The best things to do in Amsterdam

Amsterdam delivers the goods when it comes to memorable experiences and attractions. With canals weaving through the city, gabled buildings providing glimpses of a bygone past, and myriad museums portraying the importance of Amsterdam’s role in history, it is a city full of extraordinary things to do.

From sitting in a swing high above the city to investigative forays into ‘coffeshop culture’ and visiting the poignant Anne Frank House, our expert provides his top experiences, including the best things to do with children, if it rains and for couples, on a city break in Amsterdam below.

For more Amsterdam inspiration, see our guides to the city’s best hotels, restaurants, bars and cafés, shopping, things to do for free and how to spend a weekend in Amsterdam (plus the best hotels near the airport).

Swing out high over this low-rise town from the sky deck of a solitary skyscraper behind Central Station at A’DAM Lookout. You sit in a giant swing that propels you 100 metres over the edge and up into the sky, as historic Amsterdam sways back and forth below you. It beats bungee jumping any day.

Insider’s tip: Go at the onset of twilight, as the lights of the city below begin to flicker and glow, then retire back inside to the hip bar on the 20th floor for cocktails to ignite your evening revels.

Contact: adamlookout.com
Nearest Transport: Buiksloterweg ferry (free service) from behind Central Station
Price: ££

Objects, stories, treasures and works of art from Amsterdam’s long and at times illustrious history, all form part of imaginative displays on the city’s past, present and even future at the Amsterdam Museum. The building was formerly the Burgerweeshuis (Municipal Orphanage), founded in 1520. It’s a rather moving experience to see the children’s lockers that are still there along one side of the courtyard.

Insider’s tip: Look out for Cornelis Anthoniszoon’s aerial view of Amsterdam, painted around 1538. It is the first map of the city, and an extraordinary feat of imagined perspective given that the highest point at the time was a church steeple.

Contact: amsterdammuseum.nl
Nearest transport: Trams 2, 4, 11, 12, 14, 24; Metro: Rokin
Price: ££; under 18s free

Amsterdam’s former stock exchange, Beurs van Berlage, completed in 1903, earned its creator, H. P. Berlage the title of the ‘Father of Modern Dutch Architecture’. Its patterned brickwork is firmly in a Dutch tradition, and echoes earlier styles. But the designs are more geometric, and the building’s strong, clean lines, together with the way Berlage celebrates rather than conceals structural elements, make a definite break with the 19th century.

Insider’s tip: These days, you can only get to see the interior during exhibitions or concerts (the latter usually better value), but the café in the former entrance lobby is open daily, and gives a taste of the interior.

Contact: beursvanberlage.com
Nearest transport: Trams 4, 14, 24; Metro: Rokin
Price: Varies according to event

Take to the water. Yes, a canal trip seems a predictably touristy thing to do, but a jaunt on a pedalo, or in a glass-topped boat, offers an unrivalled view of Amsterdam’s historic gables. Most tour boats leave from docks in front of Central Station. Lovers and Stromma are both charming companies which offer both tours and ‘hop-on-hop-off’ options.

Insider’s tip: There’s a feeling of detachment on the water, like being in a different city. If you’re a fan of modern architecture, go for one of the tours that takes in new construction in the Eastern Docklands.

Contact: stromma.nl; lovers.nl
Nearest transport: from Central Station
Price: ££

From its gaudy carpet and whorls of multi-coloured marble, to the working Wurlitzer and two-person Love Seats, Cinema Tuschinski was the dream-child of an eccentric visionary bewitched by motion pictures. Built between 1918 and 1921, it preserves pretty much all its fittings, yet is still a working cinema. The Tuschinski main hall is worth a visit whatever the show.

Insider’s tip: Treat yourselves to a ‘loge arrangement’: drinks and a snack served at your seat in one of the boxes. In a romantic mood? Ask for a Love Seat. Films are the latest releases, shown in their original language.

