The 36 finest issues to do in Amsterdam

Amsterdam delivers the products relating to memorable experiences and points of interest. With canals weaving by town, gabled buildings offering glimpses of a bygone previous, and myriad museums portraying the significance of Amsterdam’s position in historical past, it’s a metropolis filled with extraordinary issues to do.

From sitting in a swing excessive above town to investigative forays into ‘coffeshop tradition’ and visiting the poignant Anne Frank Home, our skilled gives his prime experiences, together with the very best issues to do with kids, if it rains and for {couples}, on a metropolis break in Amsterdam beneath.

For extra Amsterdam inspiration, see our guides to town’s finest resorts, eating places, bars and cafés, purchasing, issues to do at no cost and the way to spend a weekend in Amsterdam (plus the very best resorts close to the airport).

Swing out excessive over this low-rise city from the sky deck of a solitary skyscraper behind Central Station at A’DAM Lookout. You sit in a large swing that propels you 100 metres over the sting and up into the sky, as historic Amsterdam sways backwards and forwards beneath you. It beats bungee leaping any day.

Insider’s tip: Go on the onset of twilight, because the lights of town beneath start to flicker and glow, then retire again inside to the hip bar on the Twentieth flooring for cocktails to ignite your night revels.

Contact: adamlookout.com

Nearest Transport: Buiksloterweg ferry (free service) from behind Central Station

Value: ££

Objects, tales, treasures and artworks from Amsterdam’s lengthy and at instances illustrious historical past, all kind a part of imaginative shows on town’s previous, current and even future on the Amsterdam Museum. The constructing was previously the Burgerweeshuis (Municipal Orphanage), based in 1520. It’s a slightly shifting expertise to see the youngsters’s lockers which might be nonetheless there alongside one facet of the courtyard.

Insider’s tip: Look out for Cornelis Anthoniszoon’s aerial view of Amsterdam, painted round 1538. It’s the first map of town, and a rare feat of imagined perspective provided that the best level on the time was a church steeple.

Contact: amsterdammuseum.nl

Nearest transport: Trams 2, 4, 11, 12, 14, 24; Metro: Rokin

Value: ££; below 18s free

Amsterdam’s former inventory alternate, Beurs van Berlage, accomplished in 1903, earned its creator, H. P. Berlage the title of the ‘Father of Trendy Dutch Structure’. Its patterned brickwork is firmly in a Dutch custom, and echoes earlier kinds. However the designs are extra geometric, and the constructing’s robust, clear traces, along with the way in which Berlage celebrates slightly than conceals structural parts, make a particular break with the Nineteenth century.

Insider’s tip: Lately, you possibly can solely get to see the inside throughout exhibitions or live shows (the latter often higher worth), however the café within the former entrance foyer is open every day, and offers a style of the inside.

Contact: beursvanberlage.com
Nearest transport: Trams 4, 14, 24; Metro: Rokin
Value: Varies in line with occasion

Take to the water. Sure, a canal journey appears a predictably touristy factor to do, however a jaunt on a pedalo, or in a glass-topped boat, affords an unrivalled view of Amsterdam’s historic gables. Most tour boats go away from docks in entrance of Central Station. Lovers and Stromma are each charming firms which provide each excursions and ‘hop-on-hop-off’ choices.

Insider’s tip: There is a feeling of detachment on the water, like being in a distinct metropolis. In case you’re a fan of recent structure, go for one of many excursions that takes in new development within the Jap Docklands.

Contact: stromma.nl; lovers.nl

Nearest transport: from Central Station

Value: ££

From its gaudy carpet and whorls of multi-coloured marble, to the working Wurlitzer and two-person Love Seats, Cinema Tuschinski was the dream-child of an eccentric visionary bewitched by movement photos. Constructed between 1918 and 1921, it preserves just about all its fittings, but continues to be a working cinema. The Tuschinski foremost corridor is value a go to regardless of the present.

Insider’s tip: Deal with yourselves to a ‘loge association’: drinks and a snack served at your seat in one of many bins. In a romantic temper? Ask for a Love Seat. Movies are the newest releases, proven of their unique language.

Contact: pathe.nl/bioscoop/tuschinski
Nearest transport: Trams, 4, 14, 24; Metro: Waterlooplein, Rokin
Value: Foremost corridor tickets ££

Within the Seventeenth century, the Royal Palace was dubbed ‘the eighth surprise of the world’. Again then it was the Amsterdam Metropolis Corridor, however this was the peak of the Golden Age, and the constructing was a grandiose celebration of Amsterdam’s mercantile supremacy and civic may. The façade is underwhelming, however inside it’s one other story. Drop in for a glance (the monarch lives in The Hague, and gained’t thoughts).

