Amsterdam · Backpacking
ON A BUDGET
Get a bike on day one — everything else about doing Amsterdam cheaply follows from that.
Noord and Oost
The big design hostels sit across the water in Noord and out east in Oost; the free ferry or a tram puts you central in ten minutes.
What a day costs
Around €55–90 a day, roughly $60–100: dorm €30–50, broodjes, market food and supermarket beer €15–25, bike hire €10–15.
Getting around cheap
Rent a bike by the day. The ferries behind Centraal to Noord are free and always will be; GVB day tickets make sense only in rain.
Free by day
Vondelpark, the Begijnhof courtyard, the ferries, the Bloemenmarkt and the NDSM shipyard's street art cost nothing and fill a day.
Where travellers meet
Free walking tours gather on Dam Square. Afterwards it is Leidseplein's hostel bars, or Hannekes Boom and Pllek on the water in summer.