Amsterdam Highlights
See also:Amsterdam for families
Culture & nightlife in Amsterdam
Cheap & free Amsterdam
In this section:
Only in Amsterdam
Best walks in Amsterdam
Amsterdam's best markets
Amazing Amsterdam
Amsterdam's top parks
Only in Amsterdam
Canal-Boat Tours
Take a rondvaart tour and glide through the city's signature canals - and out onto the River Amstel - on a, yes, touristy excursion, but one that you really have to do here, of all places.
Canal-Bike Tours
Cruising the canals on a pedalo (water-bike) is even more touristy than going on the motor boats. But there's a certain satisfaction and fascination from gliding around, however slowly, on your own chosen route.
Making a Hash of It
In a dope café, that is, otherwise known as a smoking coffee shop. You can puff your way through officially tolerated cannabis at one of these smoky dens, and no one will disturb the serenity of your slumbers.
Paying Homage to Anne Frank
Visit the thought-provoking, sadness-inducing World War II canalhouse refuge on the Prinsengracht where Anne and her family hid for years from the Nazis, and where she wrote her famous diary.
Admiring The Night Watch
The Rijksmuseum may have a truncated look while it undergoes a multi-year renovation and rebuilding, but Rembrandt's famous painting, the symbol of the Dutch Golden Age, still occupies the place of honour.
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Best walks in Amsterdam
The Canal Ring
You can choose one or more from the beautiful Singel, Herengracht, Keizersgracht and Prinsengracht canals, and walk the entire length from Brouwersgracht to the River Amstel (Muntplein in the case of Singel). Alternatively, choose a route that zigzags back and forth between the canals, using the many small streets that connect them.
The Old Centre
About a quarter of the area around Nieuwmarkt is occupied by the Red Light District, but this is by no means the whole story of this beautiful part of the city.
Sex and drugs, noise and neon, antiques and old books, tastes of China and Thailand, one of Amsterdam's largest medieval buildings, the once brave face of 1970s redevelopment, photogenic Staalstraat and the seedy alleys off Zeedijk - this part of Amsterdam to the east of the Dam is nothing if not varied.
The Waterfront
From the Western Islands to the Eastern Islands, a stroll through Amsterdam's old harbour on either side of Centraal Station provides fresh air and history in abundance.
A walk to the rear of Centraal Station brings you to the edge of the IJ channel. There are 18 piers here, with various “partyships”, Rhine and IJsselmeer cruise boats, and the hydrofoil service to IJmuiden dock.
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Amsterdam's best markets
Waterlooplein Flea Market
Everything and anything that's old - or new - and tatty makes its way onto the stalls of this age-old market in the Jewish Quarter.
Open Mon-Sat 9am-5pm, this is Amsterdam's oldest and best-known market, with some genuine bargains to be found amongst all the secondhand clothes and eccentric bric-a-brac.
Albert Cuypmarkt
The best street market in the city, covering food, clothes and many other items, ranges through a long street in Amsterdam South (Oud Zuid).
The daily market is the busiest in Amsterdam, attracting some 20,000 people on weekdays, and one estimate puts the figure at 50,000 on a Saturday - more than six percent of the city's total population.
Flower Market
Often called the “floating” market (although it doesn't really float), this superb cluster of stalls on Singel is the best place in the city to buy flowers.
The Bloemenmarkt is held on barges permanently moored in Singel, just off Muntplein square in the city centre. It's open Mon-Sat from 9am-6pm, and locals shop here as well as tourists, since it's one of the best places in Amsterdam to buy cut flowers and bulbs.
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Amazing Amsterdam
The Koninklijk Palace
The Royal Palace stands on the Dam, supported by 13,659 wooden pilings driven into the sandy Amsterdam soil.
Large and stately, the classical-style building was designed by architect Jacob van Campen and completed by Daniel Stalpaert in 1655 (Open Easter holidays and June-August daily 11am-5pm; Sept-mid Dec and mid-Feb-May, except Easter holidays, Tues-Thurs 12.30-5pm; opening days may vary; entrance charge).
The Night Watch
Rembrandt's famous painting actually depicts a daytime scene, a fact that was uncovered only when renovations removed centuries of dirt and revealed the sunlight in the picture.
Amsterdam has more than 1,200 bridges - a greater number than Venice.
There are some 600,000 bicycles in Amsterdam, which works out at four bikes for every five residents (or four-fifths of a bike per resident).
The world's first fully legal same-sex marriage took place in Amsterdam in 2002.
During the 17th-century “Tulipomania”, when speculators drove the price for tulip bulbs to crazy levels (before the inevitable crash brough them back to earth), a record was reached of 30,000 florins (about €6 million) for three.
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Amsterdam's top parks
Vondelpark
For a taste of alternative Amsterdam, with its shirt off and its hair down (at least in summer), visit this green oasis that was the Hippie's stamping ground in the 1960s.
The oldest and largest of Amsterdam's municipal parks, near Oud Zuid in the southwest of the city, is a refuge for strollers, joggers, cyclists, dogwalkers, music-makers, sunbathers, picnickers, Frisbee-throwers and skaters, Plus you can buy cannabis-spiked “space cakes” here, if you prefer to see the park from above the trees.
Amsterdamse Bos
For fresh air, open space and a place to escape from the crowds and irritations of the centre, Amsterdammers head out to this huge park on the city's southern edge.
This large wooded park is the country on the city's doorstep. Bring along a picnic if the weather is fine. The 80,000-hectare park draws people in their thousands all year round. With around 48 km of bicycle paths and close to 160 km of footpaths, there is room for everyone.
Updated May 2005