5 Best Sights in Amsterdam, Netherlands

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.

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.

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 the blue signs past Boerderij Meerzicht020/645–5034www.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-ov.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 020/679–2744www.boerderijmeerzicht.nl).

This stunning park was built by and named after noted city benefactor Samuel Sarphati (1813–66), whose statue graces the central fountain. It has undulating paths among the trees, duck ponds, and expanses of grass, and though not very large, it's the perfect place to picnic with everything you picked up at the Albert Cuypmarkt. If you have little ones, there's a wonderful sandpit/playground on the northwest side, while a nature playground was added for bigger kids in the summer of 2020 on the southeast side.

On sunny days, Amsterdam's "green lung" is the most densely populated section of the city. Vondelpark is the place where sun is worshipped, joints are smoked, beer is quaffed, picnics are luxuriated over, bands are grooved to, dogs are walked, balls are kicked, and lanes are biked, jogged, and rollerbladed on. By evening, the park has invariably evolved into one large outdoor café. The great thing about this park is that, as long as you stay relaxed and go with the flow, you can dress however, hang however, and do whatever. (For years, a mysterious man danced around the park on 1970s silver roller skates, wearing silver body paint and a silver G-string—even in winter—with shaved legs and chest, headphones, and a silver cap with propeller, and nobody batted an eyelid; his spirit lives on today.)

The Vondelpark was laid out in 1865 as a 25-acre "walking and riding park" for residents of the affluent neighborhood rising up around it. It soon expanded to 120 acres and was renamed after Joost van den Vondel, the "Dutch Shakespeare." Landscaped in the informal English style, the park is an irregular patchwork of copses, ponds, children's playgrounds, and fields linked by winding pathways. The park's focal point is the open-air theater, where there is free summer entertainment Friday to Sunday.

Over the years a range of sculptural and architectural pieces have been installed in the park. Picasso even donated a sculpture, The Fish, on the park's centenary in 1965, which stands in the middle of a field to deter football players from using it as a goalpost. On the west side of the park, you can stop in at the Neoclassical-era Hollandsche Manege (the oldest riding school in the Netherlands; Vondelstraat 140), inspired by the famous Spanish Riding School in Vienna. Visit the on-site museum (€8) and enjoy a cup of tea in the foyer bar, which overlooks the riding arena where classes are regularly held.