Want to pack in all the major sights? Look no further – these are the very best attractions in Amsterdam right now

A guide to Amsterdam’s best attractions? Well, we could go on, and on, and on. This city packs a cultural punch, with more world-leading museums, galleries and weird cultural activities than you can shake a stick at. But on our list of its best attractions, we wanted to make sure we ticked every single box.

That’s why you’ll find its bucket list-worthy museums alongside boozy, fun-filled canal tours, stroopwaffel-making classes, seriously wacky museums and a whole lot more. For our more off-the-beaten-track recommendations, we’d suggest heading to our list of Amsterdam’s best things to do – but for proper, ultimate tourist attractions, you’re in the right place. Here are Amsterdam’s most unmissable sights and activities to book right now.

📍 Ultimate guide to what to do in Amsterdam

Should I book attractions in advance?

Lots of your Amsterdam trip you can do on the fly – its abundance of tours, classes, galleries and more lends itself to a fair bit of spontaneity. But heed our warning, if you want to visit the ‘Big Three’ (aka Rijksmuseum, Anne Frank Huis and Van Gogh), you’re going to want to book well in advance – for Anne Frank Huis, you’ll want to start looking at time slots about three months ahead. But hey, if you’re reading this on the day and you’re panicking, don’t fear: often queueing from the early hours should get you in too.

Derek Robertson is a writer based in Amsterdam. At Time Out, all of our travel guides are written by local writers who know their cities inside out. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines. This guide includes affiliate links, which have no influence on our editorial content. For more information, see our affiliate guidelines.

Amsterdam in 2025: It’s finally summer in Amsterdam, and the city has burst into life. The city’s attempts to curb the worst tourism excesses and make visits a more pleasant experience are ongoing (and successful!), but there’s another, even better, reason why the Venice of the North should be on your destination list in 2025: it’s celebrating its 750th birthday.

Essentially, there’s never been a better time to visit Amsterdam, as throughout the year, a host of special events will commemorate this momentous milestone: 24 Hours will see each district take turns to open up with workshops, tours, and exhibitions (September 6, October 11); SAIL Amsterdam returns for the first time in five years (August 20-25); and on the longest day of the year (June 21), the A10 ring road round the city will be turned into a 15-kilometre parade full of music, dance, theatre, food trucks, and more – oh, and the city will even pay for your wedding if you ask nicely. More on all that below. And of course, there’s plenty to see and do year-round, too: here are its best things to do, whenever you’re visiting, according to our experts.

📍 RECOMMENDED: Ultimate guide to what to do in Amsterdam

What shouldn’t I miss in Amsterdam?

You could stay here a week and not have time to see all the main attractions. But no visit should be without a canal cruise – it’s the best way to see the city and provides a unique perspective of the UNESCO World Heritage canal ring. Don’t miss the Rijksmuseum, truly one of the world’s great art institutions. And while exploring The Nine Streets or Albert Cuypmarkt can be exhilarating, escape the bustle – and rampant capitalism – at Vondelpark, and just breathe (or cycle around) for an afternoon. It’s an altogether more relaxing side of the city.

How long should I spend in Amsterdam?

While I’m biased, and think you could spend years meandering Amsterdam’s winding streets, you actually only need about three days to see the lion’s share of the city. That gives you enough time to take in the best sights, have a genever or two, and, yes, do some serious walking.

🏠 Ready to book? Here’s where to stay in Amsterdam and its best hotels

Callum Booth and Derek Robertson are writers based in Amsterdam. At Time Out, all of our travel guides are written by local writers who know their cities inside out. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines. This guide includes affiliate links, which have no influence on our editorial content. For more information, see our affiliate guidelines.

On the evening of our overnight train journey from Amsterdam to Berlin and on to Dresden aboard the European Sleeper, we enjoy a restorative plate of oysters and steak tartare on the decks of Amsterdam’s BrasserieMarie overlooking the Amstel. Then, after a nightcap in the adjoining Freddy’s Bar, a legendary spot in the Hotel De L’Europe, we make the short stroll to Amsterdam Centraal Station for the so-called Good Night Train.

