was almost like walking though the Shire with so much green and so many beautiful flowers and plants around the homes. In front of many of the homes were streams that ran through the town and could be accessed by boat. One house had bracelets on display with a little note written by a kid. We all left some money and purchased one. We thought it was so cute that a kid made bracelets for tourists and had to support!

We stopped by Canal Grande to grab something to eat. The difficult part with six people is finding something that we all will eat! But this place had a lot of variety. I ended up with pasta and some mint tea. The mint tea had the big leaves like I had in Morocco so I was pretty excited. 

Afterwards we went on a little canal tour and got to enjoy the tranquil fairytale village from the water. 

From there we grabbed some ice cream and started getting ready for the journey back to Amsterdam. I was glad to see that my bike was not stolen. I had to keep mine on the outside and I worried that mine would be the first target. No thieves in this fairy-esque village! 

The bike ride back to Steenwijk seemed way shorter. Before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye to the bikes. Thoses of us that biked, really enjoyed it. I am so glad we got to bike around at least once in the Netherlands. We then hopped back on the train for the ride back. I was trying to find a restaurant to go to for supper but found it hard to get find a place everyone wanted. I wanted my mom to pick since it was her birthday. She told me I would need to choose as I am the picky eater (along with my grandmother, haha). This was slightly annoying. Why does the picky eater have to pick every place. I pick my own places all the time when I travel solo. 

Anyways, I couldn't really find a consensus. I had found a dumpling place that sounded good (I have become obsessed since visiting Juicy Dumpling in Toronto with my coworker recently). My family didn't initially seem super thrilled. My mom wasn't super hungry so I thought her and I could go to a more dessert centered place for a cheese cake for her, and everyone else could go to a restaurant. At the station in Amsterdam everyone else said they weren't going to the restaurant so I assumed they were following me to the dessert shop. To my surprise everyone seemed shocked when we arrived and it wasn't the Dumpling shop. I thought everyone hated the dumpling idea! I was quite confused. Anyways, I got a yummy chocolate crepe and my aunt got something as well. I was only slightly disappointed my mom didn't get her cheese cake. Easy for miscommunication to happen sometimes with a bigger group. It did not take away from the amazing trip to Giethoorn and is always funny to look back on!

We went back to the hotel to rest up after a busy day of traveling around the Netherlands. I am glad we got to go to Giethoorn for my mom's birthday. I know she really enjoyed it and it was one of her favourite days.

Day 4

Today would be my last full day with the fam. We decided the night prior to go a little off script and visit the Van Gogh museum since my cousin really wanted to go. Why it's good to not have every second planned.

First things first, we needed to stop at a cafe for some breakfast. We found one near the museum called Chimney Cake Bakery. I got a chocolate croissant that was actually really amazing. 

Along the way we came across a grocery store. I picked up some cough drops since my throat was starting to get a little sore (once we got home I later found out I had caught Covid. I think my cousin and I got it from the guy who sat between us on the plane). 

We then went around the Van Gogh museum. It was okay. Not really high on my list of things to do. I have realized after visiting many, many museums on my travels, that I am not a big museum person and don't want to visit museums that don't interest me. Sure it was cool to see artwork by Van Gogh, but this entire museum was literally his art, his inspirations, or people inspired by him. So essentially a museum of all the same artstyle. Didn't help that I was unknowingly fighting off covid. My cousin wanted to see a Starry Night... which was on display in New York and not here in Amsterdam. Quite unfourtunate.

Done with the museum we found a spot for lunch where I had some yummy French onion soup. The thing that is annoying with restaurants in Amsterdam is that they wouldn't let us split the bill. Like why!? So annoying to have to keep track of who owes who what.

 

So, something I really wanted to do and that I had mentioned previously in our Amsterdam meetings was the Cat Art Musuem. I know I just said I don't care for museums much, but a museum of cat art? How could I not go to such a niche museum (and something of interest to me).  It wasn't really of interest to the fam so I told my mom I would go own my own if I had to. I travel solo all the time after all. She decided to go with me and the others went to the market. We would meet up later to go to the Upside Down.

So the KattenKabinet wasn't anything super fancy, but it was so calming to walk through. It was basically walking through a Amsterdam styled house with a bunch of different pieces of art featuring cats. Bonus was that is wasn't busy, so no crowds of tourist! Some painting, some sculptures. Even some big movie size posters. As a huge cat fan, I loved it. This is the kind of art I want to see! There were even some kitties lying around the house! I loved the variety of art. They even had a mummified cat! And even a sketch that the famous Picasso drew.

