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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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,…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • Nieuwendammerdijk

    Amsterdam Noord

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

  • 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…

  • Sexyland is a members' club located in Amsterdam Noord with weekly events open to the public

    Sexyland

    Amsterdam Noord

    See the neon sign and you'll be forgiven for thinking this is an outpost of the Red Light District. But Sexyland is a members' club that has 365 co-owners…

  • Get an alternative take on history at the Torture Museum, Amsterdam

    Torture Museum

    Medieval Centre & Red Light District

    It's dilapidated and so dimly lit inside that you can barely read the placards, but fans of kitsch and oddball lore will enjoy learning about devices such…

  • Sarphatipark, Amsterdam

    Sarphatipark

    De Pijp

    While the Vondelpark is bigger in size and reputation, this tranquil English-style park delivers an equally potent shot of pastoral summertime relaxation,…

  • Ride the beauitfully kept trams at the Electrische Museumtramlijn Amsterdam

    Electrische Museumtramlijn Amsterdam

    Amsterdam

    A handsome red-brick building, the former Haarlemmermeer Station is now the starting point for the tram museum, which is not a static experience but a…

  • The Stopera, a City Hall and music theatre on Waterlooplein by the Binnen Amstel, at night.

    Stopera

    Amsterdam

    This curved waterside building is called Stopera because it houses both the stadhuis (city hall) and the opera and ballet hall, aka Muziektheater. It…

  • Young Goat Kid looking at camera

    De Ridammerhoeve

    Amsterdam

    A remarkable place in Amsterdamse Bos is this organic working goat farm, where kids can feed bottles of milk to, well, kids (€1 for a bottle) in season…

  • ARCAM Architecture Centre in the Eastern Islands area.

    ARCAM

    Amsterdam

    The curved Amsterdam Architecture Foundation, a striking waterside building designed by Dutch architect René van Zuuk, hosts changing architectural…

  • Cobra Museum

    Amsterdam

    It's well worth making the effort to visit this out-of-the-way canal-side museum. The building, designed by Dutch architect Wim Quist, makes a light…

  • Riekermolen Amsterdam

    Riekermolen

    Amsterdam

    Like a scene from another century, just outside Amstelpark's south edge, on the west bank of the Amstel River, stands this 1636 windmill. In a field…

  • Oosterpark

    Amsterdam

    The lush greenery of Oosterpark, with wild parakeets in the trees and herons stalking the large ponds, brings an almost tropical richness to this diverse…

  • 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…

  • Portuguese-Israelite Synagogue

    Amsterdam

    With dizzying wooden barrel-vaulted ceilings, this was the largest synagogue in Europe when it was completed in 1675. It's still in use today, and has no…

  • Hollandsche Schouwburg

    Amsterdam

    Few theatres have had a history of such highs and lows. It was opened as the Artis Theatre in 1892 and became a hub of cultural life in Amsterdam, staging…

  • De Bijlmer

    Amsterdam

    This reinvented high-rise housing estate, built in a hexagonal formation in 1966, was once known for crime and deprivation, and in 1992 was partly…

  • Frankendael House

    Amsterdam

    This area was rolling countryside several centuries ago. In the 18th century, wealthy Amsterdammers would pass their summers and weekends in large country…

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