Karina Style Travels 09/04/24

What to do in Amsterdam, Zurich and Berlin in one week!

I just spent a week traveling to three different countries in Europe. Here is how I did it, what to do there and a few other travel tips! I spent two and a half days in Amsterdam, two days in Zurich and another three in Berlin. Although this was a pretty fast paced trip, I believe all three cities were must see destinations for me and I loved this trip!

Amsterdam, Netherlands

I flew into Amsterdam on a Sunday super early in the morning. I took an uber to my hotel and it was only about 20 minutes from the airport and a 5 minute walk from the train station. *No need to spend extra on an uber black or comfort because all of the ubers are super great cars! The hotel I stayed at was Kimpton DeWitt and we loved it. The hotel is super central and walkable to pretty much everywhere, and concierge was great with so many recommendations for us!

Must See:

Anne Frank’s House- a short 15 minute walk to Anne Frank’s house from our hotel. Tickets available six weeks prior to the date you want to visit on the website. Keep in mind tickets sell out within minutes so set an alarm and make sure to account for the time difference! This experience has been on my bucket list forever and it was an incredible visit with so much history.

Albert Cuyp Market– we had quite a few recommendations for this market (one of the biggest in all of Europe). It is open six days a week and here you can find all kinds of delicious Dutch cheeses and other Dutch delicacies.

De Bljenkorf- a Dutch department store where I bought my classic Moncler raincoat, which came in super handy as our next destination was super rainy!

Westerpark– we came here on our bikes and it was about a 10 minute bike ride to the park and we rode all throughout it. It was an absolutely gorgeous day and it felt like a dream. There were plenty of bikers and walkers but it was clear to see this was a more local area. We also stopped at the cutest cafe on the side of the trail for some iced matchas! If you feel like seeing some green and experiencing a typical Dutch park, this is definitely a spot to visit.

Wine + Cheese Cruise on the canal- we went on this little cruise that lasts an hour and it boarded right in front of the Anne Frank House so it was perfect planning this event. The tour guide and captain were great and hilarious. They taught us some very interesting things about the history of Amsterdam and it was gorgeous. The great thing about the tour that we took was that there was a hood in case of any rain. We were super lucky though and got a perfect sunny day!

Transportation: you have probably heard, Amsterdam is the land of the bicycles. Biking is the number one mode of transportation, in fact, we learned on our cruise that there are more bikes in Amsterdam than people! And you will definitely see this! We rode bikes that our hotel had available for free and it is crazy how bikes always have the right away, even over pedestrians (be careful of this: bikes will not stop for you, Bella almost lost an arm a couple of times!).

This was Bella’s second time staying in Amsterdam and during her first stay she took the metro due to her hotel being located a little further from the city center. She felt it was very clean and organized! If you are in a hurry or are traveling to a further destination this is always a quick and efficient mode of transport. Uber of course is always an option, but definitely the most expensive and least efficient mode.

Dining Out:

Our first night out was spent at Dal Pagliaccio. It was absolutely delicious with excellent service! Be sure to make a reservation because we arrived right before a crazy rush!

On our second night we went to Jansz, which was a recommendation from our concierge. This spot was adorable from the outside and so elegant inside. The food and service were a 10/10. We recommend the pavlova for desert, it was gone within seconds!

Cafe Bouwman on the canal was where we spent one of our afternoons. Even with a little rain is was an afternoon well spent. We tried bitterballen, a meat based snack and it was very interesting.

Something else to try is pancakes in the Netherlands. Most of these pancake restaurants have all kinds of pancakes, salty and sweet and it was delicious.

Credit Cards: unfortunately, my AMEX was not accepted anywhere! Typically in Europe there are usually a few places where it is accepted but there wasn’t a single place we visited that accepted this credit card. Keep this in mind when travelling to the Netherlands and keep an extra credit card on hand.

Cute Neighborhoods:

Amstelveld- great area for cute little cafes, very local and quiet

De 9 Straatjes in Amsterdam- was also a quaint and cute neighborhood that we visited

Language:

In the Netherlands they speak Dutch but almost everyone also speaks English as that is the language that they are taught in schools.

Zurich, Switzerland

We only spent one full day in Zurich but we were able to arrive early enough in the evening to grab dinner our first night. Zurich was gorgeous and had lot’s of interesting history and beautiful architecture. So, here is how we spent our limited time.

* Tip: Zurich is a super safe and beautiful city in the heart of Europe, but do not expect the usual European treatment as far as dining late and restaurants. Everything closes relatively early; around 9 p.m. so plan accordingly!

Accommodation:

We stayed in Old Town at Hotel Scheuble. Old Town is the perfect location, super walkable with plenty of restaurants nearby and beautiful streets. I booked through delta stays so I got extra points!

Eating Out:

We went to Swiss Chuchi, a traditional fondu restaurant. This is a super popular place to try fondu and it was great but our favorite was the escargot! Be sure to make a reservation, Bella and I only had to wait about 20 minutes but bigger groups were waiting a while.