Insider’s tip: The dazzling (typically actually) marble-encrusted foremost corridor is particularly spectacular. Try the brass-inlaid maps on the ground depicting the heavenly and terrestrial worlds, with Amsterdam very a lot on the centre.

Contact: paleisamsterdam.nl

Nearest transport: Trams 2, 4, 12, 13, 14, 17, 24. Metro: Rokin

Value: ££

E-book tickets

Amsterdam’s mixed Metropolis Corridor (stadhuis) and opera home – popularly often called the ‘Stopera’ – was condemned as an eyesore when it went up within the Eighties, however the round theatre, residence to the Dutch Nationwide Opera & Ballet and with its marble-clad framework, is gorgeous particularly when lit up at night time. Underneath Pierre Audi, its inventive director from 1988 to 2018, the Dutch Nationwide Opera developed a substantial popularity for adventurous productions.

Insider’s Tip: Stand-by tickets can be found on the day of efficiency. From an hour earlier than curtain-up, numbers are handed out on the field workplace, putting you in a queue for returns. Arriving 20-Half-hour earlier provides a very good likelihood of success.

Contact: operaballet.nl

Nearest transport: Tram 14; Metro: Waterlooplein

Value: Varies in line with efficiency

Amsterdam’s oldest constructing, Oude Kerk, grew haphazardly over tons of of years. The tower dates from 1300, however a lot of the unique basilica that was hooked up to it has lengthy disappeared behind outgrowths of facet chapels, transepts and clerestories. Most of what you see as we speak is Sixteenth-century Renaissance in fashion, with an additional barnacle-crust of homes and church workplaces, constructed over three centuries.

Insider’s tip: The contrasting simplicity of the inside is beautiful – the stained glass is value a particular look. There’s nothing to match it on the town as most church home windows had been smashed by Protestant iconoclasts in the course of the Reformation.

Contact: oudekerk.nl

Getting there: Trams 4, 14, 24; Metro: Rokin

Value: ££

Components of the restored Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder, a Seventeenth-century canal home, with its black-and-white tiled flooring, and heavy furnishings, are like stepping right into a portray by Vermeer. In addition to ambiance, there’s a shock. Upstairs, a ladder-like stairway results in the astonishingly massive church of ‘Our Expensive Lord within the Attic’, which dates from the time when Protestant Holland tolerated Catholic worship solely in locations hidden from avenue view.

Insider’s tip: A best choice for a go to, particularly for the basement kitchen (full with Seventeenth-century lavatory) and secret church. Attempt to get an attendant to exhibit the ingenious fold-away pulpit.

Contact: opsolder.nl
Nearest transport: Trams 4, 14, 24; Metro: Rokin
Value: ££

Rembrandt purchased this grand home on the sting of the Jewish Quarter in 1639, when he was on the peak of his wealth and fame. (He’s mentioned to have been fascinated by Hebrew tradition, and most popular Jewish fashions for his non secular portray.) The Rembrandthuis has been fastidiously restored, utilizing outdated plans and descriptions, and has a distinctly genuine ambiance.

Insider’s tip: Rembrandt’s studio is beautifully recreated, and you’ll typically catch an etching or conventional paint-mixing demonstration there. The museum holds a substantial assortment of Rembrandt etchings together with a collection of tiny self-portraits of the painter pulling humorous faces. Word: Rembrandthuis is closed for renovation till 18 March 2023.

Contact: rembrandthuis.nl

Nearest transport: Trams 4, 14; Metro: Waterlooplein

Value: ££

‘New’ is a label that has been hooked up to Nieuwe Kerk for the previous 600 years, by advantage of the truth that Oude Kerk (Previous Church) had already been round for 3 centuries when it was constructed. It’s a hovering Gothic pile with out a steeple, located on town’s central sq., the Dam (seemingly the positioning of the unique dam throughout the River Amstel, from which Amsterdam will get its identify).

Insider’s tip: The Nieuwe Kerk is the venue for royal weddings, investitures and different ceremonies, however extra usually for blockbuster exhibitions – they’re often exceptionally good.

