Things to do in Amsterdam: 18 experiences

1 to 1.5 hoursBook ahead

A 17th-century city hall turned royal palace, where the King still receives state guests and you walk the same marble halls.

1 to 1.5 hoursBook ahead

The house where Rembrandt lived and painted for twenty years, rebuilt room by room, with the etching press still printing.

2 to 3 hoursBook ahead

The third big museum on Museumplein, the one most visitors skip, for modern art and design from Malevich to Marlene Dumas.

1 to 1.5 hoursBook ahead

A full Catholic church with galleries and an organ, built into the top floors of a merchant's house when Catholics could not worship openly.

30 minutesFree

A walled medieval courtyard of houses around a lawn, a few steps from the shopping streets, where people still live.

Half a dayFree

A free ferry ride across the IJ to a former shipyard taken over by artists, with street art, harbour cranes and waterside bars.

2 to 3 hoursGo alone or with a tour

Do what the city does: ride its separate bike lanes from the canal ring to the Vondelpark, on a hired bike or a guided ride.

2 to 3 hoursNo booking needed

Climb aboard a full-size replica of an 18th-century trading ship, moored beside the museum that tells how the sea made Amsterdam rich.

1 to 2 hoursFree

Amsterdam's big park, 47 hectares of lawns, ponds and bike paths, with free open-air shows on summer weekends.

1 hour for the highlights, half a day for moreTimed entry

Watch restorers at work on Rembrandt's Night Watch inside a glass chamber, then find Vermeer's Milkmaid among more than 8,000 works.

Timed entry

Walk through the Secret Annex behind the movable bookcase, where Anne Frank, her family and four others hid from 1942 to 1944.

About 1 hourGo alone or with a tour

See the gabled houses of the 17th-century Canal Ring from water level, slipping under bridges in a small open boat.

2 to 3 hoursTimed entry

Follow Van Gogh from the dark Nuenen canvases to the Sunflowers and his last months in Auvers, roughly in the order he painted.

2 to 3 hoursFree

Wander narrow streets and small canals built for 17th-century workers, from a market square to the prettiest side canals and a brown café.

1 hourFree

Hold a lightly brined raw herring by the tail, with chopped onion and pickles, at a working street market in De Pijp.

1 to 2 hoursFree

Walk Amsterdam's oldest neighbourhood, where a 13th-century church stands among licensed window brothels, bars and family homes.

An eveningBook ahead

Hear jazz in a steeply raked hall over the IJ, with the water and passing boats in the window behind the band.

An eveningBook ahead

Hear a band under the stained-glass windows of a former church where Pink Floyd, Nirvana, Prince and the Rolling Stones have all played.