Americans can now travel to the Netherlands without restrictions. This means that upon arrival in the Netherlands, they do not have to go into quarantine nor do they have to take a test or prove that they have been fully vaccinated.
According to the Netherlands, the United States is one of the countries considered “safe”, where the risk of contracting COVID-19 is low. Travelers from so-called safe countries are allowed to enter the Netherlands without a quarantine or vaccination certificate. Australia, Serbia, New Zealand, Taiwan, and Rwanda are among the other destinations that the Netherlands considers safe, as are most European countries.
Now that the Netherlands has opened, tourists from high-risk countries still face restrictions. They are required to submit a negative COVID test result and quarantine for 10 days, even if they have been fully vaccinated. The UK is currently considered high-risk due to the prevalence of variable deltas there. Additional actions can always be applied for this. View the latest actions before planning a trip.
Tourists visiting the Netherlands this year will be able to enjoy most of the country’s tourist attractions such as museums such as the Rijksmuseum, the Anne Frank Museum and the Van Gogh Museum reopening to visitors. Restaurants, cafes and bars are also open with social distancing guidelines. Concert halls, cinemas and sports venues opened this week, and the curfew that was imposed to restrict the purchase of alcoholic beverages has now been lifted. Protective masks are no longer necessary in stores and other crowded public places, but they are still required on public transport and airports.
If you are planning a trip to the Dutch capital, you can expect some changes. Before dealing with the coronavirus, Amsterdam had another plight: overtourism. The city, with a population of about 820,000, welcomed 20 million international visitors (about 55,000 per day) in 2019 and is starting to shrink under the weight of its popularity. Complaints came from residents who felt isolated from their town by the hordes of tourists, garbage-strewn streets, and tourist shops, not to mention the increase in short-term vacation rents in the city, which has been cited as the cause of rising housing prices and rents.
That’s not all. In June, the city council launched an online campaign to encourage tourists to embrace the city’s cultural heritage, but warned those who don’t come into contact with the city to stay away.
“We don’t want to go back to what we saw before the pandemic, with huge crowds in the red light district and nightlife areas of the city disturbing residents,” the city council said. The statement was posted online. Visitors who respect Amsterdam and its residents are always welcome and of course always will be. Visitors who treat our residents and heritage with unwelcome contempt. And the message we send to them is: ‘Don’t come to Amsterdam’.