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At 22.20 we board the train to Berlin, the bunks are swiftly made up and the blinds part pulled down for sleep. You can open the window for fresh air, brush your teeth in your own basin and there is crisp, clean linen. This slow journey is all about the romance of life on the track – and, for me, a lingering nostalgia.

This slow journey is all about the romance of life on the track – and, for me, a lingering nostalgia

To avoid my car-sickness as a child, I’d be taken on night trains across the Alps, those peaks of whipped meringue that collapsed on to the plate of the Po Valley by morning. Today, on the Brussels to Prague route, it’s to bed and in that soothing suspension of time and place, that familiar funnel of darkness, I surrender to the clicking rhythm of the track and fall soundly asleep.

Day two, 06.00. Early morning arrives with a wake-up call: a hot drink in a polystyrene cup and breakfast in a box. The city approach is through a patchwork of urban gardens known as Schrebergärten. The fenced green colonies with their inhabited shacks on former no man’s land along railways is a typical German phenomenon, the ticket inspector tells me. It harks back to the first world war when the extra food production provided by allotments was part of Berlin’s war effort.

This strange rooftop gnomesville soon gives way to the futuristic glass prism structure that is Berlin Hauptbahnhof, the largest railway terminal in Europe, welcoming 1,200 trains a day. It is impossible to remain unmoved by the vast space, across five floors, teeming with life and possibility, connecting to the continent and, imaginatively, to the rest of the world; to Belarus, Finland, Russia and Kazakhstan, before the reality of the Ukraine war put a stop to that.

View image in fullscreen Refreshing trip: the beautiful Oderberger public baths in Berlin. Photograph: Picture Alliance/Alamy

Berlin serves as a hub for the night trains which, alongside the thrice-weekly European Sleeper that starts in Brussels, include the Nightjet from Austria and the midnight train from France. In the fallow time before we can check into our central hotel, we stop for a generous buffet breakfast, a swim, much-needed showers and a sauna at the neoclassical Oderberger public baths.

Our own accommodation at the Circus is a stroll away on the furthest edge of leafy cobblestoned Prenzlauer Berg – formerly, a working-class Jewish enclave, then a hot-bed of dissent and counterculture in the divide of the city after the second world war.

The hotel offers a range of accommodation options. One, the Circus Hostel (prices from €19pp, sharing a four-bed dorm), has a buzz, with its microbrewery in the basement and Fairtrade coffee bean roastery. The private floors have retro-design apartments with bathrooms, kitchen and furnished balconies looking over the urban skyline and gritty streets (the nicest double, the cheerful signature Panorama Suite, starts at €149). Alternatively, there’s the Circus Hotel over the road (doubles from €130 a night), in the former haberdashers that was fabisch, before it was “Aryanised” and closed down by the Nazis. This option offers another level of sophistication with rental bikes, courtyard garden and slick design details, including an eco-friendly air-conditioning system. They also plant a tree for every booking made directly.

View image in fullscreen Sunset views from the European Sleeper

This is a fabulous area for strolling. Walk northbound past the chestnut trees of Kastianallee, rechristened Casting Alley when the wall came down, for all the models and would-be starlets in the early 2000s hoping to be discovered here. At its north end, sits Prater Garten at Eberswalder Strasse, the oldest beer garden in the city, and we discover live music at Kulturbrauerei, a converted brewery.

Midmorning we visit Altes Museum, home to one of the most important collections of classical antiquity. These treasures and spoils of war were first acquired privately by Friedrich Wilhelm I in the 17th century. When a newly self-aware bourgeoisie campaigned for public access, Altes was the first museum to open, in 1830. It was repurposed for propaganda in the Nazi era, before the exhibits were taken for safekeeping to Berlin Zoo and mountain mines or stolen by the Soviets and secreted across the Siberian landmass. Today, highlights include a Roman marble copy of the Boy with Thorn, foreplay on the side of an erotic Grecian vase.

