Seventeenth-century buildings. Joint-smoking alien sculptures. Few cities meld history with modern urban flair like Amsterdam.
Admire ArtYou can’t walk a kilometre without bumping into a masterpiece in the city. The Van Gogh Museum hangs the world’s largest collection by tortured native son Vincent. A few blocks away, Vermeer’s Kitchen Maid, Rembrandt’s Night Watch and other Golden Age treasures fill the Rijksmuseum.
The Museum het Rembrandthuis offers more of Rembrandt via his atmospheric, etchingpacked studio and the Stedelijk pulls out Mondrian among its modern stock. And when the urge strikes for something blockbuster, the Hermitage Amsterdam delivers: the outpost of
Russia’s State Hermitage Museum picks from its three-million-piece home trove to mount mega exhibits.
Bike & Boat
Two wheeling is a way of life here. It’s how Amsterdammers commute to work, go to the shop and meet a date for dinner. With all the bike rental shops around, it’s easy to gear up and take a spin. If locals aren’t on a bike, they may well be in a boat. With its canals and its massive harbour, this city reclaimed from the sea offers countless opportunities to drift. Hop in a canal boat (preferably an open-air one) or one of the free ferries behind Centraal Station for a wind-in-your-hair ride.
Feel GezelligAmsterdam is famously gezellig, a Dutch quality that translates as convivial or cosy. It’s more easily experienced than defined. There’s a sense of time stopping, an intimacy of the here and now that leaves all your troubles behind, at least until tomorrow. You can get that warm, fuzzy feeling in many situations, but the easiest place is a traditional brown cafe.
Named for their wood panelling and walls stained by smoke over the centuries, brown cafes practically have gezelligheid on tap, alongside good beer. You can also feel gezellig at any restaurant after dinner, when you’re welcome to linger and chat after your meal while the candles burn low.
Wander into the Past
Amsterdam is ripe for rambling, its compact core laced by atmospheric lanes and quarters. You never know what you’ll find: a hidden garden, a shop selling velvet ribbon, a jenever (Dutch gin) distillery, an old monastery turned classical music venue. Wherever you end up, it’s probably by a canal. And a cafe. And a gabled building that looks like a Golden Age painting.
Show in Lonely Planet Ready to go?
- Check out the Lonely Planet Amsterdam City Guide app available via iTunes. Guidebook content, recommended experiences and maps that work offline.
- Take an Amsterdam Canals Candlelight Cruise
- Join the locals and explore Amsterdam by bike
Den Haag, officially known as ’s-Gravenhage (‘the Count’s Hedge’), is the Dutch seat of government and home to the royal family. Prior to 1806, Den Haag was the Dutch capital. However, that year, Louis Bonaparte installed his government in Amsterdam. Eight years later, when the French had been ousted, the government returned to Den Haag, but the title of capital remained with Amsterdam.
Den Haag today is a stately, regal place filled with palatial embassies and mansions, green boulevards and parks, prestigious art galleries, a mouthwatering culinary scene, a clutch of tasty museums, and some throbbing nightlife.
In the 20th century Den Haag became the home of several international legal entities including the UN’s International Court of Justice and the Academy of International Law.Show in Lonely Planet