We then started walking towards the market to reunite with the fam. I am really glad my mom joined me. We had a nice time at the museum and enjoyed the walk to the market. The market itself wasn't what we expected. I think I thought there would be more artisans and crafted items, but it was a lot of thrift type sellers, souvenirs, and food stalls (the food places looked good). I did end up finding my magnets I get every trip.

As a group we started heading towards the Upside Down. Which calls itself a "museum ", but is basically a bunch of photo opportunities. It looked like it could be fun, and I knew my family were not big art museum or history museum people. So I thought the more interactive type place would be ideal for us. It was just plain old silly fun and we did have a blast! This is the type of place I wouldn't be able to go to on my own. A group definitely made it better! Right from the start had us nearly bent over laughing. They had a bridge in a narrow room with the screen 360 around us going around in circles created the illusion that the bridge was moving. We were in tears hearing one of the group (won't say who...) saying they couldn't do it and that they had to turn back. In the end she made it, but it was so funny at the time! From there there was a giant gumball machine, a huge ball pit, trampoline,  swings, optical illusion rooms, and so much more. We could scan our ticket and some places would take the photo for us and others we used out own phones. In the end we left with so many funny pictures and a lot of laughs.

After the laughs my mom and I wanted to pick up some cookies and once again our group diverged. The rest of the fam went to the shopping district and we headed towards Het Koekemannetje. These were the same cookies we got on the canal cruise. My mom bought a box to bring some home for my dad and brother. We then went to Fou Fow Ramen for some well, ramen. This place claimed to be the first ramen shop in Amsterdam.  The tonkotsu was delicious! 

Our laughable memories would soon continue as we started walking to meet up with everyone. They told us they were at "central station" which I thought was weird. Why would they be doing their shopping at a train station? But didn't question it. So we walked about 30 or more minutes to the train station and were walking around trying to find them only to realize they were actually in and around Dam Square which made way more sense as it is where all the touristy and shopping places seem to be. I took "station" to mean you know "train station".  Oh well, gave my mom and I more steps. Funny looking back, only slightly annoying at the time, haha. So easy to get confused in unfamiliar cities!

Once we had finally reconnected, we found a shop to try the famous stroopwaffles. I got myself a Kinder one which was quite yummy. Perfect way to end our trip with a yummy Dutch treat. We then headed back to the hotel to rest up. My family would be flying home tomorrow, I would be taking a train to Rotterdam. 

Day 5

I ended up joining my family in the van back to the airport since I could take the train from there to Rotterdam. My cousin and I were both feeling pretty awful in the morning. We didn't even have the energy to join everyone walking through the park outside the hotel. Our mom's were nice to return with croissants and tea for us. I had to rally myself for two more days of adventure! Stupid Covid! This is my third time getting it and everytime has been on a vacation (Iceland, Disney, and now the Netherlands).

At the airport we said our goodbyes. I wished them a happy flight and went down to the train station below. I just missed a train leaving but another one was here in less than 20 minutes. Very impressive. Transit in Amsterdam has been amazing! Trams had been so frequent and punctual.  Very easy to navigate! 

In less than an hour I was in a new city; Rotterdam. I made it there before my family even boarded their plane! The architecture was way more modern. It was neat to see such a different Dutch city. I believe much of Rotterdam was destroyed in the World War, so many of the buildings are way younger than Amsterdam. 

I dropped my bag off at my hostel and since it was too early to check in and then I went exploring. With some Tylenol on board I wouldn't let being sick keep me down. 

M first big stop was the Markthal. A giant building that made you feel like a ant walking through a drain pipe. The ceiling was painted in beautiful colours and with pictures of butterflies, flowers and fruit. Inside were so many different food stalls. It was so hard to chose, but since I didn't get my dumplings in Amsterdam I decided to try some at the dumpling food stall here at the market. They were delicious!

Not too far from the market, I found the famous cubed yellow houses. Such amazing and unique architecture.  Not as detailed as some of the buildings from hundreds of years ago but it is so refreshing to see some uniqueness brought into modern architecture. Walking between the cubes and looking up made it look almost like a star shape. A very nice lady saw me trying to get a photo of myself and offered to take some for me! 

From there I walked along the waterfront, taking in the uniquely shaped skyscrapers around me. I found this section with all the flags of the world and got really happy when I found Canada! In a separate section of flags was something called the "zero flags project". It was like a wall of shame and rightfully deserved as it held the 63 flags of countries (separate from the flags along the waterfront) that still criminalize same sex relations and gender expression. I thought it was great that Rotterdam shamed these countries in such a public way! 

