Amsterdam bike hire/recommendations

My girlfriend and I are planning a trip to Amsterdam in the new year, would love to hear of any recommendations of stuff to do in the city! We’re both skateboarders as well so any cool skate related stuff. Also wondering if anyone has any experience hiring bikes in Amsterdam, where’s best and what kinda bikes you get. Ideally renting fixed gears would be fun given how flat the city is so any recommendations on that front welcome! Cheers!

I’d say just rent Dutch style bikes and cruise around the beautiful city, lock them anywhere and have no worry of theft.

There are a lot of signs out north for this place https://www.amsterdam.nl/projecten/zeeburgereiland/deelprojecten/urban-sport-zone/ on the roads that I ride in in North.

Things to do, it depends when you are here. IF it is new year and TUlip time a little ride out to the tulip fields is a pretty impressive site, no matter what

The city is obviously very walkable and cyclable. Don't walk in the cycle lanes, cyclists don't like it :-)

Hanging out in Vondelpark peoplewatching is good. Music is good and cheap here, see if there is something on at Paradiso or the Melkweg. Comedy in english at Boom Chicago. Hire a (Motor) boat at somewhere like Sloepdelen, or a canoe from the place on the Amstel. Avoid De Wallen (the big red ligt district) unless you have never seen it before; It is just depressing. Drink in small brown bars (I like near Cafe Brandon which is superb). Try Cafe Nol for a laugh. Make sure you go North on the free ferries, there is often /something/ around NDSM Wharf. I like the Foam photography museum. The big museums are good (but remember, Amsterdam is tiny). There are good cheap places to eat, medium places to eat are generally shit. Fancy places to eat are much cheaper than London. Eat Apple Pie and cream, but go somewhere where it doesn't sit out, the place is LIFTING with mice. Don't pee in a canal. If you have free choice of dates, come for New Year (more fireworks than you can possibly imagine, they are raining down on you in the centre, and it is just as dangerous as it sounds, or on Koningsdag (April) or the weekend of Pride when the city is one enormous party. Use the clean and efficient metro. Don't piss in a canal, you run the risk of downing. Have the most fun. Oh, and Bikes, just rent some dutch ones. They are horrible, but you won't be going far on them. I am afraid I don't really know where from. The NS ones are OK, but I don't think you can get them as a tourist.

Tbh, either hire near the station for convenience or near where you're staying. I lived there for a year and I've always just hired from the place near my mate's place when I've been back to visit. As far as I can tell, there isn't a great variation in prices and you're never far from a rental place.
Don't get a road bike or fixed gear, being upright is much more enjoyable and there's enough glass and rough surfaces to make skinny road tyres a bit of a ballache.

Minor bike tips - only ding your bell if you want someone to move out the way or if you think you're going to hit them. Likewise, if you're getting dinged at - try and make space for people to move past! Only cross the road on green - traffic lights in NL are much more efficient and will change quickly along with the traffic, which can catch you out if you're used to the timings of UK traffic lights.

Cycling is by far the easiest way to get around IMO and works fine everywhere but the red light district where pedestrians (tourists) make up the majority - as pointed out, there isn't actually much to see/enjoy.

Spots to hit: Ijscuypje is a banging icecream shop with branches across the city - the selection is always different and amazing.

Sonny's Falafel is de pijp is great and cheap - falafel pita for a few euros and you can stack it with all the amazing salad stuff from the salad bar (better than it sounds). You can also try some proper Frites (chips) with one of the many sauces - Joppi was always my go to, but there are many options.

Hotel de Goudfazant in North is a really cool experience and very reasonably priced for what it is. Get the free ferry from Azartplein to right beside the restaurant or get the Ijplein ferry from behind central station and cycle over. https://goo.gl/maps/DwJPmyQRokmecCkQ7

Getting the NDSM Wharf ferry on the weekend will take you to a massive fleamarket (although I'd double check when it is on https://ijhallen.nl/en/ ).

Cafe Gollem (there are a few around the city) are great if you're into your fancy Belgian beers in a nice unpretentious setting.

Brouwerij t'ij is a wicked cool spot in east. A real mix or locals and tourists, decent beer but shuts at 8pm.
https://goo.gl/maps/pvhva8ZatYcbEDmy6

Get some Jenever in one of Amsterdam's oldest bars at Wynand Fockink - make sure you take the first sip with the glass still on the bar, they fill it to the very top and it is tradition to sip the top off first and you'll just look like a tourist and spill it if you don't!
https://goo.gl/maps/zxXbzvvfeJqWaquW9

Cafe de Cuevel is a good reason to get the Ijplein ferry over to North. Really cool outdoors cafe/bar. Although not sure what the vibe is in winter. https://goo.gl/maps/aL6xaXNteehtmsVD9

Another minor thing is to take a credit card. Many places don't take cash at all, and they won't accept debit cards, only Pinnen (Dutch Maestro) or credit card.

