Historic, culture-rich and often with a whiff of funny smoke on the air, the Netherlands’ capital is a beloved treasury of golden-age merchants’ houses, wiggly canals and skinny bridges. It’s also a pin-up for the anti-tourism brigade — more than anywhere in Europe, civic officials are forcing through laws and measures to make sure overtourism doesn’t overwhelm the city and curb its sustainable ambitions. Which is to say, you need to visit at the right time and in a socially responsible way: stay in an area away from De Wallen and the Rembrandtplein and Leidseplein crush, eat and drink in restaurants off the tourist trail and avoid descending on the city for a boozy trip or rowdy stag party.
Despite the caveats, a visit to Amsterdam remains one of Europe’s most romantic pleasures: nowhere else can you spend such quality time with Rembrandt, Vermeer and Van Gogh, or linger during borrelen (drinking time) in nostalgia-laden brown cafés, with Heineken on tap and bitterballen (beef ragout croquettes) at your fingertips. And to join the Dutch on a two-wheeled tour, spinning from squares to parks along a snippet of the city’s 250 miles of cycleways, is as invigorating now as it ever was (just lock up your bike properly and — obviously — stick to the right).
The passing of time has been hard on Amsterdam in recent years, but with 90 islands to explore and always a hip new neighbourhood to discover, this is a city that’s constantly reinventing itself for the better.
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What to do
Long gone are the days of the city’s 17th-century golden age, a controversial term today as it glosses over the ugly truths of Dutch colonialism and slavery. The Amsterdam Museum, housed in a former orphanage, was the first to ditch the whitewashing phrase and this is as good a place as any to start. Afterwards, you’re in striking distance of Anne Frank House, a canal house-turned-memorial to the teenager whose posthumous Second World War diary continues to shock — and inspire — the world.
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• Best things to do in Amsterdam
Now for a trip through 800 years of world-class Dutch art: take in Rembrandt’s The Night Watch at the world-famous Rijksmuseum; Sunflowers at the Van Gogh Museum; and, finally, Mondrian and the De Stijl movement at Stedelijk Museum. Leave Rembrandt House Museum and the contemporary Moco Museum for another day to stretch your legs along all those coloured-in canals. The Unesco-worthy Gouden Bocht, or golden curve, between Leidsestraat and Vijzelstraat, has several fine canal houses and viewpoints to savour. In the other direction, the Magere Brug hovers above the Amstel River and has to be one of Amsterdam’s loveliest bridges. When fairylit at night, it’s completely captivating.
Up next? Strap in for bonkers flea markets, particularly IJ-Hallen and Albert Cuyp Market; people watching in Vondelpark; and the Europe of tomorrow in Amsterdam Noord. Here you’ll find the EYE Film Institute, cultural ground zero Tolhuistuin, and clean-tech and creativity compound Café de Ceuvel.
Where to stay
Surely, 20 million annual visitors can’t be wrong. Since Amsterdam became one of the world’s most-visited cities, the number of hotel beds has rocketed. Historically, De Wallen and medieval Binnenstad next to Amsterdam Centraal station are where most travellers arrive and depart, and that’s where you’ll find a mixture of guesthouses and hotels, from upmarket art deco pads to canal houses turned boutique bolt holes. Many of the friskier, design-conscious hotels are located farther to the west in De 9 Straatjes (The 9 Streets). Among them, The Dylan on Keizersgracht canal is almost a Dutch heirloom and worth it for Michelin-starred Restaurant Vinkeles alone, while those in a similarly slick vein are The Hoxton and Andaz Amsterdam Prinsengracht. Nearby, the Pulitzer Amsterdam has its own polished-teak houseboat to tour the surrounding waterways.
As a rule of thumb, you’ll want some sort of canalside setting and that’s where Amsterdam comes into its own. With some 3,000 houseboats on its murky blue waters, there are plenty of cool canal boat rentals and luxury moorings to choose from. A great place to start is Airbnb-style booking engine HouseBoat Rental Amsterdam.
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In terms of which neighbourhoods to pick, Oost is on the up and De Pijp, otherwise known as The Pipe, is always popular thanks to the area’s photogenic-but-busy streets.
