The Heineken Maneuver

In the pursuit of hoppiness, Heineken created The Heineken Experience, an interactive self-guided tour, in the heart of Amsterdam. Right down the street from the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh museum is the former brewery (operating for 100 years). Today it is the bustling marketing campaign for Heineken. The tour lasts about 1.5 hours, depending on your cadence and beer guzzling technique (2 free small drafts at the end of the tour). It includes the Heineken history complete with photographs, awards, relics and real live horses (you can't touch any of these, even the horses are behind glass). 

Tickets cost 18 euro ($23.26) per person. The interactive activities include: creating your own dutch music video, photo opportunities with cutouts, sending a video message to loved ones and pouring the perfect virtual beer. You also have the option to create your own personalized bottle (you can put your name on the label) for 6 euros. And there's a gift store. For anything and everything Heineken branded (250 products). Hello, Christmas stockings!

Following the tour, Heineken offers guests seats on their canal boat located directly across the street and, you guessed it, along the canal! It's a short (one-way) ride complete with the option to purchase more Heineken. So, you should really like Heineken. Or historical brewing tours followed by boat rides. Either or. I'm not judging (I'm in a Dutch music video for crying out loud).

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The Heineken Experience