When I asked my friend if we could add the Amsterdam bench to our itinerary, she immediately understood which bench I was talking about. The Fault in Our Stars bench.
Now, this is a girl who doesn’t really read or watch TV and usually misses just about every pop culture reference I make.
However, eons ago, she read The Fault in Our Stars book by John Green. And if you’ve read this book, you’ll definitely know what I mean when I say The Fault in Our Stars bench in Amsterdam.
My recent visit to Amsterdam was actually my second time going round all the Fault in Our Stars locations in Amsterdam.
I think I must’ve been destined to be a literary traveller because I visited all these places in 2013, before I was posting regularly on Instagram and before I introduced a literary travel section to whatshotblog.com!
So if you’re wondering where was the Fault in Our Stars filmed in Amsterdam, you’re in the right place. This blog post will take you through the Fault in Our Stars locations in Amsterdam from the film and the book.
In some parts, the filming locations match those originally in the book but in some places, they differ. I’ve also made a handy map of all locations to do with the Fault in Our Stars in Amsterdam at the very end.
Let’s go!
The Fault In Our Stars Amsterdam
So let me give you a bit of the backstory. Hazel Grace is completely obsessed with a book called An Imperial Affliction by Peter Van Houten.
She lends it to Augustus and, even though it’s not really his thing, he agrees to read it in exchange for her doing reading a “brilliant and haunting novelization of my favorite video game”, The Price of Dawn.
However, after reading An Imperial Affliction, Augustus becomes obsessed too.
Now, over the years, Hazel has made many attempts to contact the author but he never responds. But then Augustus goes ahead and writes an email to him and he receives a response!
Peter Van Houten actually says that if they are in Amsterdam he would love to meet them. Augustus then uses his wish from the Make a Wish Foundation to fund the trip for him, Hazel and Hazel’s mum.
They hop aboard a plane and visit Amsterdam in May. And Hazel’s first impression of Amsterdam really hits the nail on the head:
“We drove over a canal and from atop the bridge I could see dozens of houseboats moored along the water. It looked nothing like America. It looked like an old painting, but real – everything achingly idyllic in the morning light – and I thought about how wonderfully strange it would be to live in a place where almost everything had been built by the dead.”
Hotel Filosoof
Our first stop is their hotel. During their stay, the trio stay at “Hotel Filosoof” in Amsterdam. This was based on a real hotel, actually called Hotel de Filosoof, though it has sadly permanently closed now.
It was a beautiful property near Vondelpark and had a lounge space lined with books and terrace area for guests to enjoy. The rooms were themed around famous philosophers and cultural personas.
“All the rooms in the Hotel Filosoof were named after filosoofers: Mom and I were staying
on the ground floor in the Kierkegaard; Augustus was on the floor above us, in the
Heidegger.”
Today, a boutique luxury hotel called Pillows sits on this site instead. It looks amazing but has a very different vibe!
Hotel Filosoof in the Fault in Our Stars sounds like a cute and romantic hotel so it seems apt that it’s where Hazel and Augustus lose their virginities after their date at Orangee Restaurant.
However, whilst Hotel de Filosoof was a real hotel at the time of filming, it was not used as a Fault in Our Stars filming location. The hotel that is used in the films is actually the American Hotel.
This hotel is a little further away from Vondelpark but it is based in a lovely square with a huge fountain, which you’ll recognise if you rewatch this scene in the film.
Pillows (formerly Hotel de Filosoof)
Address: Anna van den Vondelstraat 6, 1054 GZ Amsterdam
American Hotel
Address: Leidsekade 97, 1017 PN Amsterdam, Netherlands
Tram 1
Riding the tram in Amsterdam isn’t quite the same as riding the tram in Lisbon. It’s a pretty modern, bog-standard way of travel.
It’s also Hazel and Augustus get to the restaurant that Peter Van Houten has booked for them on their first night in Amsterdam.
If you’re staying in the canal belt of Amsterdam or near the north of Vondelpark, it seems unlikely that you’ll need the tram all that much.
But if you want to follow in Gus and Hazel’s footsteps, then hop aboard Tram line one. If you get off at the stop J.P. Heijestraat, you can walk to Jordaan, which is where the fictional Oranjee restaurant is located.