Contact: nieuwekerk.nl

Nearest transport: Trams 4, 14, 24; Metro: Rokin

Value: Varies in line with exhibition

The attic rooms of the Anne Frank Home the place the Frank household hid in the course of the Second World Conflict, reached by a door behind a hinged bookcase, are naked of furnishings but virtually unbearably poignant, with journal photos pasted on the partitions by Anne nonetheless in situ. The rooms downstairs, which housed her father’s firm workplace, have been restored in interval fashion.

Insider’s tip: Whereas there, save time for the exhibition rooms which maintain Anne’s unique diary and different manuscripts, in addition to fascinating interactive shows on human rights.

Contact: annefrank.org

Nearest transport: Trams 13, 17

Value: ££

E-book tickets

Of all of the exhibition areas on Amsterdam’s vibrant images scene, the Huis Marseille is probably the most adventurous, participating and perplexing. The museum showcases new artists – in video in addition to stills images, and there’s a powerful in-house assortment of primarily Dutch, South African and Japanese work.

Insider’s tip: The museum is in two advantageous canal homes, and exhibitions are sometimes staged as installations responding to the interval options of specific rooms. Take a particular have a look at the ceiling portray within the Backyard Room – it’s by Jacob de Wit, the main 18th-century Dutch interiors painter.

Contact: huismarseille.nl

Nearest transport: Trams 2, 12

Value: ££

A part of the inside of Paris’s now-demolished ‘Au Bon Marché’ division retailer, beamed over to Amsterdam to kind a classy spa, Sauna Deco. The Nineteen Twenties gentle fittings and stained glass enhance a big, elegant relaxation space, there are Finnish and infra-red saunas, a small out of doors patio, and a steam room. A restricted vary of therapies is on provide, however there’s a very good number of massages.

Insider’s tip: The steam room is slightly poky besides, Sauna Deco is a agency favorite by which to retreat from depressing climate. Do notice that the spa is blended, and nudity de rigueur.

Contact: saunadeco.nl

Nearest transport: Trams 13, 17

Value: £££

Images is scorching in Amsterdam, and FOAM affords not solely worldwide blockbuster exhibitions by the likes of Diane Arbus and Richard Avedon, but additionally adventurous smaller reveals by up to date photographers, and enthralling glimpses into lesser-known corners of the historical past of images. There’s additionally a energetic programme of lectures and boards.

Insider’s tip: Make your approach to the attic and discover the museum gallery-shop. A ‘Foam Version’, reasonably priced restricted editions and signed prints by up-and-coming younger photographers, in addition to by huge names who’ve exhibited prior to now, makes an exquisite present.

Contact: foam.org

Nearest transport: Trams 4, 24; Metro: Vijzelgracht

Value: ££

A peek indoors on the residence of an Amsterdam patrician household. The Seventeenth-century canal-side mansion, Museum Van Loon, some of the splendid on the town, has been magnificently restored to the final lick of gilding and tinkling chandelier. There are different canal-house mansion museums on the town, however it is a particular favorite, because it one way or the other retains the ambiance of an (admittedly, extraordinarily grand) household residence.

Insider’s tip: The characterful Van Loon household portraits are value a particular look. And don’t essentially save this go to for a wet day – there’s an attractive formal backyard out the again.

Contact: museumvanloon.nl

Nearest transport: Trams 4, 24

Value: ££

Do the phrases ‘metropolis archive’ conjure photos of dusty information and uninteresting civil servants? Assume once more. Amsterdam has an interesting assortment of photos and paperwork, fascinating past the easy scope of metropolis historical past. The Stadsarchief constructing itself is a monumental Nineteen Twenties confection of patterned brick and stonework, with Artwork Deco murals. Whereas there’s no everlasting show, it’s actually value trying out present exhibitions.

Insider’s tip: The archive’s photograph hoard is particularly wealthy, significantly for photos from the 1800s and early 1900s. Look out for work by the Nineteenth-century photographers George Breitner (additionally a famend painter) and Jacob Olie.

Contact: amsterdam.nl/stadsarchief
Nearest transport: Trams 4, 24; Metro Vijzelgracht
Value: Fluctuate in line with exhibition

The grandest and most glittering of Amsterdam’s canal-house museums was occupied by a succession of native notables, the final, Sandrina Holthuysen, dying alone, surrounded by cats in 1895. She was additionally surrounded by her husband’s huge assortment of artwork and objets d’artwork. The home, Museum Willet-Holthuysen, overflows with work, ceramics, glass and silver in an untouchable Nineteenth-century ambiance.

