Amsterdam Travel Guide

Travel Insurance

The cost of travel insurance varies widely, depending on the cost and length of your trip, your age and health, and the type of trip you're taking, but expect to pay between 5% to 8% of the cost of the vacation. You can get estimates from various providers from InsureMyTrip.com. Enter your trip cost and dates, your age, and other information to get quotes from more than a dozen companies.

Trip-Cancellation Insurance -- Trip-cancellation insurance will help retrieve your money if you have to back out of a trip or depart early, or if your travel supplier goes bankrupt. Permissible reasons for trip cancellation can range from sickness to natural disaster to the State Department declaring a destination unsafe for travel.

For more information, contact one of these recommended insurers: Access America (tel. 866/807-3982; www.accessamerica.com); Travel Guard International (tel. 800/826-4919; www.travelguard.com); Travel Insured International (tel. 800/243-3174; www.travelinsured.com); and Travelex Insurance Services (tel. 888/457-4602; www.travelex-insurance.com).

Lost-Luggage Insurance -- On international flights (including U.S. portions of international trips), baggage coverage is limited to about $9.07 per pound -- about $635 per checked bag. If you plan to check items more valuable than what's covered by the standard liability, check whether your homeowner's policy covers the valuables you've packed or buy baggage insurance as part of your comprehensive travel-insurance package. You can also buy Travel Guard's "BagTrak" product.

If your luggage is lost, immediately file a lost-luggage claim at the airport, detailing the luggage's contents. Most airlines require that you report delayed, damaged, or lost baggage within 4 hours of arrival. The airlines are required to deliver luggage, once found, directly to your hotel or house free of charge.

Medical Insurance -- For travel overseas, most U.S. health plans (including Medicare and Medicaid) do not provide coverage, and the ones that do often require you to pay for services up front and reimburse you only after you return home. If your plan does cover overseas treatment, be advised that Dutch hospitals don't require that you pay your bill up front; they send the bill directly to your insurance company or to you at home. In some circumstances, you might be asked for a down payment. Regardless, the process will be smoother if you can show the hospital that you have current medical coverage. If you require additional medical insurance, try MEDEX Assistance (tel. 410/453-6300; www.medexassist.com) or Travel Assistance International (tel. 800/821-2828; www.travelassistance.com; for general information on services, call the company's Worldwide Assistance Services, Inc., at tel. 800/777-8710).

Staying Healthy

There are no particular health concerns in Amsterdam -- if you don't count the "risk" of occasionally breathing in a whiff of secondhand hashish smoke.

Traveling in the Netherlands poses few health problems. The tap water is safe to drink, the milk is pasteurized, blood for transfusions is HIV-screened, and you don't need to worry overmuch about getting too much sun.

The Dutch healthcare system is among the world's best. It's easy in Holland to get over-the-counter medicines and other simple remedies for minor ailments. Local brands and generic equivalents of common prescription drugs are available. Most doctors speak English (though their lingo might be a little disturbing, like when a doctor once told me he knew what "disease" I had when I reported a minor ailment).

No health or vaccination certificates are required. You won't need travel shots either, but if you have a chronic illness, consult your doctor before your departure. Pack important prescription medications in your carry-on baggage, and carry them in their original containers, with pharmacy labels -- otherwise they won't make it through airport security. Carry the generic name of prescription medicines, in case local pharmacists are unfamiliar with the brand name. Don't forget an extra pair of contact lenses or prescription eyeglasses. Also, in light of recent events, travelers might want to visit www.tsa.com for up-to-date regulations on what is and isn't permissible to pack in carry-on baggage.

Contact the International Association for Medical Assistance to Travelers (IAMAT) (tel. 716/754-4883 or, in Canada, 416/652-0137; www.iamat.org) for lists of local English-speaking doctors. Find listings of reliable overseas clinics at the International Society of Travel Medicine (tel. 770/736-7060; www.istm.org).

What To Do If You Get Sick in Amsterdam -- If a medical emergency arises, your hotel staff can usually put you in touch with a reliable doctor. If not, contact the Central Medical Service (tel. 020/592-3434) or go to the emergency room at one of the local hospitals. The U.S. and U.K. consulates in Amsterdam can provide a list of area doctors who speak English (almost every doctor in town).

Most Amsterdam hospitals have walk-in clinics for emergency cases that are not life-threatening; you may not get immediate attention, but you won't pay the high price of an emergency room visit.

Staying Safe

In Amsterdam, if it isn't bolted to the floor, somebody will try to steal it -- and even if it is bolted to the floor, somebody will still try to steal it. Watch for pickpockets on trams, buses, Metro trains, and in train and Metro stations. Constant public announcements at Centraal Station and Schiphol Airport warn about pickpockets, and tram signs warn, in a multitude of languages, ATTENTION: PICKPOCKETS. Drivers often recognize a pickpocket who gets on their bus or tram, and announce over the vehicle's PA system that passengers should watch out for their belongings. It's fun to watch the miscreants getting off again at the next stop, foiled. Pickpockets and other thieves often wait until you are occupied or distracted -- or act to occupy or distract you -- before making their move. Consider wearing a money belt. Women, wear your purse crossed over your shoulder so that it hangs in front, with the clasp or zipper facing in. A backpack worn on the back is an open invitation to thieves, so either don't wear it like that or don't put anything valuable in it (you could consider packing it with loaded mousetraps).

Violence is not unknown to Amsterdam, but it's not at all a violent city (foreign drug dealers whacking each other don't count -- unless innocents get caught in the crossfire, this usually merits only a single-sentence news blip on p. 21 of the local paper). Drug-related crime is prevalent, but most of it, like pickpocketing, is nonviolent, relatively minor, and opportunistic. Stealing bicycles is a big problem here. Muggings and armed robberies do happen, but only rarely.

There are some risky areas, especially in and around the Red Light District. Be leery of walking alone after dark through narrow alleyways and along empty stretches of canal. Don't use ATMs at night in quiet areas. It's wise to stay out of Vondelpark at night, but there are cafes on the edge of the park that are busy until closing time.

Amsterdam has its share (more than its share, really) of weird folks, some of whom may lock onto you for one reason or another. If you can't shake them off, go into a cafe or hotel and wait until they leave or call a taxi to take you away.

Beggars are common, although the generous Dutch welfare system ensures that few, if any, locals need to resort to panhandling. Those who do this might be drug addicts, illegal migrants, young visitors trying to make their stay last longer, lazy ne'er-do-wells -- and some genuine hardship cases. If you're prepared to hand out money, keep coins handy rather than rummaging through your billfold or purse, which might get grabbed by the intended recipient of your generosity.

Report any crime committed against you to the police (politie), most of whom speak English and are generally helpful to visitors.

Note: Listing some of the possible dangers together like this can give a false impression of the threat of crime in Amsterdam. There is no need to be afraid to do the things you want to do. Amsterdammers aren't. Just remember to exercise the usual rules of caution and observation that apply in any big city.

Dealing with Discrimination -- Most Dutch would claim that they don't have the discrimination gene, and in most cases, that's probably true. U.S. visitors are welcome but might occasionally encounter some hostility, due primarily to current circumstances in Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Among other beefs could be America's refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol on global warming or join the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Some native Dutch and some of the country's significant Muslim minority might want to take issue with you on one or more of these topics in ways ranging from open discussion to surly service, the cold shoulder, or even verbal aggression. I know of no cases of physical aggression and would guess this to be vanishingly rare.