Gerard ran such a wonderful tour! The food was amazing, I enjoyed the historical part of the tour…read moreas well. Even though it was raining, hailing, Gerard brought a lot of great, positive energy to the Jordaan! I highly recommend this tour with him. The food was filling and delicious.

My dad and I (from Chicago) did this on our first day in Amsterdam. The tastings were a great…read morevariety of styles and foods. Danielle was amazing - very knowledgeable, friendly, and personable! She shared a lot of history surrounding the origins of the foods and restaurants as well as notable areas and buildings we passed! Outside of the tour, she also provided a list of recommendations of places to eat and things to see, which was much appreciated! The only thing I would've liked a little more of was a more in depth description of the goods themselves - where they're sourced from and how they're made - maybe from the chefs at the restaurants themselves, as we've experienced in other food tours. Regardless, it was a great time and I would highly recommend to any tourists visiting!

I cannot think of a better way to spend a drizzling Sunday afternoon than taking a culinary walk…read morewith friends. The organizers of WijnSpijs had the brilliant idea to line up 7 great restaurants, cafés and bars to spoil 400 guests between 12.00 to 17.00 with their best wine paired with a small dish. Et voilà: the first culinaire wandeling - Pijp edition was born! So you call up your friends, check who's in, choose the order in which you want to visit the different places and buy your tickets (don't underestimate this last step, the event was sold out quite quickly). There's no guide that's gonna take you by the hand and lead you from one spot to the other. Also the time management is totally up to you. We didn't spend so much time in the first two places since we had to find our own schedule. The downside of the concept is that it might feel quite ongezellig having to leave when you're just about to getting cozy. But every new visit is exciting. You don't know what wine and what dish you're gonna get beforehand, so you get a lot of surprises. Most places were able to serve the wine and food in a decent time. Unfortunately we had a half an hour wait at the bar of Boca's. We didn't even get a table. Another group of 5 guests who arrived after us however did and even got their food before us. We really had to earn these hamburgers. Also Bar Americano as our last stop was rather disappointing. What they called risotto was just not. It was a rice dish with white asparagus. And it looked funny after the waitress gave it a final touch by generously grating pecorino cheese over the plates and table cloth. All the other places convinced me with their delicious dishes and I also enjoyed most of the wines. The one they served at Bar Barrique was everyone's favourite: Cuvée Licorne by Domaine des Aspras. These winemakers go the extra mile to give it a hint of cognac. So do I have to be hard-drinking to attend this tour?, I hear you asking. It's definitely an advantage. Although the wines are paired with food you might get a little tipsy towards the end.

So there we were, in Amsterdam chatting with other folks from the hotel. They spoke about food tour…read moreand we've done them before as well so we decide to delve in. After a bunch of research we decide on hungry birds, and it was a good decision. Our guide for the tour was Anne, as you proved to be a little ball of positive energy that was totally appreciated. She handled controversial issues well, and introduced us to many of the tastes of the market. We tasted everything from fresh Herring to smoke deal to sought after, cookies and we seem to have a back door, no line access to everything. If you'd like to stop reading now is a good point but know that we are big fans of Angry Birds We met at the designated location, introduced ourselves to the other people on the tour and then Anne showed up. She arrived bearing cookies, and my wife and I had actively sought out these cookies just the day before as we had seen them on Instagram. We waited for 15 minutes in line to buy our Van Stapele cookies and here she was showing up with a fresh batch to share with us to get the party started. It was a great start. We then moved onto multiple quality tastes. My wife, ever the brave soul, volunteered to taste the whole fresh Herring that was offered to her, served in the traditional fashion of the seasonal run of the fresh Herring. So it arrived on a plate with onions and pickles, and Leah was taught how to hold the Herring by picking it up from its tail, adding the onions and the pickles and then taking a bite. Mind you the fish had been deboned and cleaned, but it looked every bit of a fish without the head. I volunteered to try a couple of bites as well and enjoyed it. This was at the Volendammer Vishandel, and there was no doubt about the fish being fresh as the place was very busy I don't want to go on and on and ruin your trip to the food tour and so I'll stop here but the combination of the energetic tour guide and the unique stories told made it a very quick four hour tour that I would encourage my friends to take.

I can't say enough good things about this tour. From the start Esther made a point to connect to…read moreeach person and check in throughout the tour to see how we were doing. It was a family adventure with our kids and my mom, 80yo, and everyone had a great time. The food was amazing but made better as we learned about the history and influences in the neighborhood and country.

This was a really great tour and very informative and great way to learn more about amsterdam with…read morea few stop at few places to learn more. Even though bus had a flat the tour company sorted without any delays. The tour guide was great. Great price. Staff were friendly.

