66 Best Sights in Amsterdam, Netherlands

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

Once the repository of the nation's gold supply, this former National Bank with its stern Neoclassical facade is now home to archaeological treasures from the collection of the University of Amsterdam. The museum traces the early development of Western civilization, from the Egyptians to the Romans, and of the Near Eastern cultures (Anatolia, Persia, Palestine) in a series of well-documented displays. The building, which underwent a renovation in 2019, is also connected to the University of Amsterdam's Bijzondere Collecties (Special Collections) showcase with interesting exhibitions.

The main train station of the Dutch capital---there are 11 others---was designed as an architectural statement by P. J. H. Cuypers, who was also famously associated with Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum. Although it has many Gothic motifs (including a unique weather vane disguised as a clock in its left tower), it's now considered a landmark of Dutch Neo-Renaissance style. Its construction required the creation of three artificial islands and over 8,600 wooden piles to support it. Completed in 1889, it represented a psychological break with the city's seafaring past, as its erection slowly blocked the view to the IJ River. Another controversy arose from its Gothic detailing, which was considered by uptight Protestants as a tad too Catholic—like Cuypers himself—and earned it the nickname "the French Convent." (Similarly, the Rijksmuseum became "the Bishop's Castle.") If you're visiting the 1e Klas restaurant on Platform 2b, wander down to look at the magnificent golden gate of the Royal Waiting Room. You can't go in unless it's Open Monuments Day (second weekend in September), but if you scan the QR code at the entrance with your smart phone you can get a 360-degree virtual tour—or simply peer through the glass. Amsterdam's main bus station, as well as a host of shops and restaurants, are on the IJ side, in an extension completed in 2017.

Beyond Oud-Zuid, straddling Amsterdam and Amstelveen, the largest of Amsterdam's parks covers 1,000 hectares (almost 2,500 acres) and incorporates 200 km (124 miles) of foot, bike, and bridle paths traversed by 116 bridges—67 of which designed in the early-20th-century Amsterdam School style, with characteristic redbrick and sculpted-stone detailing. There are wide recreational fields, a boating lake, the impressive Olympic Bosbaan rowing course (overlooked by the terraces of grand café De Bosbaan), and numerous playgrounds and wonderful water-play areas for toddlers.

One popular family attraction is the Geitenboerderij "De Ridammerhoeve" goat farm ( Nieuwe Meerlaan 4, follow blue signs past Boerderij Meerzicht  020/645–5034  www.geitenboerderij.nl) with a playground and lunchroom, a sunny terrace, and lots of chickens hopping about between the goats. Your kids can bottle-feed the four-legged kind and cuddle bleating babies in the barn.

For public transport to the Amsterdamse Bos, there are various options: visit  9292.nl for up-to-date information or call  0900–9292. You can also rent bikes ( 020/644–5473) year-round at the entrance of the Amsterdamse Bos opposite the visitor center; maps, suggested routes, and signposting are plentiful throughout the park.

If you didn't pack your own lunch, Boerderij Meerzicht is a traditional Dutch pancake house, with a small deer zoo and playground for kids ( Koenenkade 56  020/679–2744  www.boerderijmeerzicht.nl).

The Architecture Centre Amsterdam is dedicated to the city's architecture, urban design, and landscape architecture, and hosts exhibitions, lectures, and tours. They publish a wide range of maps and guides both in print and online, including ARCAM's Architecture Guide, which contains information on more than 600 Amsterdam buildings. Its swoopy silver building has become an architectural icon.

The name of this zoo, which was the first of its kind in the Netherlands, is short for Natura Artis Magistra (Nature Is the Teacher of the Arts). Founded in 1838, the park has more than 900 species of animals, more than 200 species of trees, a butterfly pavilion, an insectarium, and beautiful 19th-century architecture, of which the aquarium (closed for renovations until 2025) is a fine example. The Micropia, the world's first museum dedicated to microbes, has lots of interactive exhibits. It provides insights into the importance played by micro-organisms like bacteria, algae, and viruses and their essential role in life on earth (not only as bringers of diseases like COVID). ARTIS-Groote Museum, which reopened in 2022 after a 75-year absence and a major renovation, aims to answer all the big questions about life on earth. 

The old stock-exchange building is revered as Amsterdam's first modern building and the country's most important piece of 20th-century architecture. Built between 1898 and 1903 by H. P. Berlage, its design became a template for the style of a new century. The new Beurs, with its simple lines and the influence it had on the Amsterdam School architects who followed Berlage, earned him the reputation of being the "Father of Modern Dutch Architecture."