Cafe Motta is a delicious little place to stop that is a five minute walk from our hotel. This spot is perfect for brunch and has the sweetest servers!

Stop by Bonne Mamab Winterthur for a sweet treat!

Joe and the Juice : best latte I have ever had and incredible banana bread, açaí bowls, etc.

Laderach Chocolatier Suisse: such amazing chocolate. Thad free samples being handed out in store and we destroyed a whole bar of milch caramel sale in a matter of hours. Be sure to bring back extras!

Tour:

I would highly recommend the Tuk Tuk tour: old town and surroundings. There are also plenty of other options and even some wine and fondu tours with this company! We learned so much on this tour from medieval beginnings to the rise and fall of empires. Its also the perfect thing to do if its raining because of the covered tuk tuks.

Museums:

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the Landesmuseum the historical museum of Zurich. There were super cool interactive screens that analyzed painting deeply. The most memorable spot was the photo exhibition that held submissions from photo journalists around the world sharing heartbreaking stories. It was a humbling sight to see.

Lindenhof Zurich:

This is the oldest part of Zurich where numerous important historical events occurred. Unfortunately we were unable to make it here but we saw it from a distance and wished we had enough time!

Shopping:

Bahnhofstrasse Zurich: shopping street with so many options, expect to spend hours here.

Transportation:

We only used uber to get to and from our hotel and the airport. The rest of the time we walked EVERYWHERE! Old Town was super walkable without too much traffic!

We flew into Zurich with Swiss Airlines and super recommend. The flight was so short (about an hour and a half), in the states this means you might get water and some nuts, but our flight had full service with snacks and drinks and the seats were super comfortable!

Language:

In Switzerland they speak German, Italian and French. Zurich is in the German region but we have been told that the German that they speak in Zurich is pretty different than the German that is spoken in Germany!

Berlin, Germany

We took an uber from our airport to the hotel and we were extremely surprised by this city. I am not sure what I had pictured Berlin to look like but what we saw was definitely the opposite! We learned afterwards that Berlin doesn’t look so historical because of the city being almost completely destroyed from bombing during WWll. We were so pleasantly surprised with Berlin and dare I say, it may have been our favorite city of the whole trip for two history buffs like us!

*Trigger Warning: I will be including some information about a concentration camp and pictures of some of the things we saw

Accommodation:

I didn’t love our hotel, our view was not great and it was very business vibes and not our favorite so I won’t recommend it for your. We did stay in the Tiergarten area which was super central and only a fifteen minute walk to our meeting point for the walking tour and super close to the Mall of Berlin.

Tour:

We did a walking tour called ‘The Rise and Fall of Nazism in Berlin‘ and we loved it. This tour was 3 hours long, but don’t let this scare you off! We didn’t even realize how quickly time passed until Alexis (our awesome tour guide) released us. I would highly recommend this tour, we learned SO MUCH, and had so much fun learning it. Alexis has two walking tours in Berlin and a few of the other tourists on our tour had already seen his other tour and loved him so much that they came back for more! You also receive a whole document full of recommendations for all kinds of activities to museums to restaurants in Berlin created by Alexis after the tour is over!

Historical Sights:

Bradenburgh Gate– a sign of national identity and victory. The gates that used to be the entrance to Berlin and the scene of many important marches and historical events.

This one sounds a little silly but we got to see Hotel Adlon Kempinski which is where Micheal Jackson held his dangling baby once! There were also plenty of royalty that have stayed here over the centuries.

We saw Hitler’s bunker, or where it used to be. The bunker was destroyed as to not have any Hitler fanatics worshipping the sight.

Berlin Wall– so much history on the wall itself, we walked spent two hours there trying to read everything and could barely finish. Bella also had the opportunity (after I left) to go on a bikeride with her friends in the outskirts of Berlin. Her friends dad showed them remains of the wall and they got to see exactly how many barriers there were to restrict the people. This is something I wish I could have seen because these pieces of history are so important to remember.

Jewish Museum Berlin– this is super close to the part of the wall that we visited and while we didn’t have time to go in, we had sooo many recommendations to go inside!

Oldest Biergarten in Berlin- Zollpackhof Restaurant and Biergarten. This little spot had a great patio for outdoor seating and some great beers, even for those who like their beer light, like moi!

Concentration Camp: Sachsenhausen a very heavy but super eye opening place. Our tour guide really recommended that we come here because everyone should do it at least once to truly understand even a hint of the suffering that occurred within those walls.

Transportation:

We rode the train back into Berlin and it was only €3,50, super efficient.

Citymapper is an app that I would highly recommend to anyone who is travelling in any big city. It is very helpful when deciding how you want to get around in each city whether its a taxi, uber, bus, train, metro, or tram, even scooters! It gives you great instructions so you aren’t wondering around looking like a tourist!

Dinner:

Pho Noodlebar: we came here desperate for some comfort food after a long and heavy day. The pho was fantastic and we had the freshly squeezed lemonade that was also delish! This was in the Mitte district which is an area that is super historical as well as cultural. This would be a great and central area as well!