How Much Does It Cost to Spend Two Weeks in Amsterdam?

by Gigi Griffis

Before leaving Europe for the Americas, where I’ll be spending my early winter, I stopped for two weeks to see Amsterdam for the first time.

As usual, I tracked my expenses so that I could give you an idea of what the city costs.

The bad news? It’s one of the most expensive places I’ve ever been, beating out both London and Paris. I was floored by the costs of even the cheapest apartment rentals…and the only reason I could afford to go there at all was that I managed to get free accommodations by cat-sitting for the first week and then had a friend join me for the second week, which cut our accommodations by half.

In the end, I managed to almost keep myself within budget, but only because of those little accommodation serendipities.

Before I dive into more detailed numbers…in case you’re new to these budget posts, a couple things to keep in mind:

First, I’m working while I’m traveling, which means someone spending all their time enjoying the city, taking day trips, and eating out is likely to spend a lot more.

Second, the below budget is just my day-to-day expenses. It doesn’t include yearly health insurance premiums, business expenses, etc. For details on how I manage those during full-time travel, visit this extensive post.

Okay. Now, onto what I spent on my two weeks in Amsterdam, Netherlands:


Category Euros Dollars
Accommodations 407.04 $448.50
Transportation 77.50 $85.39
Groceries & supplies 236.58 $260.68
Eating/drinking out 88.95 $98.01
Entertainment & activities 76.42 $84.20
Luna (vet bills, supplies) 28.80 $31.73
Totals 915.29 $1,008.51

Notes on my spending:

Remember that the accommodation budget above is half the cost of one week in a one-bedroom apartment. My two-week budget doesn’t look so bad until you factor in that I was only paying for 1/4 of the accommodation cost of the trip–and that was after I convinced the apartment owner to give us a discount. If you’re on your own, expect to pay at least double per week.

Groceries in Amsterdam turned out to be pretty expensive, but I did manage to keep my eating out costs low by only eating out a handful of times.

Luna’s vet bills are just refills on her flea meds (also pretty expensive compared to other places we’ve been).

Again, note that business expenses are not included above and neither are health insurance premiums.

Interested in another Amsterdam budget? Here’s what my friend Ali spent when she came to visit me for a week.



Interested in seeing more travel budgets? You’ll find them all here.


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7 comments

Michelle November 16, 2015 - 2:25 pm

Hi Gigi,

We also found Amsterdam super expensive when we were there in 2011 and that was with a share bathroom and share kitchen.

Did you try using airbnb? Or was this with airbnb?

thanks,

Michelle

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gigigriffis November 16, 2015 - 3:40 pm

Yeah, that was Airbnb! There were a few slightly cheaper options, but they looked pretty unlivable (run-down houseboats without heating) and they still weren’t that budget friendly. It was such a shocker. Usually even expensive cities have a budget option or two you can find.

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Michelle November 16, 2015 - 5:22 pm

Wow, that’s a pity. If airbnb are that expensive I’d hate to see what other booking sights are charging. Love Amsterdam, it is such a great place to visit.

I’d be interested to hear (maybe in a future post) how easy / difficult it is to snare a house-sitting / pet-sitting gig. Thanks for your blog and especially the detailed costings you provide.

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gigigriffis November 16, 2015 - 6:00 pm

Glad it’s helpful!

I’ve only pet-sat a few times on the road and my experiences have mostly been negative, so I’m probably not the best resource, but I know the folks at Hecktic Travels do a ton of housesitting and I believe they even wrote a book on the topic, so perhaps check them out.

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