81 Best Sights in Amsterdam, Netherlands

In the pages of The Diary of Anne Frank (published posthumously in 1947 by her father, Otto, as The Annex—the title she had chosen), the young Anne recorded two increasingly fraught years living in secret, in a warren of rooms at the back of this 1635 canal house, hidden from the Nazis. Anne was born in Germany in 1929; when she was four, her family moved to the Netherlands to escape growing anti-Jewish sentiment. They made a life in their adopted city until the threat of war in Europe increased. After repeated attempts to emigrate to England, Australia, Chile, and the United States failed and the war reached the Netherlands in 1940, Anne's father Frank took his wife and daughters into hiding in July 1942, the day after Anne's sister Margot received the call to report for a German work camp. A week later they were joined by the Van Pels family: Auguste, Hermann, and their son, Peter. Four months later, dentist Fritz Pfeffer moved in.

The five adults and three children sought refuge in the attic of the rear annex, or achterhuis, of Otto's pectin business in the center of Amsterdam. The entrance to the flat was hidden behind a hinged bookcase. Here, like many onderduikers ("people in hiding") throughout Amsterdam, Anne dreamed her dreams, wrote her diary, and pinned up movie-star pictures to her wall (still on view). Five of Otto's trusted employees provided them with food and supplies. In her diary, Anne chronicles the day-to-day life in the house: her longing for a best friend, her crush on Peter, her frustration with her mother, her love for her father, and her annoyance with the petty dentist, who was called Dussel in her diary. In August 1944, the Franks were betrayed, and the Gestapo invaded their hideaway. All the members of the annex were transported to camps. Anne and Margot died of typhoid in Bergen-Belsen a few months before the liberation. Otto Frank was the only survivor of the annex. Miep Gies, one of the friends who helped with the hiding, found Anne's diary after the raid and kept it through the war. Now, millions of people read its tale of humanity's struggle with fascism. A major renovation was completed in 2018 to provide more historical context. Every Tuesday at 10am CEST all tickets become available for a visit six weeks later.

Because of crowds, you must now buy a timed ticket online (through the official website only) before you visit---every Tuesday at 10 am (local Amsterdam time) all tickets become available for a visit six weeks later. 

Regularly voted Amsterdam's most beautiful street, this wonderful canal at the northern border of the Jordaan is lined with residences and former warehouses for the brewers, fish processors, and tanneries who operated here in the 17th century when Amsterdam was the "warehouse of the world." On top of the old canal, mansions dotting the Brouwersgracht are symbols referring to the breweries that used this waterway to transport their goods to thirsty drinkers hundreds of years ago. Although most of the buildings have been converted into luxury apartments, an old-world charm still reigns. Of particular note are buildings at Nos. 204–212, with their trapezium gables. At No. 162, there are two dried fish above the door; this decoration on a metal screen was the forerunner of the gable stone to denote occupation. The canal provides long views down the grand canals that are perfect for photo ops.

In an eye-popping, proto-futuristic waterfront structure designed by Viennese architects Delugan Meissl, this cutting-edge museum and archive is easily accessible, thanks to a free two-minute ferry ride from Centraal Station. Along with restoring thousands of films (Martin Scorsese used footage from Georges Méliès films restored here in his film Hugo), the institute contains four massive screening rooms (showing a fine mix of classic and contemporary films), a large permanent display with historical objects, set photos and interactive elements from the cinematic world, and a library open to the public. The EYE, whose name is a pun on the pronunciation of IJ, also organizes wonderful changing exhibitions about film-related subjects. There is also a restaurant with a waterfront terrace and terrific views.

Of Amsterdam's 60-plus drawbridges, this is the most famous, and it provides gorgeous views of the Amstel and surrounding area. It's said to have been first built in the 1660s, around the time of the construction of the Eastern Canal Ring. While there are many theories about the origins of its name, the most colorful tells a tale of two sisters living on opposite sides of the Amstel who wanted an efficient way of sharing that grandest of Dutch traditions: the gezellige (socially cozy) midmorning coffee break. Whether "mager" referred to their surname, slim physiques, or possibly even their miserliness, we'll never know. Walk by at night when it's spectacularly lighted. Many replacements to the narrow original bridge have come and gone; the current one dates from 1931 but bears a close resemblance to the 19th-century design.

