Happy slapping your way into paradise
The Limburg tourist board has chosen a different tack to lure visitors to the southernmost province of the country. “The rolling hills, the romantic little steam train, yada yada yada. Kids today don’t...
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Less Brits in Amsterdam, but do they feel welcome?
According to figures of the ATCB (Amsterdam Toerisme en Congres Bureau) featured in the latest paper copy of Amsterdams Stadsblad, less Brits are coming to Amsterdam to the tune of 6% less in 2008....
View ArticleGiethoorn, a Dutch village with no roads
In the eastern province of Overijssel there is a lacustrine village called Giethoorn that has no roads, although according to wikipedia there is a bike path. Saying that is a ‘Venice of the North’ is a...
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Amsterdam, the city that knows no boundaries
There’s a new trend that has been brewing in Amsterdam when it comes to branding the city to tourists, and that’s making tourist attractions that are not actually in Amsterdam part of the city when it...
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Tourist film about the Dutch keeps it white and cheesy
The tourist video ‘Going Dutch’ premiered in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam last November and yes, it is well shot. I very much like the voiceover with its impeccable pronunciation, as it has the...
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New Greetings from Holland
In 2009 four organisations decided it was time to reboot Dutch travel postcards, the ones containing cheese, windmills, cows, cheese, wooden shoes, cheese, cheese, tulips and cheese, amongst others....
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Two boring Americans on mushrooms in Amsterdam
Two American guys, Kong and Jesse, take magic mushrooms and take a ‘trip’ through busy and touristy downtown Amsterdam to attempt to pick up girls. Wearing any kind of apparel with Amsterdam printed...
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Record number of Chinese for one Dutch visit
The Chinese cosmetics company Perfect has recently sponsored 4,500 of its employees to vacation in the Netherlands, making it the biggest group visit to the country ever, according to Dutch media....
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Tourists still missing King’s Day due to date change
Three years into the switch from Queen Beatrix to King Willem-Alexander and from 30 April to 27 April (26 April if it’s a Sunday), tourists are apparently still booking holidays for King’s Day three...
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Rich neighbourhood upset about wheeled suitcases
A few years ago, wheeled suitcases (‘rolkoffers’) became synonymous with ‘tourists’ or ‘damn, there’s an Airbnb next to my house’ for a lot of residents. The problem is the sound the wheels make on...
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Bike rental company in Amsterdam told to vacate parking stands
The Amsterdam West district is cracking down on a new player in the bicycle rental market, De Westkrant reports. Instead of using its own parking facilities, Denmark’s Donkey Republic parks its bright...
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‘Mistaken tourists’ show up for ‘Queen’s Day’ in Amsterdam
Celebrating its own bizarre fifth year anniversary this year, the ‘mistaken tourists’ (‘vergistoeristen’, in Dutch, a contender for the best word of the year 2018 in my view), are people who still...
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Kinderdijk is overrun by tourists and it’s getting worse
Some years ago, my family was visiting from Québec and one of the places they insisted on visiting was the Kinderdijk, a Dutch UNESCO heritage listed place that attracts people from all around the...
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Airbnb rents out illegally placed containers, doesn’t check
Airbnb, the rent-out-your-place chain that local politician for housing Laurens Ivens keep saying he’ll teach them a lesson, but constantly fails to do so (in Dutch) (and then goes on Twitter and...
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Visit Amsterdam and help clean the canals
By now you’ve probably heard of overtourism, and that Amsterdam is one of the European capitals affected by it. People are going to continue to come to Amsterdam, but there are ways of not being a...
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