Contact: pathe.nl/bioscoop/tuschinski
Nearest transport: Trams, 4, 14, 24; Metro: Waterlooplein, Rokin
Price: Main hall tickets ££

In the 17th century, the Royal Palace was dubbed ‘the eighth wonder of the world’. Back then it was the Amsterdam City Hall, but this was the height of the Golden Age, and the building was a grandiose celebration of Amsterdam’s mercantile supremacy and civic might. The façade is underwhelming, but inside it’s another story. Drop in for a look (the monarch lives in The Hague, and won’t mind).

Insider’s tip: The dazzling (sometimes literally) marble-encrusted main hall is especially impressive. Check out the brass-inlaid maps on the floor depicting the heavenly and terrestrial worlds, with Amsterdam very much at the centre.

Contact: paleisamsterdam.nl
Nearest transport: Trams 2, 4, 12, 13, 14, 17, 24. Metro: Rokin
Price: ££
Book tickets

Amsterdam’s combined City Hall (stadhuis) and opera house – popularly known as the ‘Stopera’ – was condemned as an eyesore when it went up in the 1980s, but the circular theatre, home to the Dutch National Opera & Ballet and with its marble-clad framework, is beautiful especially when lit up at night. Under Pierre Audi, its artistic director from 1988 to 2018, the Dutch National Opera developed a considerable reputation for adventurous productions.

Insider’s Tip: Stand-by tickets are available on the day of performance. From an hour before curtain-up, numbers are handed out at the box office, placing you in a queue for returns. Arriving 20-30 minutes earlier gives a good chance of success.

Contact: operaballet.nl
Nearest transport: Tram 14; Metro: Waterlooplein
Price: Varies according to performance

Amsterdam’s oldest building, Oude Kerk, grew haphazardly over hundreds of years. The tower dates from 1300, but most of the original basilica that was attached to it has long disappeared behind outgrowths of side chapels, transepts and clerestories. Most of what you see today is 16th-century Renaissance in style, with a further barnacle-crust of houses and church offices, built over three centuries.

Insider’s tip: The contrasting simplicity of the interior is stunning – the stained glass is worth a special look. There’s nothing to match it in town as most church windows were smashed by Protestant iconoclasts during the Reformation.

Contact: oudekerk.nl
Getting there: Trams 4, 14, 24; Metro: Rokin
Price: ££

Parts of the restored Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder, a 17th-century canal house, with its black-and-white tiled floors, and heavy furniture, are like stepping into a painting by Vermeer. As well as atmosphere, there’s a surprise. Upstairs, a ladder-like stairway leads to the astonishingly large church of ‘Our Dear Lord in the Attic’, which dates from the time when Protestant Holland tolerated Catholic worship only in places hidden from street view.

Insider’s tip: A top choice for a visit, especially for the basement kitchen (complete with 17th-century loo) and secret church. Try to get an attendant to demonstrate the ingenious fold-away pulpit.

Contact: opsolder.nl
Nearest transport: Trams 4, 14, 24; Metro: Rokin
Price: ££

Rembrandt bought this grand house on the edge of the Jewish Quarter in 1639, when he was at the height of his wealth and fame. (He is said to have been fascinated by Hebrew culture, and preferred Jewish models for his religious painting.) The Rembrandthuis has been carefully restored, using old plans and descriptions, and has a distinctly authentic atmosphere.

Insider’s tip: Rembrandt’s studio is superbly recreated, and you can sometimes catch an etching or traditional paint-mixing demonstration there. The museum holds a considerable collection of Rembrandt etchings including a series of tiny self-portraits of the painter pulling funny faces. Note: Rembrandthuis is closed for renovation until 18 March 2023.

Contact: rembrandthuis.nl
Nearest transport: Trams 4, 14; Metro: Waterlooplein
Price: ££

‘New’ is a label that has been attached to Nieuwe Kerk for the past 600 years, by virtue of the fact that Oude Kerk (Old Church) had already been around for three centuries when it was built. It’s a soaring Gothic pile without a steeple, situated on the city’s central square, the Dam (reputedly the site of the original dam across the River Amstel, from which Amsterdam gets its name).

Insider’s tip: The Nieuwe Kerk is the venue for royal weddings, investitures and other ceremonies, but more often for blockbuster exhibitions – they’re usually exceptionally good.

