How much does Amsterdam cost per day in 2026?

Budget €55-65/day ($65-75) on a hostel dorm, supermarket meals, and walking. Midrange €150-170/day ($175-195) with a 3-star hotel in De Pijp, one sit-down dinner, and a museum ticket. Luxury €430+/day ($500+) at a canal-house hotel on Prinsengracht, rijsttafel for two at Blauw, and a private boat charter. The midrange is where most Amsterdam trip reports land. The hotel is most of the jump between tiers. A €30 dorm bed versus a €130 double room is €100/night on its own, while food scales less steeply. Budget groceries and FEBO cost €15/day. Eating out for both lunch and dinner runs €35-40.

A bed at ClinkNOORD in Amsterdam-Noord costs €28-35/night, and the free GVB ferry from Centraal Station gets you there in 5 minutes across the IJ. Breakfast from Albert Heijn runs €3-4 for bread, kaas, and juice. Lunch is a €3.50 kroket from FEBO on Reguliersbreestraat, the automat where you pull hot ragout croquettes out of a wall of little metal doors. Warm, crunchy, slightly greasy. Dinner at Foodhallen in Oud-West averages €8-12 per dish. Skip the Heineken Experience at €23. Spend the afternoon in Vondelpark instead, where buskers play Django Reinhardt covers and the air smells like cut grass and someone's illicit barbecue. The Albert Cuyp Market (open Monday through Saturday until 17:00) sells fresh stroopwafels for €3, hot off the iron, caramel dripping if you don't eat fast enough.

The midrange hotel math works like this. A room at Hotel V Nesplein or Conscious Hotel Vondelpark sits at €110-140/night after the 7% tourist tax (toeristenbelasting) that every Amsterdam accommodation adds to your bill. The Rijksmuseum (founded 1800, €22.50 online) and Van Gogh Museum (opened 1973, €20) both require timed-entry reservations booked 2-4 weeks ahead. Walk-up tickets don't exist for the Van Gogh, and same-day Rijksmuseum slots sell out by 10:00 most mornings. Anne Frank House (€16, opened as a museum in 1960) releases tickets exactly 6 weeks before your visit date at 10:00. Set an alarm. They go in under an hour. A canal-side lunch at Café de Pels costs €12-16 for a broodje and beer. Indonesian rijsttafel at a mid-tier spot runs €25-35 for 12-15 shared plates.

The GVB day pass costs €9 ($10.40) and only breaks even if you ride the tram 3 or more times at €3.50 each. Most budget travelers won't need it. Amsterdam is flat, roughly 8 km north to south, and you'll want to walk the canal ring anyway. Rent a bike from MacBike at Centraal for €12/day, but lock it with both locks every single time. Bike theft is the city's unofficial sport. For Schiphol, the NS train to Centraal costs €5.90 and takes 15 minutes. The taxi runs €45-55. That single taxi ride equals a full day of budget food.

The cheapest real meal in the center is a €5-6 tosti (grilled cheese) at any brown café. Café 't Smalle on Egelantiersgracht has been serving them since 1786, and the dark wooden interior smells like old tobacco and spilled Jupiler. For groceries, Albert Heijn marks down fresh items 35% after 18:00 with a yellow bonus sticker. The Turkish pizza shops along Kinkerstraat sell €4-5 lahmacun that's better than most sit-down options near Dam Square. Avoid Leidseplein and Rembrandtplein for food entirely. A burger at either square costs €16-18. The same burger 10 minutes south in De Pijp runs €10-12. Coffeeshops require a €5+ drink purchase to sit, which is worth knowing before you walk in expecting it to work like a regular café.