Once home to one of Rembrandt's most successful students, Ferdinand Bol, this house and its twin next door (No. 674) were built in 1672 by Adriaen Dortsman and extensively remodeled in the 18th century by Abraham van Hagan and his wife, Catherina Tripp, whose names are entwined in the ornate brass balustrade on the staircase. House No. 672 was occupied by the powerful Van Loon family from 1886 to 1960. After extensive restoration to return it to its glory of the 18th century, the house was opened as a museum in the 1970s. The elegant salons include many Van Loon portraits and possessions, including paintings known as witjes, or grisailles—illusionistic depictions of landscapes and other scenes. The symmetrical garden is a gem. Facing the rear of the house, the restored Grecian-style coach house holds the coach collection and serves tea.

Opened in 1997, this copper-clad building designed by world-renowned architect Renzo Piano (co-creator of Centre Pompidou in Paris, among many other notable projects) is an international architectural landmark—a curved green shape like a ship's bow seemingly rising out of the water, over the IJ Tunnel entrance to Amsterdam North. A rooftop café and terrace offer a superb panorama of the area. It's worth a visit just for the view, but there are also five floors of fantastical, hands-on, high-tech fun, which make this a science wonderland, especially for kids. Attractions range from giant "bubbles" on the ground floor to experiments in the Wonder Lab and interactive exhibitions like Teen Facts.

The famed Rijksmuseum houses the largest concentration of Dutch masterworks in the world, as well as paintings, sculpture, and objects from the East and West that provide global context for the history of the Netherlands. Long the nation's pride, this museum has abandoned the art/design/history divisions and has instead combined them into one panoply of art and style presented chronologically, from the Middle Ages to the 20th century. Don't be surprised, in other words, if you spot a vase in a 17th-century painting by Gerard Dou and, next to it, that very same Delft blue-and-white vase itself.

When architect P. J. H. Cuypers came up with a somewhat over-the-top design in the late 1880s, it shocked Calvinist Holland. Cuypers was persuaded to tone down some of what was thought as excessive (i.e., Catholic) elements of his Neo-Renaissance decoration and soaring Neo-Gothic lines. During the building's construction, however, he did manage to sneak some of his ideas back in (including a cheeky statue of himself peeking around a corner), and the result is a magnificent turreted building that glitters with gold leaf and is textured with sculpture.

If your time is limited, head directly for the Gallery of Honor on the upper floor to admire Rembrandt's The Night Watch with its central figure, Frans Banningh Cocq. His militia buddies each paid 100 guilders to be included alongside him—quite a sum in those days, so a few of them complained about being lost in all those shadows. It should be noted that some of these shadows are formed by the daylight coming in through a small window. Daylight? Indeed, The Night Watch is actually the Day Watch, but it received its name in the 18th century when the varnish had discolored—imagine the conservators' surprise. The rest of this "Best of the Golden Age" hall features other well-known Rembrandt paintings as well as works by Vermeer, Frans Hals, and other great artists of the 17th century.

The 20th-century section on the third floor of the two towers includes works by Mondrian and the CoBrA movement, a Nazi chess set (with tanks and cannon instead of castles and bishops), and even a complete Dutch-designed fighter plane, built in 1917 for the Royal Air Force.

In one wing of the ground floor are the Special Collections—room after room of antique furniture, silverware, and exquisite porcelain, including Delftware. An overlooked (and freely accessible) part of this museum is its sculpture garden formed in the triangle by Hobbemastraat and Jan Luijkenstraat. There's a minimuseum in Schiphol Airport, which is free and open 24/7 (after passport control, Holland Boulevard between Piers E and F).

Tickets are timed and can only be purchased online.

Amsterdam's celebrated treasure house of modern art is housed in a wedding-cake Neo-Renaissance structure built in 1894. In true Amsterdam fashion, locals were quick to nickname the futuristic addition, by globally acclaimed architects Benthem/Crouwel, the "Badkuip" (Bathtub); it incorporates a glass-walled restaurant (which you can visit, along with the museum shop, without a ticket). The new Stedelijk has twice the exhibition space of the old museum, with temporary exhibitions in the extension.