Contact: nieuwekerk.nl
Nearest transport: Trams 4, 14, 24; Metro: Rokin
Price: Varies according to exhibition

The attic rooms of the Anne Frank House where the Frank family hid during the Second World War, reached through a door behind a hinged bookcase, are bare of furniture yet almost unbearably poignant, with magazine pictures pasted on the walls by Anne still in situ. The rooms downstairs, which housed her father’s company office, have been restored in period style.

Insider’s tip: While there, save time for the exhibition rooms which hold Anne’s original diary and other manuscripts, as well as interesting interactive displays on human rights.

Contact: annefrank.org
Nearest transport: Trams 13, 17
Price: ££
Book tickets

Of all the exhibition spaces on Amsterdam’s vibrant photography scene, the Huis Marseille is the most adventurous, engaging and perplexing. The museum showcases new artists – in video as well as stills photography, and there’s a strong in-house collection of mainly Dutch, South African and Japanese work.

Insider’s tip: The museum is in two fine canal houses, and exhibitions are often staged as installations responding to the period features of particular rooms. Take a special look at the ceiling painting in the Garden Room – it’s by Jacob de Wit, the leading 18th-century Dutch interiors painter.

Contact: huismarseille.nl
Nearest transport: Trams 2, 12
Price: ££

Part of the interior of Paris’s now-demolished ‘Au Bon Marché’ department store, beamed over to Amsterdam to form a stylish spa, Sauna Deco. The 1920s light fittings and stained glass decorate a large, elegant rest area, there are Finnish and infra-red saunas, a small outdoor patio, and a steam room. A limited range of treatments is on offer, but there’s a good variety of massages.

Insider’s tip: The steam room is rather poky but even so, Sauna Deco is a firm favourite in which to retreat from miserable weather. Do note that the spa is mixed, and nudity de rigueur.

Contact: saunadeco.nl
Nearest transport: Trams 13, 17
Price: £££

Photography is hot in Amsterdam, and FOAM offers not only international blockbuster exhibitions by the likes of Diane Arbus and Richard Avedon, but also adventurous smaller shows by contemporary photographers, and enthralling glimpses into lesser-known corners of the history of photography. There’s also a lively programme of lectures and forums.

Insider’s tip: Make your way to the attic and explore the museum gallery-shop. A ‘Foam Edition’, affordable limited editions and signed prints by up-and-coming young photographers, as well as by big names who have exhibited in the past, makes a wonderful gift.

Contact: foam.org
Nearest transport: Trams 4, 24; Metro: Vijzelgracht
Price: ££

A peek indoors at the home of an Amsterdam patrician family. The 17th-century canal-side mansion, Museum Van Loon, one of the most splendid in town, has been magnificently restored to the last lick of gilding and tinkling chandelier. There are other canal-house mansion museums in town, but this is a definite favourite, as it somehow retains the atmosphere of an (admittedly, extremely grand) family home.

Insider’s tip: The characterful Van Loon family portraits are worth a special look. And don’t necessarily save this visit for a rainy day – there’s a beautiful formal garden out the back.

Contact: museumvanloon.nl
Nearest transport: Trams 4, 24
Price: ££

Do the words ‘city archive’ conjure images of dusty files and dull civil servants? Think again. Amsterdam has a fascinating collection of images and documents, interesting beyond the simple scope of city history. The Stadsarchief building itself is a monumental 1920s confection of patterned brick and stonework, with Art Deco murals. While there’s no permanent display, it’s really worth checking out current exhibitions.

Insider’s tip: The archive’s photo hoard is especially rich, particularly for images from the 1800s and early 1900s. Look out for work by the 19th-century photographers George Breitner (also a renowned painter) and Jacob Olie.

Contact: amsterdam.nl/stadsarchief
Nearest transport: Trams 4, 24; Metro Vijzelgracht
Price: Vary according to exhibition

The grandest and most glittering of Amsterdam’s canal-house museums was occupied by a succession of local notables, the last, Sandrina Holthuysen, dying alone, surrounded by cats in 1895. She was also surrounded by her husband’s vast collection of art and objets d’art. The house, Museum Willet-Holthuysen, overflows with paintings, ceramics, glass and silver in an untouchable 19th-century atmosphere.

