Amsterdam: what to see, where to stay and how to get around
The ring of canals did not grow — it was planned. In 1613 the city decided to dig three canals in a half circle around the old centre, and the building took sixty years. House tax was charged on the width of the facade, which is why the houses are narrow, deep, and deliberately lean forward — so that furniture hauled up on a rope clears the wall. Two hours.
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A short history of Amsterdam
Amsterdam grew up around a dam on the River Amstel and is first mentioned in 1275, when Count Floris V exempted its inhabitants from tolls. In 1602 the Dutch East India Company was founded here, and in the 17th century, the "Golden Age", the canal ring was dug, which was declared a World Heritage Site in 2010. Conversos from Portugal found refuge here, and in 1675 they opened the Portuguese Synagogue, which is still in use today. Baruch Spinoza grew up in this community. In the Second World War about 75,000 of the city's Jews were murdered, among them Anne Frank, who hid with her family in a house on the Prinsengracht canal.
The ten best sights in Amsterdam
1RijksmuseumA cycle path runs through the middle of the building
2Van Gogh MuseumTimed tickets only, and they sell out days ahead
3Stedelijk MuseumModern art in a building Amsterdam calls the bathtub
4Anne Frank HouseOnline only, released six weeks ahead, and they sell out
5Rembrandt HouseThe house he went bankrupt in, furnished from the inventory
6Royal PalaceBuilt as a town hall, on 13,659 piles
7Oude KerkThe oldest building in the city, 1213, inside the red light district
8WesterkerkRembrandt is buried somewhere inside, and nobody knows where
9BegijnhofA courtyard from 1346, and the oldest wooden house in the city
10Portuguese Synagogue1675, lit by candles only, and still no electricity
Scan with your phone camera to open the map there
What is an audio walk?
Tours in Amsterdam →A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Amsterdam:
Free walking tours in Amsterdam
The Ring
The ring of canals did not grow — it was planned. In 1613 the city decided to dig three canals in a half circle around the old centre, and the building took sixty years. House tax was charged on the width of the facade, which is why the houses are narrow, deep, and deliberately lean forward — so that furniture hauled up on a rope clears the wall. Two hours.
- Dam Square · There really was a dam here, thrown across the Amstel around 1270 — amstel-dam. The river still runs underneath the square in a culvert, and everything in the city is measured from this point.
- Royal Palace · It was built as a town hall, not a palace, and it stands on thirteen thousand six hundred and fifty-nine wooden piles driven into the mud. Louis Bonaparte moved in as king in 1808 and simply kept it; the city has been asking for it back ever since.
- Begijnhof · A courtyard from 1346 reached through one low door off a busy street, and inside it the quiet is total. Number 34 is the oldest house in Amsterdam, built of wood around 1528 — after the fires of 1452 the city banned wooden fronts, and only two survive.
- The Nine Streets · Nine short lanes crossing the three main canals, laid out in the seventeenth century as the service streets behind the grand houses — tanners, cobblers, coopers. The trades are gone and the scale is not, which is why the shops are all small.
- Westerkerk · Rembrandt died poor in 1669 and was buried here in a rented grave that was cleared after twenty years, so nobody knows where in the church he is. Anne Frank wrote that its bells were the one thing from outside that never frightened her.
- Anne Frank House · Eight people lived behind a bookcase in the back annexe of her father’s warehouse for seven hundred and sixty-one days. Her father was the only one who came back, and he kept the rooms empty — there is no furniture in them, by his decision.
Jewish Amsterdam
Sephardic Jews fleeing the Inquisition arrived here in the 1590s, and Amsterdam let them build a synagogue openly — which was impossible almost anywhere else in Europe. On the eve of the war eighty thousand Jews lived in the city; about five thousand survived. Two hours, and they are heavy.
- Waterlooplein · This square was the heart of the Jewish quarter and its market since 1885. The quarter was emptied in the war and then half demolished in the 1970s for a metro line and an opera house, against years of street protest.
- Portuguese Synagogue · Finished in 1675 and never wired for electricity — it is still lit by more than a thousand candles in brass chandeliers, and the floor is covered in fine sand, as it was then, to soak up water and muffle footsteps.
- Jewish Historical Museum · Four Ashkenazi synagogues built between 1671 and 1752, standing side by side in one block, were joined internally into a single museum — you walk from one prayer hall straight into the next through holes cut in the party walls.
- Hollandsche Schouwburg · A theatre that the occupation turned into an assembly point: some forty-six thousand people were held here before being sent east. The auditorium was taken down and the empty space left as it is. Entry is free, and it is almost always empty.
- Hortus Botanicus · Founded in 1638 as a herb garden for the city’s doctors. A coffee plant grown here was given to the French in 1714, taken to Martinique, and almost all the coffee in Latin America descends from it.
- Rembrandt House · He bought it in 1639 on a mortgage he could not carry, and went bankrupt in it twenty years later. The bankruptcy inventory listed every object in every room, which is exactly how the house has been furnished back.
Museums and De Pijp
Three great museums stand on one lawn, and immediately behind them begins the quarter thrown up fast and cheap in the 1870s for workers — and now the place the city eats. The walk between them is ten minutes, and it is one of the densest kilometres in Europe. Two and a half hours.