Don't do this tour if you are spending a week or more in Amsterdam. You can take local buses and…read moretrains to most of the places these tours take you to. We did the Edam, Volendam, and Zaanse Schans bus tour and enjoyed it very much. It was expensive but worth it as we had limited time in Amsterdam. I was worried the tour wouldn't allow enough time for each city but that was definitely not the case. I would say they gave us just enough time in each location. Zaanse Schans was the highlight--very pretty town and a great tour of a working windmill. Also enjoyed petting the baby goat, though I'm pretty sure that wasn't allowed. The boat ride from Edam to Volendam was lovely and we enjoyed tasting all the cheese at the Gouda factory. If you are on the fence about bringing cheese back to the states, definitely do bring it back. It travels really well in our experience. Put in your checked bag and don't declare it. The great thing about this tour was that the group was so large, you could wander off on your own and still find your way back. You can also opt to wander instead of doing one of the planned factory tours, which is what I did in Edam with the clog-maker's workshop (my husband did it and said it was nothing special--I'd recommend you skip it). The guide was good about letting me know when to be back at the location to meet the group. If you are expecting a traditional tour with a history lesson, it is pretty much non-existent here. The guide serves more to make sure people get from place to place. There is a taped "tour" on the bus that you can plug into but it's not that interesting. If you have limited time and want to see the Dutch countryside though, it doesn't get better than being chauffeured on a scenic tour... in a double-decker.

This was cool to take a ferry across the river from the Central Station to NDSM. They run every 4…read moreminutes and was super convenient with nice views over the water. I took an Uber on the way back and that was a bad idea and took longer.

What a cool place. I was visiting my college friend who now lives in Amsterdam and she made sure…read moreto take me across on the ferry to NDSM. Who knew ship yards and shipping containers could be such a cool place.

Date of Visit: 2/26/2016 Time of Visit: 3:51 pm…read more So I popped in here after my flight thinking I could some helpful information. Apparently not. Not only were the two ladies who worked here not friendly (how do you not smile back at someone when they approach with giant smile and a friendly hello?) but they don't know anything. And they are supposed to be the tourist information office. They are more interested in selling you something than providing information. Which I totally understand, it's a business. But instead of calling it Tourist Information call it, Place to Buy Sightseeing Tickets or something along that line. Oh, and nothing is free in that office. The maps aren't even free. You'll pay 2.50 euro. Wait till you get to your hotel and get one for free. I'll update this with photos when I go back by here for my flight home.

This visitors center was exceptional. Special shout out to Mariana Pietersz. She was able to…read moreseamlessly assist me in Spanish and took the time necessary to answer my questions and inform me of all of the options I had with the iamsterdam card.

Absolutely wonderful four hours touring the countryside outside of Amsterdam. Our tour guide Hugh…read morewas warm, inviting and incredibly knowledgable. We had several stops along the way, including a cheese and clog shop. Stops included windmills, and various engineering highlights from the way the Dutch have reclaimed their land. The bikes were in excellent shape and safety was always a top priority.

I think the must is 1) have you got experience on an ebike and 2) it's an obstacle course to get…read moreout of and back into the city. The guide was not helpful and while it's stressful to keep a group together you don't tell folks to go Turbo and not bring everybody along.

A small "hotel-pension" with only five rooms, De Harmonie is really quite and experience…read more First, I need to correct the website address is is www.harmonie-edam.nl the is a typo in the Yelp listing (I sent a correction but will keep it in the review until it's corrected). The place is really a pub with a few rooms upstair. It can be a bit noisy in the evening because of the pub but rooms are clean and nice (European size, so not very large). Price are on the cheap side and you get an excellent value. I paid 60 euro for a single room and that included breakfast. The dutch breakfast is served in the morning in the pub and include coffee, juice, local cheese, eggs, bread and cold meats. Quite good to start the morning. The wifi is also free (rare in Europe). The hotel is well located the the little town's center with some nice restaurant and cheese shops nearby. Edam is know for originating the "edam" cheese of course which is quite tasty especially when aged. It is an historic walled city and it is quite charming. I did use Edam as based the last time I went to IBC (International Broadcasting Convention) in Amsterdam when all the hotels there are booked and prices are outrageous. Edam is a short 30 minutes drive to the RAI exhibition center (less to downtown Amsterdam) and this hotel offer that way an peaceful, nice and inexpensive alternative to staying in Amsterdam (yes, it does imply a bit more logistics). The easy free street parking in front of the hotel makes it easy to commute to Amsterdam by car. An alternative is to use the bus service to Amsterdam which is a bit slower but also convenient.

Lots of reasons to visit Edam. This beautifull place just outside Amsterdam has a great old centre…read morewith canals, bridges. A mini mini Amsterdam that should be in your agenda's when exploring places around Amsterdam. The Harmonie is a Dutch bar with white sand on the floor. This was used to keep the floor clean from sailors chewing tabacco and spitting on the floor. Als the sand was used to attract people by creating nice drawings in it. No spitting during my visit yesterday, its there just to keep the floor clean or to look bit authentic :). The Harmonie hosted the Walk about Music festival where singer songwriters perform in different locations in Edam. Walk in Edam, enjoy the city and the music of the performers. Had a view drinks in the Harmonie and was great atmosphere there. Will return sooon !!