As for the Stedelijk's old building, it's home to the museum's fabled collection of modern and contemporary art and design pieces. While this collection harbors many works by such giants of modernism as Chagall, Cézanne, Picasso, Monet, Mondrian, and Malevich, there is a definite emphasis on the post–World War II period: with such local CoBrA artists as Appel and Corneille (CoBrA was the avant-garde art movement from 1948 to 1951; the name comes from the initials of the members' home cities: Copenhagen, Brussels, Amsterdam); American Pop artists like Warhol, Johns, Oldenburg, and Liechtenstein; Abstract Expressionists including De Kooning and Pollock; contemporary German Expressionists such as Polke, Richter, and Baselitz; and works by Dutch essentials of the De Stijl school, including the game-changing Red Blue Chair that Gerrit Rietveld designed in 1918 and Mondrian's 1920 trail-blazing Composition in Red, Black, Yellow, Blue, and Grey.

Opened in 1973, this remarkable light-infused building, based on a design by famed De Stijl architect Gerrit Rietveld, venerates the short and productive career of tortured 19th-century artist Vincent van Gogh. Although some of the Van Gogh paintings scattered throughout the world's museums are of dubious provenance, this collection's authenticity is indisputable: its roots trace directly back to Vincent's brother, Theo van Gogh, who was his artistic and financial supporter.

The 200 paintings and 500 drawings on permanent display here can be divided into five basic periods, the first beginning in 1880 at age 27 after his failure in finding his voice as schoolmaster and lay preacher. These early depictions of Belgian and Dutch country landscapes and peasants were notable for their dark colors and a refusal to romanticize. The Potato Eaters is perhaps his most famous piece from this period. In 1886, he followed his art-dealing brother, Theo, to Paris, where the heady atmosphere—and drinking buddies like Paul Signac and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec—inspired him to new heights of experimentation. While heavily inspired by Japanese woodcuts and their hard contrasts and off-kilter compositions, he also took the Neo-Impressionist obsession with light and color as his own, and his self-portraits (he was the only model he could afford) began to shimmer with expressive lines and dots. With a broadened palette, Vincent returned to the countryside in 1888 to paint still lifes—including the famous series of Sunflowers (originally meant to decorate the walls of a single bedroom in the Maison Jaune he had set up to welcome Paul Gauguin)—and portraits of locals around Arles, France. His hopes to begin an artists' colony there with Paul Gauguin were dampened by the onset of psychotic attacks, one of which saw the departure of his ear lobe (a desperate gesture to show respect for Gauguin—in southern France, matadors had ears cut off of bulls and presented them to their lady loves). Recuperating in a mental health clinic in Saint-Rémy from April 1889, he—feverishly, one assumes—produced famous works like Irises and Wheatfield with a Reaper, whose energetic brushwork powerfully evoke the area's sweeping winds. In May 1890, Van Gogh moved to the village of Auvers-sur-Oise, where he traded medical advice from Dr. Paul Gachet for paintings and etching lessons. The series of vibrantly colored canvases the pained painter made shortly before he died are particularly breathtaking. These productive last three months of his life were marred by depression, and on July 27, he shot himself while painting Tree Roots and died two days later.

In 1999, the 200th anniversary of Van Gogh's birth was marked with a museum extension designed by the Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa, which provides space for superb temporary exhibitions. In 2015, a glass structure was added to create a new entrance hall on the Museumplein side and to connect the original museum building to the Kurokawa wing.

Tickets are timed and can only be purchased online. Book well in advance since time slots fill up fast.

Visit this house museum for a chance to imagine what it was like to live in a gracious mansion on the Herengracht in the 19th century. In 1895, widow Louisa Willet-Holthuysen bequeathed the house to the city, along with all of its contents—now under the management of the Amsterdam Museum. It's well worth spending an hour or so perusing the interiors and artwork, which include a sumptuous ballroom and a rarities cabinet. You can also lounge in the French Classical–style garden in the back.