Insider’s tip: The gardens behind Amsterdam’s rows of gabled houses come as a surprise to most visitors, as from the street you have no clue that they’re there. The Willet-Holthuysen formal garden is one of the most elegant in town.

Contact: willetholthuysen.nl
Nearest transport: Trams 4, 14; Metro Waterlooplein
Price: ££; under 18s free

The Concertgebouw, built in 1888, is famed for its near-perfect acoustics and its resident Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, often dubbed ‘the best in the world’. Even when the RCO is not playing, the programme is at the top of the musical scale, with the very best performers and singers the world has to offer, in an elegant neo-classical setting.

Insider’s tip: If you’d like a flavour of the place, but don’t have time for a full evening concert, check the (free) lunchtime programme on Wednesdays – but note that these are often held in a smaller auditorium, the Kleine Zaal.

Contact: concertgebouw.nl
Nearest transport: Trams 2, 3, 5, 12
Price: Tickets vary according to performance; lunchtime concerts are free

The Rijksmuseum is home to renowned Rembrandts, including ‘The Night Watch’, plus a grand company of other Old Masters from Frans Hals and Jan Steen to Ferdinand Bol and Jan Vermeer. Delftware, glittering gold and silver, centuries-old costumes, and furniture fit for royalty all add to the bounty, and for the first time ever the museum has put on show selections from its considerable collection of 20th-century photography.

Insider’s tip: Check out the exquisite 12th-century Buddha in the Asian Pavilion, and the ornate 17th-century dolls’ houses. Also, do note that the Old Masters’ section is least crowded in the late afternoon. 

Contact: rijksmuseum.nl
Nearest transport: Trams 2, 3, 5, 12
Price: £££
Book tickets

Stylishly revamped, the Stedelijk showcases modern and contemporary art from the huge municipal collection. Stedelijk directors have managed to snap up work from hot new art movements such as paintings and work on paper from CoBrA and De Stijl, and major pieces by Mondrian, Kandinsky and Malevich. Video art and up-to-the-minute new work also get a good showing.

Insider’s tip: The museum’s rich collection of design and applied art is somewhat crammed into ground-floor galleries, but well worth a visit. Also tucked away downstairs is the Appelbar, the Stedelijk’s original refreshment kiosk, adorned with bright murals by CoBrA artist Karel Appel.

Contact: stedelijk.nl
Nearest transport: Trams 2, 3, 5, 12
Price: £££
Book tickets

More of the tortured artist’s work is collected at Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum than anywhere in the world, from The Potato Eaters, through Sunflowers, to Wheatfield with Crows. An imaginative hanging (with personal touches such as family photos) brings you within touching distance of the man, and how he worked. You see artists who influenced him, as well as those he inspired. Inventive technical displays give insight to his technique.

Insider’s tip: Pre-book online to avoid long entrance queues. It’s advisable to do this as far in advance as you can. The museum is often less busy after 3.30pm at the beginning of the week.

Contact: vangoghmuseum.nl
Nearest transport: Trams 2, 3, 5, 12
Price: £££; children 17 and under, free
Book tickets

Designed by renowned architect Daniel Libeskind, the Holocaust Namenmonument (Holocaust Memorial of Names) is a labyrinth of brick walls offset with shining polished steel, which commemorates Jews deported from the Netherlands and killed during the Holocaust. Each brick bears the name of one of the 102,000 victims, and seeing just how long the walls need to be really drives home an understanding of how many people that is: it ceases to be just a number. 

Insider’s tip: What appears to be a maze in fact follows the lines of the four Hebrew letters that translate as ‘in memory of’. 

Contact: holocaustnamenmonument.nl
Nearest transport: Tram 14; Metro Waterlooplein
Price: Free

Laid out in grand style in 1838, Artis Royal Zoo (the ‘royal’ refers to its charter, not its inhabitants) is the oldest public zoo in continental Europe. Today, people come for the elegant, leafy setting, where (to the sound of exotic squawks, whoops and the occasional roar or trumpet) they can stroll and observe penguins and peacocks, panthers and gorillas.

Insider’s tip: The aquarium and butterfly pavilion are the most appealing sections, and even if you are not a fan of zoos, the park-like, 19th-century layout with walkways, water features, plenty of greenery and showpiece architecture has its own allure.