Oranjee Restaurant, Amsterdam
Reservations at Oranjee restaurant are booked for Gus and Hazel by Pieter Van Houten. At least, they think he has.
They later find out it was all his assistant! In any case, it sounds like a wonderfully romantic restaurant.
“You have reservations at a place called Oranjee,” she said. “Mr. Van Houten’s assistant set it up. It’s in this neighborhood called the Jordaan. Very fancy, according to the guidebook. There’s a tram station right around the corner. Augustus has directions. You can eat outside, watch the boats go by. It’ll be lovely. Very romantic.”
Unfortunately, it does not exist in real life so you won’t be able to book yourself a reservation there. I do wish it was though as Hazel and Gus had the most exquisite meal there!
Champagne, (or a “bottle of stars”), Belgian white asparagus with a lavender infusion, dragon carrot risotto, sweet-pea sorbet, green garlic gnocchi with red mustard leaves and, lastly, a succulently rich crémeux surrounded by passion fruit. What a treat.
RELATED: The Best Fault in Our Stars Quotes
Instead, you can go and have a wander around the Jordaan district and I’m sure you will find other romantic restaurants that call to you.
It’s an area on the edge of the canal belt so you can take a walk by the water’s edge and admire the iconic, tall Amsterdam canalside architecture too.
Rijksmuseum Passage
Neither Gus nor Hazel manage to visit Rijksmuseum during their trip but Hazel’s mum goes to both Rijksmuseum and Vondelpark. Despite this, Gus does go online and have a look at the online collection. Same thing, right? In a time of lockdown, virtual tours have become increasingly popular so perhaps he was ahead of his teme.
“If you go to the Rijksmuseum, which I really wanted to do—but who are we kidding, neither of us can walk through a museum. But anyway, I looked at the collection online before we left. If you were to go, and hopefully someday you will, you would see a lot of paintings of dead people. You’d see Jesus on the cross, and you’d see a dude getting stabbed in the neck, and you’d see people dying at sea and in battle and a parade of martyrs. But Not. One. Single. Cancer. Kid. Nobody biting it from the plague or smallpox or yellow fever or whatever, because there is no glory in illness. There is no meaning to it. There is no honor in dying of.”
However, the passageway passing under the museum does appear in the Fault in Our Stars film. After their date at Orangee restaurant, Hazel and Gus walk through this passage and there is a group of musicians playing Winter from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.
If you thought this was just a gimmick added for the benefit of the film’s romantic atmosphere, you would be wrong. When I was walking under this passage I was shocked to find a group of musicians actually playing Vivaldi’s Four Season! It was a different movement to that in the film and the musical troupe was much smaller but still. It was an eerie moment for me as I truly imagined the characters walking through with me.
Address: Museumstraat 1, 1071 XX Amsterdam
Opening Hours: 9am-5pm every day
Website: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/
Price: €20 adults, free for children
The Fault in Our Stars Bench
And now we’re onto the bench. The famous Fault in Our Stars bench in Amsterdam. So famous it’s even got its own geotag on Google maps.
The Amsterdam bench scene in The Fault in Our Stars happens a little differently in the book and film. First, let’s refresh our memories as to what happened in the book:
“We walked along the canal as it got dark. A block up from Oranjee, we stopped at a park
bench surrounded by old rusty bicycles locked to bike racks and to each other. We sat
down hip to hip facing the canal, and he put his arm around me.“
They sit on the bench talking about the day’s events and An Imperial Affliction. Then before they get up to leave, Gus says the iconic line:
“Oh, I wouldn’t mind, Hazel Grace. It would be a privilege to have my heart broken by you.”
Now in the movie, this scene takes a very different shape because it’s where Gus breaks it to Hazel that his cancer is back and worse than ever. It’s an incredibly emotional scene and I’m sure every Fault in Our Stars fan can picture it!
Today you can visit the Fault in Our Stars Bench in Amsterdam and sit in the very same spot that Ansel Elgort and Shailene Woodley sat on. The bench was actually briefly stolen in 2014, but officials have confirmed that the one there today is indeed still the same one. Over the years it has been covered in graffiti and carvings from fans of the book and film so you’ll know you’ve found the right one when you get up close.
