Must-see attractions in Amsterdam

  • AMSTERDAM - OCTOBER 3: Van Gogh museum building outstanding with design architectured in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on October 3, 2015.; Shutterstock ID 415294189; Your name (First / Last): Daniel Fahey; GL account no.: 65050; Netsuite department name: Online Editorial; Full Product or Project name including edition: Van Gogh Museum POI

    Van Gogh Museum

    Amsterdam

    This wonderful museum traces Van Gogh's life and artistic development via the world's largest collection of his work. More than 200 canvases are on…

  • Picnic in Vondelpark in afternoon light.

    Vondelpark

    Amsterdam

    Attracting over 12 million visitors per year, Amsterdam’s favorite playground is the green expanse of Vondelpark, with its 116 acres (47 hectares) of…

  • February 13, 2018: Queue of people waiting to enter the Anne Frank museum house, with a passing tour boat on the canal.

    Anne Frank Huis

    Western Canal Ring

    Visiting the Anne Frank Huis is one of Amsterdam's most profound experiences. Tragically, of the 107,000 Jewish adults and children deported from the…

  • Rijksmuseum with tulips in Amsterdam..NOTE: dated image - "iamamsterdam" sign has been removed from outside museum.

    Rijksmuseum

    Amsterdam

    The Netherlands’ top treasure house, the Rijksmuseum (pronounced ‘rikes’), is among the world's finest art museums. With over 1.5km of galleries, it packs…

  • May 18, 2018: Exterior of the Rembrandt House Museum in the old Jewish quarter of Amsterdam.

    Museum het Rembrandthuis

    Amsterdam

    Housed in Rembrandt's former home on lively Jodenbreestraat, this evocative museum provides an unparalleled insight into one of the Netherlands’ greatest…

  • Hermitage Amsterdam

    H'Art Museum

    Southern Canal Ring

    Formerly a branch of St Petersburg’s State Hermitage Museum, H'Art Museum cut ties with Russia and now operates as an independent museum.

  • Anti-Hitler propoganda, display at the Verzetmuseum, Plantage Kerklaan 61a.

    Verzetsmuseum

    Amsterdam

    The museum of the Dutch Resistance brings the horror of German occupation in WWII vividly alive, using personal stories, letters, artefacts, films and…

  • The Amsterdam Museum Quarter

    Stedelijk Museum

    Amsterdam

    This fabulous museum houses the collection amassed by postwar curator Willem Sandberg. The ground-floor Stedelijk Base exhibition displays a rotating…

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    Royal Palace

    Medieval Centre & Red Light District

    Opened as a town hall in 1655, this resplendent building became a palace in the 19th century. The interiors gleam, especially the marble work – at its…

  • AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS - JULY 27: The Nemo Museum at night on July 27, 2013 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Science Center NEMO is designed by Renzo Piano since 1997.; Shutterstock ID 162619127; Your name (First / Last): Josh Vogel; Project no. or GL code: 56530; Network activity no. or Cost Centre: Online-Design; Product or Project: 65050/7529/Josh Vogel/LP.com Destination Galleries

    NEMO Science Museum

    Amsterdam

    Perched atop the entrance to the IJ Tunnel is this unmissable green-copper building with a slanted roof, designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano and…

  • The sign for the Kindermuseum at the Tropenmuseum.

    Tropenmuseum

    Amsterdam

    A great arched, galleried space, the Tropenmuseum houses a three-storey collection of artefacts from all over the world, depicting a wide range of…

  • Museum Willet-Holthuysen

    Southern Canal Ring

    This exquisite canal house was built in 1687 for Amsterdam mayor Jacob Hop, then remodelled in 1739. It's named after Louisa Willet-Holthuysen, who…

  • Stall at Albert Cuyp Market in De Pijp area.

    Albert Cuypmarkt

    De Pijp

    Some 260 stalls fill the Albert Cuypmarkt, Amsterdam's largest and busiest market. Vendors loudly tout their array of gadgets, homewares, flowers, fruit,…

  • De Hallen

    Amsterdam

    These red-brick 1902-built tram sheds were formerly used as a squat before being turned into this breathtaking skylit space. De Hallen was stunningly…

  • Artis Royal Zoo

    Amsterdam

    A wonderfully leafy expanse, mainland Europe's oldest zoo has a fine range of wildlife, with extensive habitats and room to wander. A lovely stretch runs…

  • NDSM-werf

    Amsterdam Noord

    This derelict shipyard turned edgy arts community, 15 minutes upriver from the city centre, wafts a post-apocalyptic vibe. An old submarine slumps in the…

  • A'DAM Tower

    Amsterdam Noord

    The 22-storey A'DAM Tower used to be the Royal Dutch Shell oil company offices, but has had a makeover to become one of Amsterdam's biggest attractions…

