New Years Eve 12/31/19 (Amsterdam)

Legal fireworks of all sizes, legal weed, open bottle policy on the streets – what could go wrong? At turns beautiful, cold, and frightening, New Years Eve in Amsterdam was something to behold. There was no big firework display at midnight but continuous and very loud fireworks from 6pm on kinda made up for it. We hung out in Dam Square yet every plaza, alley, and bridge had plenty of firework action judging from the leftover debris the next morning. Next time we would have cruised around the city more. Note, all fireworks are completely loose. And went on until about 1:00am. Did I mention there are no fences on the canals? Wild west atmosphere, only recommended for age 15 and up.

Would we go again? I wouldn’t travel internationally for it (we just happened to be there on that week) but it was quite entertaining. No crowds to get trapped in like Disneyland; easy to cruise around the city unlike Times Square; no traffic to deal with afterwards; we crashed at our hotel for a few hours (only steps away) then went out again just before midnight.

Pro tips:

Mass transit is shut down from 830 to 130 so get to where you want to end up by 830.

It was 35degF at 9pm, then the wind started blowing. Dress appropriately.

Stay away from open spaces, hug the edge of the crowd. Fireworks were set off in any space that happened to open up.

Make reservations for dinner several weeks in advance, otherwise it’s Chipsy King or Simit Sarayi for you. Or the Febo vending machines. You may want a plan B, our first restaurant cancelled all their reservations due to lack of staff!