When: 27th April 2019
What: King`s Day in Amsterdam
I would like to give you a travel tip ensuring lots of fun in April. It is very easy to get to Amsterdam from Luxembourg: driving there or by direct flight with KLM. It is just the perfect destination to spend a nice weekend with your friends.
There is a day in April when Amsterdam goes even crazier than with its normal vibes. This day in each year, the 27th April, officially is to celebrate the birthday of King Willem-Alexander. His birthday is a good reason for 820,000 local people and more than 700,000 tourists to throw the biggest street & canal party that you can ever imagine.
Thousands of boats with their own DJs are out on the canal to party hard this day. The boats are driving through the canal for half-day. To party on the canal is so much fun, it should be on your bucket list while living in Luxembourg.
The King`s Day to spend in Amsterdam is almost a tradition for us. With my girlfriends we have an amazing time each year on this awesome day.
Things to know before your first King`s Day celebration:
· Book your tickets for flights/trains/boat party in advance: make sure you have a ticket already a month before to one of the boats, else you must watch from a bridge the crowd partying on the canal.
· Wear something orange: This is a must! Everyone must wear orange clothes or at least orange accessories. You can also buy on the street tons of orange stuff.
· Don`t start the night before: Don`t start too early, specially not the night before. There are lots of offers or parties also the night before, but wait for the day, save your energy.
· Challenging and expensive toilet break: Unfortunately, not all the boats have their toilets on board. It can be really challenging when the boat stops as all the places are more than full. Three advises: take some coins with you as everybody is charging high for the use of toilets (3-10 Euro), take all your belongings with you from the boat, because after a certain point the boat can drive further and then you have bad luck. Always mark where the boat “parked”, as on this day all the corners of Amsterdam look the same: orange, canal on left & right, restaurants fully packed. Without the mark it is easy to get lost.
· Public transportation closed: Be prepared for long walks as in the center on the day public transportation is not functioning, taxis also cannot really enter after a certain point.
· Timely arrival to the airport: With more than 700,000 tourists on the day make sure you arrive to the airport the next day early enough to go through security checks.
Not only talking about the party, but also giving you more context what is celebrated I can share a bit of background that I have learnt over the last years. Until 2013 it was not known as King`s Day but as Queen`s Day celebrating Queen Beatrix`s birthday. Her original birthday is on 31st January, but she celebrated on 30th April. After the abdication of Queen Beatrix, King Willem-Alexander succeeded and so he has changed the date from 30th April to 27th April, which marks his original birthday.
I can only recommend you living through this day in Amsterdam once, as pictures and blog posts will never give back the real vibes there on this day.
Thanks for reading,
Barbara
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