I walked around a bookstore admiring the beautiful editions before it was time that I could finally check in to my pod. City Hub is insanely cool. My key to my room is set up through a wristband. The pods are down multiple hallways on multiple floors. I was able to chose a top pod. So inside I could stand up and then climb my little stairs to my top bunk. I could change the colour of the lights, hook up my Spotify to play music. Amazing. Would travel like this all the time if more cities had these pods. I also loved that they provided towels, shampoo, soap, and bath robes. You rarely get any of that in hostels!

After resting a little bit I went back out for a walk. I found this nice little park to walk through before getting some more harbour views. I sat on a bench to read for a little bit before I gave up from being too chilly. I really underestimated the weather here. Thought it would be a lot warmer. 

I grabbed myself some McDonald's and found a very random Gundam statue. Not sure why that was so clearly on display but, alright cool. 

I stayed in the rest of the night from being exhausted (again, stupid covid that I didn't even know I had at the time). I had wanted to see the new Demon Slayer movie as they had a Japanese showing with English subtitles but was too tired. I knew I would fall asleep in the theater. Plus I planned to go to Ghent tomorrow and needed to rest up for a busy day trip.

Day 6

I woke up to a early start and grabbed a to go breakfast that I had pre bought at my hostel and made my way to the train station. One of my trains looked like it was cancelled. The worker told me I could go on the next train and it would be okay. I was very relieved. A little stressed at first, but everything worked out so smoothly.

One of my stops in Antwerp was like a maze. The station was enormous. It had so many levels and I ended up just missing the train I was racing to get. Luckily the trains are so frequent I didn't have to wait long at all before I was off to Ghent.

In less than an hour I was finally in Ghent. I took one of the trams to get a start closer to the city center. Today I had no real set plans. Just wanted to wander and take in the beautiful architecture. 

I loved the buildings in the older part of the city. It felt like walking through a fairytale town with the cobblestone walkways, castle looking clock towers, and colourful buildings along the canal. 

Walking along the canal I knew I had to do a boat tour. I felt like I was walking through a fake town. 

On the boat we went around the canals seeing the beautiful  medieval architecture from the water. We went passed the 10th century castle; Gravensteen (that I would later explore inside). Even from the outside it was amazing to see. Grey stone walls surrounded the pillars inside. It is one of the most castlely castles I have seen in real life.

After the boat tour I found myself a waffle with chocolate sauce to try, because obviously I had to try a Belgian Waffle while in Belgium. It was so good! The best waffle I've had for sure. Though after thinking about it, I'm not sure I've ever had a fresh waffle that wasn't a frozen Eggo. Probably why I was so amazed by this one!

Then on to Gravensteen to do my tour. They had two options for audio tours. I elected to do the shorter one as I wasn't sure I had time for the longer one. The longer one apparently was supposed to be more humorous. A little sad to miss out on that.

I was then able to wander around the castle listening the audioguide as I explored the medieval halls, rooms, and lovely city views from the top of the castle. I would say this is definitely a must do while in Ghent. You get to see real suits of armour and authentic weapons.

Afterwards I found a chocolate store and bought some milk chocolates to bring back for the family. Then walked across the bridge admiring the amazing view point of the pointed pillars across the other side. Really gave some Hogwart's vibes with the blueish colour of the pillars, and the cobblestone bridge leading you across the water below.

I found a ramen place to eat and sat by the window to admire my magical view to prepare myself for the train ride back to Rotterdam. 

All in all, it was a magical day trip and we'll worth the multiple trains to arrive. It is amazing to me how easy it is to travel within the EU. I didn't even have to show my passport. And when I was ready to go back, I was too early for my train and asked the worker if I could go on the earlier train and he just smiled and motioned me on. Love how easy it is, but why bother with train ticket times if I can just go on whatever train I want. Maybe he was just being nice! 

Back at my accommodation, I pretty much went right to sleep. Needed to rest up for my travel day.

The journey home

Nothing really notable to say for this last day. Got up jumped on a train back to Amsterdam.  Grabbed some McDs at the airport, and took my direct flight home. 

I really had a great time on this trip. It was nice to have some time with the family on the girl's trip to mix up my usual solo adventures. And I still got some solo time to myself in Rotterdam and Ghent. While group travel sometimes has it's little hiccups, the memories you make with friends and family always outweigh them. We definitely had a lot of laughs that made the Amsterdam portion of this trip unforgettable!