- Rijksmuseum · A public cycle path runs straight through the middle of the building, and it is the only museum in the world like that. During the ten-year renovation the architects tried to close it; the cyclists fought them in court for a decade and won.
- Van Gogh Museum · Two hundred paintings, five hundred drawings and seven hundred letters — the largest collection there is, and it exists because his brother Theo kept everything and Theo’s widow spent her life getting him recognised.
- Stedelijk Museum · The white extension added in 2012 is made of a seamless composite used for boat hulls, with no visible joints anywhere — the city immediately named it the bathtub, and the name stuck.
- Museumplein · The lawn was a sports field, then a car park, and was only turned into this in 1999. The pond at the museum end is flooded and frozen each winter to make a public skating rink, and it is free.
- Albert Cuyp Market · Two hundred and sixty stalls down one street, six days a week, and it has run since 1905. The stroopwafel stall presses them to order between two irons and the syrup is poured hot; eating one cold is a different food.
- De Pijp · Built in a hurry in the 1870s as cheap housing — narrow streets, no gardens, and the name means the pipe. It was the poorest quarter in the city for a century, then the students arrived, and now it is where everyone eats.
Getting to Amsterdam and getting around
- Schiphol · The train is 17 minutes to Centraal and costs €5.80
- Amsterdam Centraal · Built on three artificial islands and 8,687 wooden piles
- Sloterdijk · Cheaper hotels, and six minutes from the centre
Cheap eats in Amsterdam
Eight counters where Amsterdam eats standing. A chip shop in an alley that has fried the same way since 1887, a herring cart on a bridge where you take it by the tail, and a wall of little hatches with hot croquettes behind glass that you open with a coin.
- Vleminckx · €4.50 with sauce, standing in the alley
- Stubbe’s Haring · €4 with onion and pickle. Take it by the tail
- Rob Wigboldus Vishandel · Three tables, a soft white roll, and the best fish sandwich
- Van Stapele · €2.50, one cookie, and that is the whole shop
- Winkel 43 · Apple pie on the market corner, €5.50, and a queue on Saturday
- De Laatste Kruimel · A canal-side bakery with crates for seats, and everything is baked there
- Febo · €2 from a hatch in a wall, open till very late
- Foodhallen · A tram depot of stalls, open till one, and warm in winter
Museums in Amsterdam
- Rijksmuseum · €22.50. Book a slot; the Night Watch hall is the bottleneck
- Van Gogh Museum · €24, timed entry only, and it sells out days ahead
- Stedelijk Museum · €22.50, and the white extension is seamless on purpose
- Anne Frank House · €16, online only, released six weeks ahead
- Rembrandt House · Furnished exactly from his bankruptcy inventory
- Het Scheepvaartmuseum · €17.50, and the ship outside is the reason to go
- EYE Filmmuseum · The ferry to it is free, and the basement is free too
Parks and gardens in Amsterdam
- Vondelpark · Free, open all night, and the theatre is free in summer
- Westerpark · A Victorian gasworks in the middle of it, now cinemas
- Oosterpark · The oldest big park, and nobody from outside goes
- Sarphatipark · Two minutes off the market, and that is the point
- Hortus Botanicus · €12, from 1638, and the butterfly house is warm
- Amsterdamse Bos · Free, and you can hire a canoe inside it
Things to do in Amsterdam with kids
- NEMO Science Museum · The sloping roof is a free public square with water on it
- Artis Royal Zoo · €29, and the aquarium is included
- The free ferries · Behind Centraal, every few minutes, free, day and night
- Het Scheepvaartmuseum · They may climb the whole ship, below decks included
- A’DAM Lookout · €16.50, and a swing that hangs over the edge
- Zaanse Schans · Working windmills you can go inside. Walking is free
Live music in Amsterdam
- Paradiso · €20-30, and the balcony is better than the floor
- Melkweg · A dairy until 1970. Two halls, and bands every night
- Concertgebouw · Free concert every Wednesday at 12:30
- Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ · Glass on the water, and the cheap seats are good
- Royal Theatre Carré · Built as a circus in 1887, and the ring is still under the stage
- NDSM Wharf · Festivals in a dead shipyard, and the ferry is free
Nightlife in Amsterdam
- Jordaan · Brown cafés with sand on the floor, and no music
- Rembrandtplein · Loud, late, and not where locals go
- Leidseplein · Two concert halls on one square, and the cinema between them
- Brouwerij ’t IJ · Open from two, and the tables outside fill first
- De Hallen · A tram depot with a cinema, a library and the food hall
- Nieuwmarkt · Tables around a medieval gate, and cheaper than the squares
Frequently asked questions about Amsterdam
What is there to see in Amsterdam?
The top sights in Amsterdam are Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh Museum and Stedelijk Museum. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.
How many days do you need in Amsterdam?
Three to four days are enough to see the best of Amsterdam without rushing, including at least one walking tour.
Is there a free walking tour in Amsterdam?
Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Amsterdam, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: The Ring.
How do you get to Amsterdam and get around?
The main ways are Schiphol, Amsterdam Centraal and Sloterdijk. Full details are in the transport section on this page.
Where to stay in Amsterdam, and for how much?
sleepntrip shows only rooms in Amsterdam that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.
Looking for a hotel in Amsterdam for your dates?
Only rooms that meet nine conditions, up to $80 a night.