Insider’s tip: The gardens behind Amsterdam’s rows of gabled homes come as a shock to most guests, as from the road you don’t have any clue that they’re there. The Willet-Holthuysen formal backyard is without doubt one of the most elegant on the town.

Contact: willetholthuysen.nl

Nearest transport: Trams 4, 14; Metro Waterlooplein

Value: ££; below 18s free

The Concertgebouw, in-built 1888, is famed for its near-perfect acoustics and its resident Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, usually dubbed ‘the very best on this planet’. Even when the RCO will not be taking part in, the programme is on the prime of the musical scale, with the perfect performers and singers the world has to supply, in a sublime neo-classical setting.

Insider’s tip: In case you’d like a flavour of the place, however don’t have time for a full night live performance, test the (free) lunchtime programme on Wednesdays – however notice that these are sometimes held in a smaller auditorium, the Kleine Zaal.

Contact: concertgebouw.nl

Nearest transport: Trams 2, 3, 5, 12

Value: Tickets fluctuate in line with efficiency; lunchtime live shows are free

The Rijksmuseum is residence to famend Rembrandts, together with ‘The Night time Watch’, plus a grand firm of different Previous Masters from Frans Hals and Jan Steen to Ferdinand Bol and Jan Vermeer. Delftware, glittering gold and silver, centuries-old costumes, and furnishings match for royalty all add to the bounty, and for the primary time ever the museum has placed on present choices from its appreciable assortment of Twentieth-century images.

Insider’s tip: Try the beautiful Twelfth-century Buddha within the Asian Pavilion, and the ornate Seventeenth-century dolls’ homes. Additionally, do notice that the Previous Masters’ part is least crowded within the late afternoon. 

Contact: rijksmuseum.nl

Nearest transport: Trams 2, 3, 5, 12

Value: £££

E-book tickets

Stylishly revamped, the Stedelijk showcases fashionable and up to date artwork from the massive municipal assortment. Stedelijk administrators have managed to snap up work from scorching new artwork actions reminiscent of work and work on paper from CoBrA and De Stijl, and main items by Mondrian, Kandinsky and Malevich. Video artwork and up-to-the-minute new work additionally get a very good exhibiting.

Insider’s tip: The museum’s wealthy assortment of design and utilized artwork is considerably crammed into ground-floor galleries, however nicely value a go to. Additionally tucked away downstairs is the Appelbar, the Stedelijk’s unique refreshment kiosk, adorned with brilliant murals by CoBrA artist Karel Appel.

Contact: stedelijk.nl

Nearest transport: Trams 2, 3, 5, 12

Value: £££

E-book tickets

Extra of the tortured artist’s work is collected at Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum than anyplace on this planet, from The Potato Eaters, by Sunflowers, to Wheatfield with Crows. An imaginative hanging (with private touches reminiscent of household photographs) brings you inside touching distance of the person, and the way he labored. You see artists who influenced him, in addition to these he impressed. Creative technical shows give perception to his approach.

Insider’s tip: Pre-book on-line to keep away from lengthy entrance queues. It’s advisable to do that as far prematurely as you possibly can. The museum is commonly much less busy after 3.30pm originally of the week.

Contact: vangoghmuseum.nl

Nearest transport: Trams 2, 3, 5, 12

Value: £££; kids 17 and below, free

E-book tickets

Designed by famend architect Daniel Libeskind, the Holocaust Namenmonument (Holocaust Memorial of Names) is a labyrinth of brick partitions offset with shining polished metal, which commemorates Jews deported from the Netherlands and killed in the course of the Holocaust. Every brick bears the identify of one of many 102,000 victims, and seeing simply how lengthy the partitions have to be actually drives residence an understanding of how many individuals that’s: it ceases to be only a quantity. 

Insider’s tip: What seems to be a maze in truth follows the traces of the 4 Hebrew letters that translate as ‘in reminiscence of’. 

Contact: holocaustnamenmonument.nl

Nearest transport: Tram 14; Metro Waterlooplein

Value: Free

Specified by grand fashion in 1838, Artis Royal Zoo (the ‘royal’ refers to its constitution, not its inhabitants) is the oldest public zoo in continental Europe. Right this moment, individuals come for the elegant, leafy setting, the place (to the sound of unique squawks, whoops and the occasional roar or trumpet) they’ll stroll and observe penguins and peacocks, panthers and gorillas.

Insider’s tip: The aquarium and butterfly pavilion are probably the most interesting sections, and even if you’re not a fan of zoos, the park-like, Nineteenth-century format with walkways, water options, loads of greenery and showpiece structure has its personal attract.