  • Het Scheepvaartmuseum

    Amsterdam

    A waterfront 17th-century admiralty building houses this state-of-the-art presentation of maritime memorabilia. Highlights include imaginatively presented…

  • Joods Historisch Museum

    Amsterdam

    In this beautifully restored complex of four Ashkenazic synagogues from the 17th and 18th centuries, displays show the history of Jews in the Netherlands,…

  • Micropia

    Amsterdam

    The world's first microbe museum is a germaphobe's nightmare. Micropia has hands-on exhibits and microscopes to peer through and fascinating, if…

  • Museum Van Loon

    Southern Canal Ring

    An insight into life at the top of the pile in the 19th century, Museum Van Loon is an opulent 1672 residence that was first home to painter Ferdinand Bol…

  • Foam

    Southern Canal Ring

    From the outside, it looks like a grand canal house, but this is the city's most important photography gallery. Its simple, spacious galleries, some with…

  • Nieuwendammerdijk

    Amsterdam Noord

    Enchanting chocolate-box prettiness characterises this long, narrow street of wooden Dutch houses, now prime real estate, with hollyhocks nodding beside…

  • Netherlands, Noord Holland, Amsterdam, the Begijnhof Courtyard. (Photo by: Eye Ubiquitous/UIG via Getty Images)

    Begijnhof

    Medieval Centre & Red Light District

    Dating from the early 14th century, this enclosed former convent is a peaceful haven, with tiny houses and postage-stamp gardens around a well-kept…

  • Amsterdam Museum

    Medieval Centre & Red Light District

    Entrepreneurship, free thinking, citizenship and creativity are the four cornerstones of the multimedia DNA exhibit at this riveting museum, which splits…

  • Nieuwe Kerk

    Medieval Centre & Red Light District

    This 15th-century late-Gothic basilica is only ‘new’ in relation to the Oude Kerk – the city's Old Church, dating from 1306. A few monumental items…

  • Oude Kerk

    Medieval Centre & Red Light District

    Dating from 1306, the Oude Kerk is Amsterdam's oldest surviving building. It's also an intriguing moral contradiction: a church surrounded by active Red…

  • Heineken Experience

    De Pijp

    On the site of the company’s former brewery, Heineken's self-guided 'Experience' provides an entertaining overview of the brewing process, with a…

  • Museum Ons' Lieve Heer op Solder

    Medieval Centre & Red Light District

    Within what looks like an ordinary canal house is an entire Catholic church. Ons' Lieve Heer op Solder (Our Dear Lord in the Attic) was built in the mid…

  • Woods

    Amsterdamse Bos

    Amsterdam

    Amsterdam's forest is a vast swathe (roughly 1000 hectares) of almost countryside, 20 minutes by bike south of Vondelpark. Planted in 1934 to provide…

  • Below the Surface

    Medieval Centre & Red Light District

    During the construction of Amsterdam's 2018-opened Noord/Zuidlijn (North–South metro line), more than 134,000 archaeological finds were unearthed from…

  • Rembrandtplein

    Southern Canal Ring

    First called Reguliersplein, then Botermarkt for the butter markets held here until the mid-19th century, this somewhat brash square now takes its name…

  • Hard Rock Hotel Amsterdam American

    Southern Canal Ring

    This building is a magnificent art nouveau beast. The founder of the original hotel, Cornelis Alidus Anne (CAA) Steinigeweg had helped establish a Dutch…

  • Leidseplein

    Southern Canal Ring

    Historic architecture, beer, clubs and steakhouses – welcome to Leidseplein. The square is always busy, but after dark it gets thronged by a mainstream…

  • Museumplein

    Amsterdam

    Amsterdam's most famous museums cluster around this public square, which has that Amsterdam essential: a skateboard ramp, as well as a playground and ice…

  • Blauw Jan

    Southern Canal Ring

    There's a surprise waiting in Kleine Gartmanplantsoen park: 40 huge, lifelike lizards nestled in the grass and sunning themselves on the brickwork. It's a…

  • Golden Bend

    Southern Canal Ring

    The Golden Bend is Amsterdam's swankiest stretch of property. Its handsome mansions are a monument to the Golden Age, when precious goods swelled the…

  • Reguliersgracht

    Southern Canal Ring

    Crossing Herengracht, Keizersgracht and Prinsengracht canals, this waterway was dug in 1658 to link the Herengracht with the canals further south. The…

  • EYE Film Institute

    Amsterdam Noord

    At this modernist architectural triumph that seems to balance on its edge on the banks of the IJ (also pronounced 'eye') River, the institute screens…

  • Kunststad

    Amsterdam Noord

    This former shipbuilding warehouse is filled with over 80 artists studios, with some 250 artists working in the NDSM broedplaats (breeding ground). It's a…

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