Just beyond the Jordaan and across from the main canal that borders the Western Islands is one of contemporary Amsterdam's most cherished spaces. It's a park first and foremost, with lawns, playgrounds, water fountains, a fabulous designer paddling pool, a barbecue area, and a couple of tennis courts. The sprawling terrain of the city's old Western gasworks has been turned into the Westergasfabriek: cafés, galleries, clubs, shops, and an art-house cinema occupy the former industrial landscape that has been lovingly detoxed, replanted, and refurbished building by building. There's even a bit of natural wilderness (or at least the organized Dutch brand of "wilderness") behind the park, with a community farm, a petting zoo, a natural playground for kids, and some polder areas with footpaths between them. The lovely late-19th-century Sint Barbara cemetery is here, too.

Originally constructed in 1971 as the headquarters of Royal Dutch Shell, the A'DAM Tower has now been repurposed as a hotel, and several bars and restaurants. For most day visitors, however, the best way to experience it is to ride the glass-ceiling elevator—you'll be entertained by a sound and light show as you ascend—to A’DAM Lookout, a rooftop observation deck with a superb panoramic view of the IJ River, Centraal Station, and across the old city beyond. The visit includes a multimedia exhibition about Amsterdam history and culture. Daredevils can also sign up for "Over the Edge," which is Europe’s highest swing and does exactly what it says: it will swing you out beyond the edge of the tower and leave your feet dangling 330 feet above the street below.

This tree-filled courtyard is a residential hideaway where women of the Beguine order lived a chaste, spiritual life from the 14th century onward. Number 34 is the oldest house in Amsterdam—one of two remaining wooden houses in the city following 15th-century fires that consumed three-quarters of the city. The small Engelse Hervormde Kerk (English Reformed Church) dates to the 14th century, when it was a place of worship for the Begijnen. After the Alteration of 1578 the church was relinquished to Protestants. When senior Begijn Cornelia Arents died in 1654, she said she'd rather be buried in the gutter than in the (now Protestant) church. Her wish was granted; look for the granite slab and plaque on the wall between the church and lawn.

Lined with traditional burgher houses of the 17th century, this quaint canal is beloved by locals and visitors alike. Many say it's the most pictureseque canal in the city. This was once a center for paint and dye manufacturers, which makes sense because the Jordaan was populated with Golden Age artists—including Rembrandt, who had a studio here. Bloemgracht is still proudly presided over by "De Drie Hendricken," three houses set at Nos. 87–91 owned by the Hendrick de Keyser heritage organization, with their gable stones for a farmer, a city settler, and a sailor.

This historic brick complex has a long and varied history in the neighborhood. It was formerly a tram-maintenance building turned artist squat before becoming a community hotspot in 2014. Today, this busy area adjacent to the Ten Katemarkt is a cultural and entertainment hub where visitors can explore a handful of restaurants, cafés, shops, and galleries. Plus, there's a cinema, hotel, and public library, along with the popular indoor market, De Foodhallen.

The floral canal names in the Jordaan district are at odds with the fragrances that would have emanated from them in their early days. This canal, named for the "eglantine rose," is one of Amsterdam's loveliest. Many of its houses and surrounding streets were first occupied by Golden Age painters and artisans, including the legendary Blaeu family of mapmakers. Hidden here is the St. Andrieshofje, famous for its Delftware entryway. And certainly not hidden (because it's usually jammed with people) is the famed Café 't Smalle (on the corner of the Prinsengracht). This brown café, covered with eglantine roses and complete with a floating terrace, was where Pieter Hoppe began his jenever distillery in 1780, an event of such global significance that Café 't Smalle is re-created in Japan's Holland Village in Nagasaki.

The Netherlands' most popular photography museum (200,000 visitors a year, and counting) hosts large-scale international photography exhibitions, alongside smaller shows for up-and-coming artists. World-renowned Dutch photographers such as Inez van Lamsweerde, Vinoodh Matadin, Hendrik Kerstens, and Rineke Dijkstra have all had shows here. The shop, café, small library, and museum have a dramatically contemporary interior.

Designed by Daniël Stalpaert in 1656 as an arsenal for the Admiralty of Amsterdam, this excellent example of Dutch Classicism became the new home of the Maritime Museum in the 1970s. Even if you're not much of a nautical fan, the building alone is worth a visit. The courtyard (free) of the biggest remaining 17th-century arsenal was roofed over with a 200,000-kg (440,925-pound) glass-and-steel construction, the design of which is a reference to wind roses and compass lines on old nautical charts. In the daytime, the roof casts ever-changing shadows on the courtyard floor (weather permitting); at night, hundreds of LED lights on the rafters create the fairy-tale illusion of a star-spangled sky.

