Anyone know of a nice chilled campsite near\in Amsterdam that is smoker friendly(ie. no christian fellowship nazis)?

also, how stupid is it really to take a nice bike? do they have magical voodoo bike stealing skillz? or will not leaving it locked up do the trick?

Every bike I saw in Amsterdam was the classic dutch style bike. Hire one locally in the town center if you're going to be leaving the bike locked up for long periods of time. Then you don't have to worry. Amsterdam has excellent public transport so getting into the center from a campsite I am sure will not be a problem.

sure thing, I don't intend to lock up at all...wouldn't do it over here either...I'm just thinking in terms of italian train couchette gassing type 'clever robberies' that might be blindingly obvious to the initiated

Last summer I stayed in a stayokay hostel in the middle of amsterdam, vondelpark I think. It had secure bike lock up and huge continental breakfast in the morning. Think they are around 30euro a night. Don't know about campsites though so this is probably next to useless to you.

I've stayed in the stayokay near the vondelpark before, it was pretty good, didn't know it had a bike lockup, but yeah, definately trying to get out of the smoke (well, not entirely...:D)

Well we also stayed in a little place called Noordvijk (stayokay again, think there is a flying pig there as well) which is about 1 1/2 - 2 miles from the beach, awesome at sunset.

40 odd miles for amsterdam tho. This is as far as my knowledge goes.

North of the ferry is a pretty nice little campsite. I just turned up, paid the money and stayed for a few days. lots of smoking, plenty of cool people around who let me borrow their bikes.

I stayed here - http://www.vliegenbos.com/

It was probably one of my most relaxing and rewarding trips.

Chris

Edit: travel wise, i walked form there in to the centre most of the time. It was about 15 mins on foot.

those both look class, cheers guys :D...now I've got to choose :(

any seasonal recommendations? the NYC diesel was decent when I was last over.

thanks again!

Bernhard my old cheese, didn't know you were on here being helpful and the like. Fancy a bike trip this summer at all?

Aah Jimbo, actually got on here last night after I went and bought a rim and a hub, now I'm trying to get me some spokes. A bike trip would be splendid, Caleb is supposed to be living in Amsterdam this year so a bit of norfolk and holland could work, what say you?

Am Amsterdam based, but don't know of any campsites in or around. Advice above looks the best bet for staying somewhere near the centre at a decent price.

As for taking a nice bike! If you lock it up for long periods anywhere central, and especially near the station and the main tourist drags and red light district, it's probably gonna go walkies. Or bits of it at the least.

Most locals take the view that they're gonna lose their bike at some point, so it's quite a laissez-faire attitude towards them. When I lock mine I put a d-lock through the front wheel and lock it to something solid, put an abus chain lock through the frame and the back wheel, again to something solid. And have the saddle on QR. I never leave it overnight and try not to leave it for long periods of time. Based on this I would recommend renting a bike rather than taking the risk.

If you want any more info let me know!

I camped in Haarlem somewhere.. it's 20k away from 'dam.
I stayed in the dodgiest hotel ever in 'dam but they had secure spot for my bike so no complaints about that.

Anyone know what the crimping facilities are like in Amsterdam ?

Crimpity crimpity now now,
Crimpity crimpity ask me how
Crimpity crimpity humble pie
Crimpity crimpity
Boing ding bong bong ting
Crimpity crimpity ping pong


Unfortunately crimping much more popular with the East End Boosh! Hasn't made it over here yet : )

Good quality crimp, much better than the bush crimp we get back in Oz and the council flat hydro crimp you tend to find in London. The best crimp I found was in Utrecht, not Amsterdam. HTH :)

We slept rough when we were in the Dam. Wild time for sure.