A staunch socialist, Berlage designed the building as a "public palace," a function it truly fulfills today with room for conferences, collaborative workspaces, exhibitions, and events. Or just stop by Bistro Berlage for coffee, lunch, or dinner. There was a major redesign of this former Grand Café in 2017, but you can still admire the stunning symbolist mosaics by Jan Toorop inside. Weather permitting, the new Beursplein terrace is a pleasant place to watch the world go by.

Just south of Amsterdam, in the town of Amstelveen, this wonderful museum is worth a detour. Hundreds of the avant-garde CoBrA movement's artworks (1948–51) are on permanent display here, including paintings, sculptures, and ceramics by Karel Appel, CoBrA's biggest name. The movement proved to be a milestone in the development of European abstract expressionism, and its name is an acronym created from the initials of the members' hometowns of Copenhagen, Brussels, and Amsterdam. In addition to its own collection, the museum organizes temporary modern art exhibitions. For public transport to the museum visit  9292-ov.nl for up-to-date information.

Home to Het Koninklijk Paleis and De Nieuwe Kerk, Dam Square (or just "Dam") is Amsterdam's main square. It traces its roots to the 13th century and the dam built over the Amstel River (hence the city's name, a bastardization of the earlier Aemstelredam). The waters of the Damrak (the continuation of the Amstel) once reached right up to the Dam, with ships and barges sailing to the weigh house. Folks came here to trade, talk, protest---and be executed. In the 17th century, the square was hemmed in by houses and packed with markets. For a taste of that atmosphere, head into the warren of alleys behind the Nieuwe Kerk, with a 1619 proeflokaal (jenever [Dutch gin] tasting house) called De Drie Fleschjes (The Three Small Bottles) on Gravenstraat. In the 19th century, the Damrak was filled in to form the street leading to Centraal Station, and King Louis, Napoléon's brother, demolished the old weigh house in 1808 because it spoiled the view from his bedroom window in the Royal Palace. Today, the Dam is a teeming magnet for celebrations, fairs, street performers, and protests.

This unavoidable street leading up to Centraal Station is still lined with a tawdry assortment of shops, hotels, and tourist traps, but it's slowly improving as part of the city's clean-up efforts. Behind the neon signs some examples of lovely Dutch architecture have emerged after decades of hiding. Damrak and its extension, Rokin, were once the Amstel River, bustling with activity, the piers loaded with fish and other cargo en route to the weigh house at the Dam. They were filled in 1845 and 1883, respectively, and now the only open water that remains is a patch in front of the station that provides mooring for tour boats. Damrak now boasts several renovated buildings, and an underground parking lot for bikes has created space on Beursplein for trees and terraces. The new Beurspassage—a passageway linking Nieuwendijk and Damrak—is a particular highlight thanks to a 4,843-square-foot artwork (the largest in the city) called "Amsterdam Oersoep" or Amsterdam primordial soup. It is an homage to Amsterdam’s canals, featuring glass mosaic, tile, terrazzo, and gold chandeliers composed of bicycle parts.

Built in 1488, the Waag functioned as a city gate, Sint Antoniespoort, until 1617. It would be closed at exactly 9:30 pm to keep out not only bandits but also the poor and diseased who squatted outside the city's walls. When Amsterdam expanded, the structure began a second life as a weigh house for incoming goods. The top floor of the building accommodated the municipal militia and several guilds, including the stonemasons, who did the evocative decorations that grace each of the seven towers' entrances. One tower housed a teaching hospital for the Surgeons' Guild. The Theatrum Anatomicum (Anatomy Theater), with its cupola tower covered in painted coats of arms, was the first place in the Netherlands to host public autopsies; for obvious reasons, these took place only in the winter. The building is now occupied by Restaurant-Café In De Waag and the Waag Society (Institute for Art, Science, and Technology).

Unveiled in 2021, 76 years after the end of World War II, the Dutch Holocaust Memorial of Names is the first memorial site in the Netherlands to display all the names of the Dutch victims of the Shoah, including their dates of birth and age at death. Designed by the Polish-Jewish-American architect Daniel Libeskind, the monument is made up of four reflective stainless steel Hebrew letters that translate to "in memoriam," and below it, 102,000 bricks with the names of murdered Jewish, Sinti, and Roma people. Situated in the heart of the Jewish Quarter, it is a touching remembrance.

By the beginning of the 18th century, Amsterdam had a virtual monopoly in the diamond industry in Europe, so when diamonds were discovered in South Africa in 1869, there was a windfall for Amsterdam's Jewish communities, a third of whom worked in the diamond trade. Built in 1879, Gassan Diamonds was once home to the Boas diamond-polishing factory, the largest in the world, where 357 diamond-polishing machines processed around 8,000–10,000 carats of rough diamonds per week. Today, Gassan offers polishing and grading demonstrations and free hour-long tours, in more than 27 languages, of the building and its glittering collection of diamonds and jewelry.