Contact: artis.nl

Nearest transport: Tram 14

Value: £££

Constructed within the 1680s as an alms-house for the aged, Hermitage Amsterdam opened as an extension of the St Petersburg Hermitage in 2009, however severed ties with Russia in 2022. The museum now reveals artwork treasures from collections across the nation. Along with these non permanent exhibitions, the Hermitage hosts a part of the Amsterdam Museum assortment, and boasts a corridor of magnificent Golden Age group portraits (much like Rembrandt’s ‘The Night time Watch’).

Insider’s tip: Regardless of the exhibition, go to the lengthy refectory, full with an organ for church providers, and the creepily austere Governesses’ Room. If there’s time, take a look at the 18th-century cellar kitchen, with pots so massive you needed to climb steps to stir them.

Contact: hermitage.nl
Nearest transport: Tram 14; Metro Waterlooplein
Value: £££

Climb into one in every of three barrel-like out of doors scorching tubs at Badplaats, and bubble away with a view over Amsterdam from the rooftop of the Volkshotel. Steam away within the sauna alongside, or solar your self on a lounger, whichever manner the climate or your temper takes you. A drink from the small bar, and you’ve got the makings of an ideal Sunday afternoon. (Open Sundays solely)

Insider’s tip: On the primary Sunday of each month, there’s leisure from a singer-songwriter – often one of many brood of younger artists for whom the lodge downstairs and its ‘Hatchery’ of studios is a gathering level.

Contact: volkshotel.nl

Nearest metro: Metro Wibautstraat

Value: ££

An intimate patch of greenery within the coronary heart of town, the Hortus Botanicus is without doubt one of the oldest botanical gardens on this planet. The primary espresso crops exported to South America had been cultivated right here, and there’s a lot for plant lovers and first-timers alike, together with historical forms of tulip and a variety of cycads and South African crops.

Insider’s tip: The wide range of carnivorous crops is well-liked with the youngsters, and the outdated walled-in format has a scrumptious ‘secret backyard’ ambiance. The Nineteenth-century orangery is all area and lightweight, and is a stunning spot for espresso or lunch.

Contact: dehortus.nl
Nearest transport: Tram 14; Metro Waterlooplein
Value: ££

Enterprise into the world of invisible creepy-crawlies on the enjoyable, informative, and astonishingly stunning Micropia. The way in which micro organism have an effect on our lives is offered with creativeness, by alluring magnifications of germs and fungi, to piles of delicately decaying meals. You’ll find out about making beer and cheese, and by no means wish to go to a public rest room or re-use a dish fabric once more in your life.

Insider’s tip: The deliciously excessive ‘yuk’ issue makes the museum successful with kids, and there’s quite a lot of high-tech interactivity, together with an entire physique scan exhibiting areas of bacterial life.

Contact: micropia.nl

Nearest transport: Tram 14

Value: ££

The native nickname for Amsterdam is ‘Mokum’, Yiddish for ‘place’ or ‘haven’. For hundreds of years earlier than the Second World Conflict, town was residence to some of the vibrant Jewish communities in Europe – the power behind Amsterdam’s profitable diamond-cutting trade, and way more apart from. The Jewish Historic Museum traces the historical past of Jews within the Netherlands, and has an fascinating show of ceremonial objects.

Insider’s tip: Non permanent exhibitions right here, particularly ones on images or these highlighting facets of Jewish artwork, are often excellent. The museum café is a good place to strive Dutch-Jewish culinary classics, reminiscent of cod truffles, or bolus, a ginger-filled donut.

Contact: jck.nl
Nearest transport: Tram 14; Metro Waterlooplein
Costs: £££; consists of entry to Portuguese Synagogue

Inbuilt 1675 to serve Amsterdam’s affluent Sephardic neighborhood, the Portuguese Synagogue was thought-about a showpiece (dwarfing the not too long ago accomplished Ashkenazi temple subsequent door). Its architect claimed he was creating an imitation of the Temple of Solomon, although the mahogany pews and brass chandeliers bear extra of a resemblance to Christian church buildings of the interval. It’s open to the general public however continues to be a working synagogue.

Insider’s tip: The Portuguese Synagogue has some of the awe-inspiring interiors on the town. Attempt to catch a candlelit live performance, when the inside seems because it must congregations centuries in the past.