Contact: artis.nl
Nearest transport: Tram 14
Price: £££

Built in the 1680s as an alms-house for the aged, Hermitage Amsterdam opened as an extension of the St Petersburg Hermitage in 2009, but severed ties with Russia in 2022. The museum now shows art treasures from collections around the country. In addition to these temporary exhibitions, the Hermitage hosts part of the Amsterdam Museum collection, and boasts a hall of magnificent Golden Age group portraits (similar to Rembrandt’s ‘The Night Watch’).

Insider’s tip: Whatever the exhibition, visit the long refectory, complete with an organ for church services, and the creepily austere Governesses’ Room. If there’s time, check out the 18th-century cellar kitchen, with pots so large you had to climb steps to stir them.

Contact: hermitage.nl
Nearest transport: Tram 14; Metro Waterlooplein
Price: £££

Climb into one of three barrel-like outdoor hot tubs at Badplaats, and bubble away with a view over Amsterdam from the rooftop of the Volkshotel. Steam away in the sauna alongside, or sun yourself on a lounger, whichever way the weather or your mood takes you. A drink from the small bar, and you have the makings of a perfect Sunday afternoon. (Open Sundays only)

Insider’s tip: On the first Sunday of every month, there’s entertainment from a singer-songwriter – usually one of the brood of young artists for whom the hotel downstairs and its ‘Hatchery’ of studios is a gathering point.

Contact: volkshotel.nl
Nearest metro: Metro Wibautstraat
Price: ££

An intimate patch of greenery in the heart of the city, the Hortus Botanicus is one of the oldest botanical gardens in the world. The first coffee plants exported to South America were cultivated here, and there’s much for plant enthusiasts and first-timers alike, including ancient varieties of tulip and a wide range of cycads and South African plants.

Insider’s tip: The wide variety of carnivorous plants is popular with the kids, and the old walled-in layout has a delicious ‘secret garden’ atmosphere. The 19th-century orangery is all space and light, and is a lovely spot for coffee or lunch.

Contact: dehortus.nl
Nearest transport: Tram 14; Metro Waterlooplein
Price: ££

Venture into the world of invisible creepy-crawlies at the fun, informative, and astonishingly beautiful Micropia. The way bacteria affect our lives is presented with imagination, through alluring magnifications of germs and fungi, to piles of delicately decaying food. You’ll learn about making beer and cheese, and never want to visit a public bathroom or re-use a dish cloth again in your life.

Insider’s tip: The deliciously high ‘yuk’ factor makes the museum a hit with children, and there’s a great deal of high-tech interactivity, including a complete body scan showing areas of bacterial life.

Contact: micropia.nl
Nearest transport: Tram 14
Price: ££

The local nickname for Amsterdam is ‘Mokum’, Yiddish for ‘place’ or ‘haven’. For centuries before the Second World War, the city was home to one of the most vibrant Jewish communities in Europe – the force behind Amsterdam’s lucrative diamond-cutting industry, and much more besides. The Jewish Historical Museum traces the history of Jews in the Netherlands, and has an interesting display of ceremonial objects.

Insider’s tip: Temporary exhibitions here, especially ones on photography or those highlighting aspects of Jewish art, are usually superb. The museum café is a great place to try Dutch-Jewish culinary classics, such as cod cakes, or bolus, a ginger-filled donut.

Contact: jck.nl
Nearest transport: Tram 14; Metro Waterlooplein
Prices: £££; includes entry to Portuguese Synagogue

Built in 1675 to serve Amsterdam’s prosperous Sephardic community, the Portuguese Synagogue was considered a showpiece (dwarfing the recently completed Ashkenazi temple next door). Its architect claimed he was creating an imitation of the Temple of Solomon, though the mahogany pews and brass chandeliers bear more of a resemblance to Christian churches of the period. It is open to the public but is still a working synagogue.

Insider’s tip: The Portuguese Synagogue has one of the most awe-inspiring interiors in town. Try to catch a candlelit concert, when the interior appears as it would have to congregations centuries ago.