Oh yeah, that last one so much. Lots of places simply don't take cash (and even more so now)

Hortus Botanicus is worth a visit if you like peaceful gardens. Butterfly house, Woollemi Pine.

I live in Amsterdam, so feel free to message me for more specific suggestions:

Renting bikes - really wouldn't recommend fixed gears unless you plan on leaving the city and going out into the countryside. As @nefarious (hi mate!) says, upright and leisurely is best, and a coaster / pedal brake is a lazy man's fixed gear anyway. Black Bikes have pretty low-key rental bikes.

Skateboarding - Amsterdam has one decent indoor park, Skatepark Noord. Round the corner there's also SkateCafe, a big bar restaurant that has a concrete halfpipe that's fair game unless there's a music event on. A little out of the centre is an outdoor park that's apparently the biggest in NL. There's an outdoor bowl on Marnixstraat. It's not a very skateboard city in terms of cruising around, most people bike to skatespots etc.

Get the best cookies in the world at Van Stapele.

Top five food spots: Sapporo for Ramen, Semai for Ethiopian, Tigris & Eufraat for crazy cheap falafel, Pizza Beppe for pizza, Caldi e Freddi for very cheap Italian sandwiches and calzones (!).

Top five (beer) drinking places: Gollem, Oedipus, De Engelbewaarder, Butcher's Tears, Cafe Soundgarden.

The weather can be soul-crushingly awful, especially in winter. Bring a waterproof that you don't mind wearing all day. For multiple days.

Ha, and waterproof trousers make a big difference if the rain isn’t going anywhere!

Ooh hello t.b. I live here too:-) lovely innit :-)

This is a really good advice all round. Although best pizza place is Fuoco Vivo or Nnea, both in lovely Oud-West. But then again I love the Napolitan pizza dough.
Oh and creditcard is not a thing in Amsterdam, only at tourist traps you can pay with creditcards ;)

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Pizza Beppe is neapolitan too ;) I chose that one cos they have a few around the city and they're usually pretty easy to get a table on the door. nNea and Fuoco Vivo are great, as are Mangia and probably my favourite at the moment: La Zoccola Paccione (right in the middle of the horrible Kalverstraat, it looks like an awful tourist trap but it's really good pizza).

Wauw okay I guess you know your way around the city better than I do... I seem to go places I already know. But I'll keep Beppe definitely in mind!

Oh and creditcard is not a thing in Amsterdam, only at tourist traps you can pay with creditcards ;)

In my experience places will reluctantly take mastercard over cash when the tourist doesn't have a pin card.

Thankyou! Bunch of good advice in here! Sounds like dutch bikes are the way to go, will definitely try to ride out to some tulips too that sounds great. Neither of us have credit cards but have monzo, reckon thats good or should we take out a travel credit card?

cheers @nefarious @graunch @t.b. for the advice I'll check out all the places and figure out where we wanna go!

Monzo will be fine, I think they are maestro/Mastercard branded aren't they. It's not that you need a 'credit' card, the sensible dutch arent into credit, it's the card aspect.

With meastro and a litlle bit of cash, the opportunities are limitless! For more obscure things to do/events to attend, please inform at the time when you're about to leave.

Ah brill cheers! Yeah they’re both MasterCard so should be good

Well since we are on pizza, one of my favourite evenings is sitting on the bank of Leliegracht, with pizza the place that pizzabakkers recently bought on Leliegracht/Keizersgracht corner and beer from Brandon, watching the world go by.

I see today that there are surveyors outside. They really have to stop these canals falling down don't they :-)

I didn't realize there were so many of us here in the Amsterdam chapter of lufguss

And indeed; let us know when you are here. We'll tidy the place up

There's a place maybe 5 mins walk from the station where you can rent a bike for 5 euros a day, they're not all uniform or yellow so you won't look like a tourist, I can point out where it is on a map I think if want to know?

That'd be great yeah that sounds super cheap!

Is it the one on the street with the Chinese restaurants? You go down an alley and it's on the left, normal back pedal bikes.

20-22 Damstraat, if you tell them you're a returning customer you get 10% off. Ask them to show you their oldest bike, one the Nazis didn't nick:

This post gave me my first smile of the day :)

Well, if there was one thing missing in Amsterdam, is was an English speaking friendly bike forum, so here we are.