Heineken Experience

Yes, this is the city’s most over-the-top, Disneyland-esque tourist attraction, and some young visitors come because the price of admission gets you two pints of beer, but if you approach the brewery (which stopped production in 1988) with a sense of humor, it can be a fun experience. Pass quickly through the exhibits that focus on Heineken marketing and advertising through the years, and make your way upstairs, paying special attention to the historic brew room, which dates to 1867 and where gleaming copper fermentation tanks are on display. Much of the Experience was designed as an amusement park; in one room visitors stand on a moving platform while watching a video that allows them to “experience” what being a beer bottle in the brewery would be like. You can also order a personalized bottle of Heineken. Technically, the museum is for those aged eighteen and older (unless accompanied by a parent), but when I visited, I saw at least one group of starry-eyed American teenagers elated that they were being served alcohol in the midst of a museum.