Contact: jck.nl
Nearest transport: Tram 14; Metro Waterlooplein
Price:  £££; includes entrance to Jewish Historical Museum 

Five-hundred years of maritime history is packed into the elegant Dutch classicist Admiralty Arsenal, the Scheepvaartmuseum (National Maritime Museum), built in 1655 to stock and supply the vessels of the Golden Age. Linger over the old maps and globes but don’t forget there’s a wealth of other objects, too – fine maritime paintings, intricate models of boats, curiosities (such as a preserved whale foetus) and beautifully carved figureheads.

Insider’s tip: The reproduction of the 18th-century Dutch East Indiaman, moored in the harbour alongside the museum, is a must, from the captain’s private loo to the murky room below decks, built to accommodate 200 men.

Contact: hetscheepvaartmuseum.nl
Nearest transport: Buses 22, 43, 246
Price: ££

A fascinating place, the Verzetsmuseum offers a glimpse of life in the Netherlands under the Nazi occupation, and of the underground resistance movement. Forged documents, homemade radios, old film footage and more are put together in imaginative and interactive displays. Personal stories of resistance heroes, Nazi collaborators, and ordinary people trapped in between help give a real sense of what life was like.

Insider’s tip: The doorbells that elicit recorded excuses for not taking you on as an onderduiker (secret occupant hiding from the Nazis, like Anne Frank’s family) is both moving and ingenious

Contact: verzetsmuseum.org
Nearest transport: Tram 14
Price: ££

Top of the quirky-museum list, the Pianola Museum includes not only the sort of honky-tonk piano that played itself in the corner of a Wild West bar, but also more sophisticated instruments, operated using a technology we can no longer fathom. These can reproduce the exact timbre and nuance of the pianist who punched the scroll that makes them work.

Insider’s tip: Attend an eerie concert where the audience sits around politely listening to a playerless piano. The museum has scrolls created by the likes of Debussy and Prokofiev themselves, as well as works especially composed by Stravinsky.

Contact: pianola.nl
Nearest transport: Tram 5
Price: £

A white, aerodynamic zigzag of a building on Amsterdam’s waterfront, the EYE makes an impressive new home for a world-class film collection, covering the history of the movies from the late 1800s onwards. The films are shown on four screens, and the museum hosts world-class visiting exhibitions on various aspects of film.

Insider’s tip: In the basement Panorama, snippets of rare colour silent movies are shown on interactive screens. There’s also much DIY fun, such as shooting images of yourself against a green screen and inserting them into a movie scene.

Contact: eyefilm.nl
Nearest transport: Buiksloterweg ferry (from behind Central station); free service
Price: Varies according to exhibition 

Serene and smart, The Hague is Amsterdam’s posh sister – with a great deal of sibling rivalry between them, as one is the capital, and the other the seat of government and home to the monarch. With much on offer including Noordeinde Palace, it’s a charming place to spend a day. The Mauritshuis is the highlight at The Hague, home to Vermeer’s ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ and a good number of other Golden Age showstoppers.

Insider’s tip: The meticulously restored Panorama Mesdag, a 360º indoor panorama, painted in 1881, depicting beach life at Scheveningen, the city’s seaside annexe, is a must. 

Contact: mauritshuis.nl; panorama-mesdag.nl
Nearest transport: Tram 15, 17 (Mauritshuis); Tram 1, Bus 22, 24, 28 (Panorama Mesdag)
Price: ££

Just 20 minutes by train from Amsterdam, Zaanse Schans recreates the atmosphere of village life when 1,000 windmills ground away at various activities along the River Zaan. Today there are just 12 found amidst wooden houses dating from the 17th and 18th centuries. But they still work – making mustard, producing paint from natural pigments, and with the traditional dairy, the clog maker and more besides in the village.

Insider’s tip: It all makes a great family outing. The working mills are fascinating and fun to a range of ages and interests – the café has excellent sweet and savoury pancakes.

Contact: dezaanseschans.nl
Nearest transport: Train from Centraal Station to Zaandijk-Zaanse Schans; Bus 391 from Centraal Station
Prices: Vary seasonally but the Zaanse Schans Card covers a number of entrance tickets and offers a variety of discounts