Contact: jck.nl

Nearest transport: Tram 14; Metro Waterlooplein

Value:  £££; consists of entrance to Jewish Historic Museum 

5-hundred years of maritime historical past is packed into the elegant Dutch classicist Admiralty Arsenal, the Scheepvaartmuseum (Nationwide Maritime Museum), in-built 1655 to inventory and provide the vessels of the Golden Age. Linger over the outdated maps and globes however remember there’s a wealth of different objects, too – advantageous maritime work, intricate fashions of boats, curiosities (reminiscent of a preserved whale foetus) and fantastically carved figureheads.

Insider’s tip: The copy of the 18th-century Dutch East Indiaman, moored within the harbour alongside the museum, is a should, from the captain’s personal lavatory to the murky room beneath decks, constructed to accommodate 200 males.

Contact: hetscheepvaartmuseum.nl

Nearest transport: Buses 22, 43, 246

Value: ££

An interesting place, the Verzetsmuseum affords a glimpse of life within the Netherlands below the Nazi occupation, and of the underground resistance motion. Cast paperwork, selfmade radios, outdated movie footage and extra are put collectively in imaginative and interactive shows. Private tales of resistance heroes, Nazi collaborators, and odd individuals trapped in between assist give an actual sense of what life was like.

Insider’s tip: The doorbells that elicit recorded excuses for not taking you on as an onderduiker (secret occupant hiding from the Nazis, like Anne Frank’s household) is each shifting and ingenious

Contact: verzetsmuseum.org

Nearest transport: Tram 14

Value: ££

Prime of the quirky-museum checklist, the Pianola Museum consists of not solely the form of honky-tonk piano that performed itself within the nook of a Wild West bar, but additionally extra refined devices, operated utilizing a know-how we are able to now not fathom. These can reproduce the precise timbre and nuance of the pianist who punched the scroll that makes them work.

Insider’s tip: Attend an eerie live performance the place the viewers sits round politely listening to a playerless piano. The museum has scrolls created by the likes of Debussy and Prokofiev themselves, in addition to works particularly composed by Stravinsky.

Contact: pianola.nl
Nearest transport: Tram 5
Value: £

A white, aerodynamic zigzag of a constructing on Amsterdam’s waterfront, the EYE makes a formidable new residence for a world-class movie assortment, protecting the historical past of the films from the late 1800s onwards. The movies are proven on 4 screens, and the museum hosts world-class visiting exhibitions on numerous facets of movie.

Insider’s tip: Within the basement Panorama, snippets of uncommon color silent motion pictures are proven on interactive screens. There’s additionally a lot DIY enjoyable, reminiscent of taking pictures photos of your self in opposition to a inexperienced display and inserting them right into a film scene.

Contact: eyefilm.nl

Nearest transport: Buiksloterweg ferry (from behind Central station); free service

Value: Varies in line with exhibition 

Serene and good, The Hague is Amsterdam’s posh sister – with quite a lot of sibling rivalry between them, as one is the capital, and the opposite the seat of presidency and residential to the monarch. With a lot on provide together with Noordeinde Palace, it is a charming place to spend a day. The Mauritshuis is the spotlight at The Hague, residence to Vermeer’s ‘Lady with a Pearl Earring’ and a very good variety of different Golden Age showstoppers.

Insider’s tip: The meticulously restored Panorama Mesdag, a 360º indoor panorama, painted in 1881, depicting seashore life at Scheveningen, town’s seaside annexe, is a should. 

Contact: mauritshuis.nl; panorama-mesdag.nl

Nearest transport: Tram 15, 17 (Mauritshuis); Tram 1, Bus 22, 24, 28 (Panorama Mesdag)

Value: ££

Simply 20 minutes by prepare from Amsterdam, Zaanse Schans recreates the ambiance of village life when 1,000 windmills floor away at numerous actions alongside the River Zaan. Right this moment there are simply 12 discovered amidst picket homes relationship from the Seventeenth and 18th centuries. However they nonetheless work – making mustard, producing paint from pure pigments, and with the standard dairy, the clog maker and extra apart from within the village.

Insider’s tip: All of it makes an excellent household outing. The working mills are fascinating and enjoyable to a spread of ages and pursuits – the café has glorious candy and savoury pancakes.

Contact: dezaanseschans.nl

Nearest transport: Prepare from Centraal Station to Zaandijk-Zaanse Schans; Bus 391 from Centraal Station

Costs: Fluctuate seasonally however the Zaanse Schans Card covers quite a few entrance tickets and affords quite a lot of reductions