Better still is working-class Noord, a ferry tootle from where most travellers arrive at Amsterdam Central train station. It remains the hippest quarter and blessed with the most intriguing aspects of fun, fast and flirty Amsterdam. Beyond the area’s go-to institutions like the Eye Filmmuseum and Nxt Museum (for psychedelic new media), there’s the trendsetting stalls of the Van Der Pekmarkt and the A’DAM Tower, the former Shell HQ where you can zoom up to a sky bar, then whoosh 100 meurpetres above the warehouses below on Europe’s highest swing.
Before you go, seek out sustainable De Ceuvel, a creative and social enterprise built out of the bones of a former shipyard — it’s now a treasure map of post-industrial cafés and anchored boats home to start ups, galleries and a floating B&B.
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Food and drink
If pancakes are your idea of heaven, you’ve come to the right place. Made with all sorts of wholesome wheat, spelt and oat flours, and served in all kinds of places from gourmet bakeries to brunch clubs and houseboats, the humble pancake is arguably Amsterdam’s most authentic dish. In business for half a century, The Pancake Bakery on Prinsengracht is not to be sniffed at and you won’t have to look far to find others worth an extra notch on your belt. Try one of PANCAKES’ six citywide locations — or, for a vegan crepe with hand-picked saffron served with a flute of champagne, there’s Moak Pancakes. If that doesn’t do it for you, drop a pin on your smartphone map for De Hallen, a food hall located in a converted tram depot in Oud-West. Otherwise, opt for upmarket The Food Department in the heart of De Wallen.
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Given beer is one of the Netherlands’ most famous exports, it won’t come as a surprise that some of its most popular attractions are breweries. The Heineken Experience in De Pijp is the tourist trap you’d expect it to be, but there are a number of other smaller, more sustainable brewhouses to duck into for a swift half. Windmill-topped Brouwerij ’t IJ has a lovely historic atmosphere, while Nordic-themed Walhalla taproom and industrial-set Oedipus Brewing are also good fun. Note, pairing a lager with bitterballen is compulsory.
Also, don’t overlook a tour of the city centre’s cosy brown cafés, effectively tobacco-stained pubs that haven’t changed since the Mayflower first sailed from Holland. Fresh beer is often the only concession to modernity in these atmospheric, beaten-up pubs. Wobble between Café de Sluyswacht, Café Chris, Café De Dokter and Café ’t Smalle for the perfect 16th-century pub crawl.
Don’t miss
Visit Amsterdam without hopping on an Amsterdam canal cruise and you’ll be the odd one out. A boat trip remains one of the city’s most popular attractions, with more than three million people each year squeezing aboard various boats to enjoy views of gorgeous bridges decorated with chained-up bicycles. Better still is to join an electric-powered fishing cruise with Plastic Whale, the world’s first plastic-fishing company. Prinsengracht is where you’ll be fishing for bottles, coffee cups and rusty beer cans — aka plastic soup. As well as cleaning up after other visitors, you’ll see the city in a completely different light.
Neighbouring Haarlem, with its beautiful Molen de Adriaan windmill on the Spaarne river, is in every travel guide, but it’s still worth a day trip. As well as its impeccable museum and historic Flemish buildings, you’ll find the city is a gateway to rainbow-coloured tulip fields and a zillion other lovely blossoms: crocuses, daffodils and hyacinths. For more dazzling colour than you can shake a stroopwafel at, visit on April 27, or King’s Day, when more than a million people throng the streets to celebrate King Willem-Alexander’s birthday. The theme every year is head-to-toe bright orange, a hat tip to the royal family’s House of Orange-Nassau roots.
Know before you go
The driest time to visit is from June to August, but to avoid Amsterdam’s notorious over-tourism, stick to May or September. As you’re coming for beautiful inner-city streets and attractions, you’ll want to rent a bike. Ludicrously, some 10,000 are fished out of the canals every year — make sure to get one with a padlock.
Take me there
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Inspired to visit Amsterdam but yet to book your trip? Here are the best packages from British Airways and Tui.
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