The museum itself has one-room exhibitions, each with a different theme. The East wing houses an impressive collection of maritime objects, with paintings (the pen drawings by 17th-century master marine painters Ludolf Backhuysen and Willem van de Velde the Elder are particularly beautiful), one of the most important globe collections in the world, nautical instruments, yacht models, and all sorts of symbolic ship decorations. Moored on the jetty outside is the Scheepvaartmuseum’s biggest draw: a life-size replica of a 1748 ship of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). The original left for Asia shortly after it was built, but wrecked off the English coast. Exploring the ship while trying to imagine how people were able to live here for months on end is fascinating.

Right behind Westerpark is the unique Spaarndammerbuurt neighborhood made up of noteworthy monumental brick architecture designed by Michel de Klerk as a prime example of what social housing could be in the 1920s. For a glimpse further inside, guided tours bring visitors into one of the refurbished historic apartments, usually taking place in English at 3 pm daily.

Taking its nickname from the combination of "Stadhuis" (City Hall) and "Opera," this brick-and-marble complex, which opened in 1986, houses both, as well as the Dutch National Ballet and large-scale productions, both domestic and international. Popularly derided by locals for looking like a set of dentures, the colossal white marble tiled building is currently undergoing phased renovations. Before the first brick was in place, locals protested over the razing of historic houses in the old Jewish Quarter and around Nieuwmarkt to make way for it. (In particular, look for the moving memorial that marks the spot of a Jewish orphanage, which honors the saga of how, in 1943, three teachers voluntarily accompanied 100 children to the extermination camp of Sobibor: "None of them returned. May their memory be blessed."). Twice-weekly tours offer a ''behind the scenes look'' at the daily life of set dressers, costume designers, and performers at the National Opera and Theater (Tuesday and Saturday from September to June).

A top photo op around the Canal Ring, the Torensluis is the oldest original stone bridge in Amsterdam and the widest of its kind. It was named for the medieval city wall tower that abutted this 17th-century sluice gate (you can still see its outlines in the pavement stones). The rooms with barred windows that you see at the base of the bridge were once a prison.

Located within Westerpark, the Westergasfabriek is a former gas factory that, in 2003, was refurbished into a cultural hot spot and is now home to many festivals and exhibitions throughout the year. A handful of venues are located along the promenade running parallel to the spacious Westerpark, including restaurants, an arthouse movie theater, and an old-school arcade bar. There's even a branch of the Conscious Hotel, a small petting zoo and a market on the first Sunday of the month. Springtime visitors, don’t miss the sakura cherry blossoms when they take over Westerpark.

Built between 1620 and 1631 by Hendrick de Keyser, the Dutch Renaissance-style Westerkerk was the largest Protestant church in the world until St. Paul's Cathedral in London was built in 1675. The Westerkerk's 85-meter-tall Ouwe Wester, still the tallest church tower in the city, is topped by a bright blue copy of the crown of the Habsburg emperor Maximilian I, who gave Amsterdam the right to use his royal insignia in 1489 in gratitude for support given to the Austro-Burgundian princes.

The church is renowned for its organ and carillon (there are regular lunchtime concerts from March through September). The carillon is played every Tuesday at noon by a real person (a carillonneur) but is automated at other times with different songs tinkling out on the quarter hour, day and night. Anne Frank described the tunes in her diary. Rembrandt, who lived on Rozengracht during his poverty-stricken last years, and his son, Titus, are buried (somewhere) here. The Westertoren (Westerkerk Tower) is a fun climb from April to the end of October, though it's closed for renovations until 2025. 

This former gas factory from 1885 is now an arts and cultural center comprising 13 monumental buildings of various shapes and sizes, which house media companies, art exhibitions, food markets, and assorted festivals. There are also bars, nightclubs, restaurants, and a cinema.

