By Harry Nara · Last updated
Choose Your Season
Broader overviews covering weather patterns, events, and highlights across an entire season.
Plan by Month
Each month at a glance — temperature, crowds, and one click to the full guide.
There Is No Dry Season
Rain falls on nine to fourteen days in every month of the year here, and the gap between the wettest month and the driest is narrower than almost anywhere else we cover. Waiting for a dry window is not a plan, because there is no window to wait for. Bring the jacket and stop refreshing the forecast.
Two Fixed Windows Decide Most Trips
The tulip gardens at Keukenhof open for about seven weeks and then shut for the year, and Koningsdag is a single date on which the whole city turns orange and ordinary sightseeing stops working. If either is why you are coming, your dates are already chosen. If neither is, they are the two stretches to plan around.
Winter Is a Reason, Not a Consolation
From late November the Light Festival puts commissioned installations along the canals, and the early dark becomes the point rather than the price. Rooms are cheaper, the Rijksmuseum is walkable rather than shuffled through, and the city is doing something it does at no other time of year.
Our Amsterdam Guides
Every month and every season has its own guide, written for that stretch of the year rather than for Amsterdam in general: what to pack, what things cost, and what is actually open.