View image in fullscreen Bright lights, big city: Amsterdam Centraal Train Station. Photograph: George Clerk/Getty Images

Back on the European Sleeper we head to Dresden, not quite two hours away. It has an instant holiday vibe, a university town with open parkland, riverbanks and squares that are traffic-free and walkable. Compared to cosmopolitan Berlin, it is more straitlaced and somewhat straitjacketed by the legacy of its Soviet occupation. The architecture and art treasures that defined the fortunes and destruction of this “Florence on the Elbe” have been reconstructed at the Zwinger, modelled on Versailles. We imbibe the classical past and the Old Masters at the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (SKD), and sculpture and artwork predating 1800 within the 14-strong museum complex. Then a break for lunch on the terrace at the Alte Meister Cafe at the Zwinger.

Our inn for the night is Hotel Suitess, with views over the rebuilt Frauenkirche cathedral, where we watch firefighters conducting tight drills up the steeple. The city went up in flames following the Allied bombing of 1945 – and no one is taking chances. To counter such sobering thoughts, we repair to the hotel’s Gin House – a classic bar with 1920s-style smoking lounge– for some juniper schnapps. It’s just the ticket.

The Good Night Train costs from €219 to €399 per person for a private sleeper compartment (europeansleeper.eu)

Explore this art-obsessed city through the very best museums in Amsterdam, from the Stedelijk to the Rijksmuseum

It’s no surprise that a city steeped in as much history as Amsterdam overflows with museums. Still, the sheer amount of galleries and institutions in the Dutch capital can make it tough for visitors to work out how best to use their time. But don’t worry, we’re here to help.

There are two unmissable museums when you visit Amsterdam: the Van Gogh and Anne Frank House. These are unique and unforgettable institutions that you simply won’t be able to experience anywhere else in the world, and are a key part of the Amsterdam experience. Be warned though, make sure to book far in advance. Tickets sell out quickly, especially for the Anne Frank House.

📍 RECOMMENDED: Ultimate guide to what to do in Amsterdam

What museums in Amsterdam are free?

The short answer to this is: not a lot of them – especially if you’re thinking of the big names. Amsterdam’s ‘big three’ come with a hefty price, and most of the others you’ll see on this list have at least a small entry fee. You do, however, have options: tour Amsterdam’s street murals, see a sculpture exhibition at Rijksmuseum Gardens, check out some of the city’s independent art galleries – and go to the Cheese Museum, which is free to visit (even if you end up buying a load of cheese afterwards). Oh, and if you’re here on the first Sunday of the month, you might just be in luck for another one of them. More on that below.

🏠 Ready to book? Here’s where to stay in Amsterdam and its best hotels.

What makes us great: Everything your capital can do, ours can do better. We’re the home of the world’s largest arts festival, we’ve got a food and drink scene you’ll be hard pushed to beat, castles and cobbled streets with breathtaking gothic architecture (we’re not called the ‘Athens of the North’ for nothing) that has inspired authors, poets and musicians alike – and of course, the giant extinct volcano that overlooks it all, offering the best views of the city. Get the bus? We don’t think so – Edinburgh is a compact and walkable city and going by foot is the best way to soak it all in. Robert Louis Stevenson nailed it when he described Edinburgh as ‘half a capital and half a country town’. Oh, you’ve got better weather? We challenge anyone not to fall in love with Edinburgh when cosied up in one of our many historic pubs with a wee dram of whisky as the rain batters down outside – many a famous love story (most recently One Day) has kicked off with our city as the background and it’s easy to see why. We’ll take you for a tour of Leith – previously one of Time Out’s coolest neighbourhoods – before going dancing ‘til 3am at one of the UK’s most legendary clubs.

Visit now because: There’s never been a better time to eat and drink your way around Edinburgh, whether it’s fine dining at the likes of Lyla, The Little Chartroom and Timberyard, or gorging on the city’s best cheap eats at Civerinos, Ting Thai Caravan and Chez Jules. Edinburgh is home to some of the UK’s (and in some cases, the world’s) best cocktail bars and no night out is complete without exploring the speakeasies stashed below the city’s streets.

The big numbers: Edinburgh was named the fifth-most beautiful city on the list and the fourth-best for green spaces and access to nature. Eighty-five percent of locals said it was easy to walk everywhere, too. How’s that for a winning combo?

📍 Discover the best things to do in Edinburgh