A week off of University and online travel agents, what a great combination! Thoroughly fed up with London transport and the traumas of reading Chaucer I was desperate for a break, and whilst my budget wouldn’t stretch to faraway shores and winter sun, a hop across the channel with my boyfriend seemed a great idea. Two weeks before departure we booked our trip with www.expedia.co.uk; three nights (mid-week) in a 5 star Amsterdam hotel with flights from London Heathrow cost us just £145 each. I highly recommend Expedia for ease of booking and great service, as well as offering astounding value getaways to destinations all over the world; and if you want to organise your accommodation yourself, Expedia offers flights from less than £60 return including all taxes. We flew with bMi but many other operators fly to Amsterdam including easyjet and British Airways.

Amsterdam itself combines the charm of a compact centre with the busy and vibrant lifestyle of a cosmopolitan city. You can easily travel across the centre on foot or using the vast tram network. We found the trams very easy to use; you can either buy single tickets on most trams or a money-saving strip from transport offices; for 6euros you get a strip of fifteen tickets, with most single journeys within the city costing two tickets. Another way to get about is via the canals, with tours taking you around the city on a boat costing from £5 per person. Amsterdam is famous for its canals, lined by houseboats and streets of tall narrow houses, many dating back from the 17th century. One particular stretch of canal is lined by a vast flower market popular with tourists and locals alike where you can buy both fresh and artificial flowers and souvenirs to suit every budget – it’s definitely the place to go to buy something for your mum! Wherever you are in Amsterdam be very alert as you walk along – not because of pickpockets, which are not a particularly common problem in the city, but because of the leagues of manic cyclists that show very little concern for any unsuspecting tourist who dares to cross their path! Amsterdam and Holland in general are ideal for the cyclist as they are very flat and have many cycle lanes, and if you want to hire a bicycle then they are available very cheaply from numerous agents.

Having had our cultural fix, we decided to pay a visit to one of Amsterdam’s top attractions; ‘The Heineken Experience’. This was fantastic value; for £5 you got to tour the old Heineken factories and enjoy some ‘interactive’ exhibitions which included a simulator ride emulating travelling on a horse over cobbled streets; a bit sore on the rear if you know what I mean! The best parts of the experience however surely had to be the three free glasses of Heineken you got as you proceeded through the tour, and at the end you were given a free Heineken glass in a souvenir tin so you could relive the Heineken experience in the comfort of your own home. I recommend ‘The Heineken Experience’ even if you’re not a lager fan as soft drinks are available and it was a fun way of passing a couple of hours. Just outside of the Heineken factory is a pancake restaurant where we ate some delicious pancakes (a Dutch delicacy) smothered in sweet fillings including cherries and cointreau – yum yum! Pancakes and sweet treats of every kind are available on every street in Amsterdam, and I dare you to resist a sweet, sticky waffle!

Visiting mid-week we didn’t really get to experience Amsterdam’s notorious nightlife, but I have been told that Melkweg and Sinners in Heaven are some of the most popular and fashionable clubs in the city. I personally found alcohol to be quite expensive – in one bar on the Rembrandtsplein, a well known area for nightlife, a Malibu and coke cost about £5.50, a little steep by any standards, and to a student on a tight budget, shocking! Beer is the cheapest drink by far, but be warned standard Dutch drinks are about the size of a half pint; for a pint be sure to ask for a large beer.

We stayed in the 5 star Hotel Barbizon Palace; this had an ideal location right opposite Centraal Station and only a 5 minute walk from the very centre of the city. Walking through the town at night it’s impossible to avoid the Red Light District, where women dressed in bikinis stand in large windows lit by a red light, displaying their wares for all to see. Surprisingly its not as seedy as you would imagine; in Holland prostitution is supported by the government and the women pay taxes just the same as any other worker.