Best of Amsterdam

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Anne Frank Huis

Location

Amsterdam
Netherlands
52° 22' 30.8568" N, 4° 53' 2.202" E
NL

German-born Jewish girl wrote about her suffering during the WWII. Anne Frank and her family were hiding from the Nazis for over two years in an old house in the middle of Amsterdam. An anonymous tip led the Gestapo to find the annex of the building Anne and her family were hiding, after which, they all had been sent to labor camps. The only surviving member of the Frank family was Anne’s father, Otto, who, some years later published his daughter’s diary, which became a world-famous book.

Canal Boat Ride 

Location

Amsterdam
Netherlands
52° 22' 22.4688" N, 4° 53' 18.1932" E
NL

Amsterdam is a unique European city. The Dutch capital is home to more than 800,000 people in its core area, which, for the better part, stands on the water. With more than a hundred kilometers of canals, more than 1,500 bridges, and over 90 small islands, Amsterdam earned its nickname the Venice of the North.

The canal digging started when the Dutch empire was at its peak, in the mid-17th century. Many of the buildings in this area of Amsterdam are from that era, which helped the city’s canal system get a UNESCO recognition as a World Heritage site.

Vondelpark

Location

Amsterdam
Netherlands
52° 21' 38.6784" N, 4° 52' 26.0976" E
NL

Since the opening in the mid-19th century, the Vondelpark has become the leisure hotspot for the Amsterdam citizens. Recently the number of visitors has grown to more than 10 million per year. Here you will find dozens of playgrounds for kids, basketball, football, and tennis courses, and open air theatres which host many artists famous not just in Holland, but in the whole world.

Van Gogh Museum

Location

Amsterdam
Netherlands
52° 21' 30.2976" N, 4° 52' 51.8736" E
NL

The 30th most visited art museum in the world and definitely the most visited in the Netherlands, is the Van Gogh Museum. That’s not a surprise knowing that it is dedicated to the life and work of the Holland’s greatest painter, Vincent van Gogh.

The biggest collection of van Gogh’s works consists of more than 200 paintings, 400 drawings, and 700 letters. His most famous paintings, The Potato Eaters (1885) and Sunflowers (1889) are part of the collection and are on the display.

Bloemenmarkt

Location

Amsterdam
Netherlands
52° 22' 0.7428" N, 4° 53' 28.9536" E
NL

The Netherlands is a country renowned for its growing floral industry. It is the center of the Europe’s production and trade of flowers and it is therefore no wonder that the only floating flower market is located in the country’s capital city.

The Amsterdam’s ‘Bloemenmarkt’ floats on one of the canals in the historic area of the city. The market is one of the main suppliers of flowers for the whole city. Here you can buy various kinds of flowers from all over the world. 15 shops give an impressive offer of flowers and souvenirs for tourists.

Amsterdam Brown Café

Location

Amsterdam
Netherlands
52° 21' 21.2436" N, 4° 52' 38.28" E
NL

In the last decade, Amsterdam became famous all over the world for its coffee shops that offered marijuana products. It brought thousands of visitors to the city and changed the look and the spirit of the traditional Amsterdam bars. Still, there are places spread all over the city that still keep the atmosphere cherished by the city’s artistic and intellectual elite from the previous century. The Brown Café is a general term for this sort of bars. The name comes from their coffee-colored walls.

Red Light District

Location

Amsterdam
Netherlands
52° 22' 20.7516" N, 4° 53' 51.0576" E
NL

The largest Red Light district in Amsterdam is De Wallen, located in the very center of the city. The area has plenty of brothels, sex shops, cabarets, and cabins rented by prostitutes. These one-room offices are the thing that separates De Wallen from the other Red Light areas in the world. Typically with red color shining behind them, the prostitutes sit behind glass doors, waiting for the customers. But prostitutes in the Netherlands are not treated like merchandise. Their status is regulated by the state and there is always a police present in the district to protect their interests.

The Resistance Museum

Location

Amsterdam
Netherlands
52° 22' 4.008" N, 4° 54' 46.1196" E
NL

The Dutch people are proud of their anti-fascist history and, therefore Dutch Resistance Museum is one of the most popular WWII-themed museums. It was made primarily to remind the citizens of Amsterdam of the horrible days of the Nazi occupation that lasted from 1940 to 1945. The propaganda posters, various photographs and items from that period are permanently exhibited there to give the visitors a realistic insight in the heroic struggle of the Dutch resistance movement. The museum offers guided tours both in Dutch and in English.

The Nine Streets

Location

Amsterdam
Netherlands
52° 22' 14.0808" N, 4° 53' 7.8864" E
NL

The Nine Streets is the main shopping area and the fashion heart of Amsterdam. The area has something for every seeker of retail therapy, whether you're a second-hand bargain-hound or a high-end label-lover. It consists of nine side streets connecting the major canal. Besides having lots of fashion stores and boutiques, this area is also a very popular place for leisure. It is a very quiet and relaxed part of the city so many people choose to visit restaurants and hotels from this district.

Concertgebouw

Location

Amsterdam
Netherlands
52° 21' 22.5576" N, 4° 52' 45.2964" E
NL

When a venue is considered one of the best of its kind, then it’s most likely worth visiting. That is the case with Concertgebouw, the biggest and the most important concert hall in Amsterdam. The building was built in the late 19th century with such precision that made it a theatre with one of the best acoustics in history. The Concertgebouw is nowadays as popular as always. More than two thousand people visit this hall daily in order to enjoy the masterpieces of classical music. The Concertgebouw organizes every Wednesday, from September to June, at 12:30, a free concert, which might be the thing that’ll crown your trip to Amsterdam.

Leidseplein

Location

Amsterdam
Netherlands
52° 21' 56.8116" N, 4° 53' 10.2696" E
NL

The Leidseplein is one of the crowdiest squares in Amsterdam. It is the city’s center of entertainment. There dozens of cafés, bars, restaurants, theaters, casinos, and coffee shops nearby. Coffee shops are particularly interesting amongst certain tourists as according to the Dutch law, it is legal to sell marijuana products in them. The area around the Leidseplein square is the place with the most coffee shops of that kind in Amsterdam, making it the busiest area of the city at night.

Hap-Hmm

Location

Amsterdam
Netherlands
52° 21' 49.2876" N, 4° 52' 34.6656" E
NL

Walking around the city of Amsterdam gives you the insight of Dutch architecture, listening to Dutch music and visiting museums introduces you to the culture of Holland, but if you want to get the full picture of life in this part of Europe, you need to get your taste buds into action. Try out some of the Netherland’s national dishes in a pleasant family-owned restaurant near Vondelpark. There are several excellent restaurants in this area, but considering the atmosphere and the quality of food, the Hap-Hmm restaurant is Triptipper´s recommendation.