Address: TFIOS Bench, Leidsegracht, 1016 GK Amsterdam
Peter Van Houten’s House
Peter Van Houten is Grace’s literary idol and the very reason that they visit Amsterdam. Unfortunately, the man proves to be an absolute pr*ck and disappoints both teenagers greatly. Hazel even goes to the effort to dress like the protagonist to go meet him. And then he refuses to give her the answers she desires and is deliberately obtuse. Can you imagine the disappointment?
The house this scene was actually filmed at is not known but it’s well worth wandering around the area that Peter’s fictional house is located in. The street is lined with beautiful, tall homes that overlook Vondelpark and I’d love to take a peek inside one!
“Peter Van Houten’s white row house was just around the corner from the hotel, on the
Vondelstraat, facing the park. Number 158. Augustus took me by one arm and grabbed the
oxygen cart with the other, and we walked up the three steps to the lacquered blue-black
front door. My heart pounded. One closed door away from the answers I’d dreamed of
ever since I first read that last unfinished page.”
Address: Vondelstraat 158, 1054 GT Amsterdam
Anne Frank House
After their disastrous meeting with Peter, his assistant tries to make it up to Hazel and Gus by inviting them to see more of Amsterdam. Lidewij suggests they visit Anne Frank House but it’s only after they arrive that she realises that there’s no elevator. Hazel struggles immensely with all the stairs due to her weak lungs but sheer determination helps her up.
“I’m okay,” I answered quietly. It’s stupid, but I kept thinking I owed it to her—to
Anne Frank, I mean—because she was dead and I wasn’t, because she had stayed quiet
and kept the blinds drawn and done everything right and still died, and so I should go up
the steps and see the rest of the world she’d lived in those years before the Gestapo came.
Both Hazel and Gus are awed and shocked by the horrible history relating to Anne Frank and her family and it prompts one of my favourite passages in the book.
“At the end of the hallway, a huge book, bigger than a dictionary, contained the names of the 103,000 dead from the Netherlands in the Holocaust. (Only 5,000 of the deported Dutch Jews, a wall label explained, had survived. 5,000 Otto Franks.) The book was turned to the page with Anne Frank’s name, but what got me about it was the fact that right beneath her name there were four Aron Franks. Four. Four Aron Franks without museums, without historical markers, without anyone to mourn them. I silently resolved to remember and pray for the four Aron Franks as long as I was around.”
I think this is an incredibly important reminder of just how horrific the holocaust was and that Anne’s story was just one of millions. Indeed, most weren’t so fortunate as Anne as to be able to hide away for so long with food and drink.
Overcome with emotion in the museum and their horrible experience with Peter earlier, the pair kiss. People clap. It’s quite weird, to be honest.
“Augustus Waters,” I said, looking up at him, thinking that you cannot kiss anyone in
the Anne Frank House, and then thinking that Anne Frank, after all, kissed someone in the
Anne Frank House, and that she would probably like nothing more than for her home to
have become a place where the young and irreparably broken sink into love.
Buy A Diary of a Young Girl: Amazon | Waterstones
Address: Anne Frank House, Westermarkt 20, 1016 DK Amsterdam
Opening Hours: 9am-10pm daily (7pm close during the winter)
Website: https://www.annefrank.org/en/
Price: €10.50 adults, €5.50 concessions
Vondelpark
Vondelpark is the biggest park in Amsterdam and the most famous in the Netherlands. Hazel’s mother wanted to visit the park on day one in Amsterdam but Hazel was too tired after the flight so she had to read about it in the guidebook that evening instead.
You should definitely not just read about it in the guidebook, but make the time to see Vondelpark with your own eyes on your Amsterdam trip. It’s a lovely place to spend an afternoon and you can rent bikes nearby so you can easily explore the whole area.
Luckily, all three manage to visit Vondelpark on their last day in Amsterdam so they managed to do a few of the major sites.
“The next morning, our last full day in Amsterdam, Mom and Augustus and I walked the
half block from the hotel to the Vondelpark, where we found a café in the shadow of the
Dutch national film museum.”
Address: Vondelpark , 1071 AA Amsterdam
Opening Hours: 24 hours
Price: free
And that concludes my tour of The Fault in Our Stars locations in Amsterdam! If you’re a big fan of the book and film then make sure to add some of these to your Amsterdam itinerary, particularly the Fault in Our Stars bench!
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Laura
Founder & Editor of What’s Hot?