Over 115 years old, the Albert Cuypmarkt (named for a Golden Age painter) is said to be one of the biggest street markets in Europe. There is a long waiting list for a permanent booth, which means that things can get dramatic around 9 every morning, when the lottery for that day's available temporary spaces takes place. From Monday to Saturday (the busiest day), come rain or shine, thousands of shoppers from throughout the city flock to its more than 260 stalls selling fruit and vegetables, fish, flowers, textiles, and clothing. It's a great place to get a taste of local culture as vendors bark out their bargains over the sound of street musicians. Be sure to try some Dutch snacks, like freshly made stroopwafels (thin waffle cookies with a layer of caramel sandwiched in between) or patat (french fries served with mayonnaise or satay sauce).

Set on the Amstel river, in the stately Amstelhof (once a home for the elderly), this newly renamed museum features high white interiors and smaller side rooms connected by long unadorned corridors. After breaking ties with the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the former Hermitage Amsterdam will now present exhibitions in partnership with the British Museum in London, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington D.C. The quality of the shows have always been excellent and the programming for the coming years looks promising. The Amsterdam Museum, which is undergoing massive renovations, has also taken up residency in a wing of the building, where it draws on its collection of 100,000 objects spanning almost five centuries to tell the fascinating story of a city that transformed itself from a boggy swamp in the 13th century to a worldwide mercantile powerhouse by the 1600s. Situated on the ground floor, the Museum of the Mind showcases the inner worlds of artists through so-called outsider art.

Founded by Gerard Heineken in 1864, the Heineken label has become one of the most famous in the world. The beer is no longer brewed here, but the former brewery has been transformed into the "Heineken Experience," an interactive visitor center that offers tours of the facilities. Everything from vast copper vats to multimedia exhibits are on view, and if you've ever wanted to know what it feels like to be brewed and bottled, the 4D simulation "Brew Your Ride" will clue you in. At the end of the tour you get to taste the goods (all visitors must be 18 years or older).  Buy your ticket online in advance as they often sell out.

From the outside, it's a bit hard to believe that these ponderous premises were declaimed by poet and diplomat Constantijn Huygens as the "Eighth Wonder of the World." The palace was built between 1648 and 1665 and was the largest secular building in the world when it was completed. From the inside, the magnificent interior inspires another level of disbelief—that it was actually built as a mere city hall. Golden Age giants like Ferdinand Bol, Govert Flinck, and Jan Lievens were called in to decorate (Rembrandt's sketches were rejected). In the building's Burgerzaal, or public entrance hall, there are two maps inlaid in the marble floor: one with Amsterdam as the center of the world, the other as the center of the universe.

Dutch schoolchildren once had to learn the number of piles (13,659) on which the Royal Palace was built, by using a nifty trick: the days of the year (365) with a 1 before and a 9 after. This number has since changed, because two piles were removed during recent renovations.

The building has remained the Royal Palace ever since King Louis Napoléon (Napoléon's brother) resided here from 1808 to 1810, and it's one of three palaces at which today's Dutch monarch hosts official receptions and state visits. The Palace also hosts exhibitions and displays on the history of the building itself. Official occasions mean opening times can vary.

This wonderful botanical garden was originally laid out as a medicinal herb garden in 1638 by the Amsterdam City Council before the collection expanded to include exotic plants from the East India Company's forays into foreign lands. A total of 4,000 species are represented in the ornamental gardens and the three-climate greenhouse. There's also a butterfly house. One of the treasures is a 300-year-old Eastern Cape giant cycad, perhaps the oldest potted plant in the world. The orangery houses a charming café terrace—one of the most peaceful places in the city to enjoy a cup of coffee. In fact, the Hortus harbors the leafy descendants of the first coffee plants ever introduced into Europe. Hoping to end the Arabian Peninsula's expensive monopoly on coffee, a Dutch merchant stole a coffee plant from Mocha, Yemen, and presented it to the Hortus in 1706, where it flourished in the greenhouse. Its offspring played an important role in spreading coffee production around the world.

Rembrandt loved to sketch this slightly leaning redbrick tower, which was built in 1516 as part of the city's defenses. In 1606, the Dutch sculptor and architect Hendrick de Keyser oversaw the addition of an octagonal brick superstructure and spire complete with clockworks that was known as Malle Jaap (Crazy Jaap) by locals because the bells pealed at odd times. The year 1610 saw the tower embark on a lean too far, and with lots of manpower and ropes it was reset on a stronger foundation. From 1878 to 2006, it housed the City Water Office. Today it's the office of a company that rents out classic saloon boats (captain included).