Amsterdamfour days

Canals, the Rijksmuseum, the Anne Frank House and windmills — no car, on foot, by tram and by train.

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Getting around

Netherlands · 4 days

The whole trip is one city and one day trip to the windmills. No car: the center inside the canal ring is a half-hour walk across, beyond that tram and bicycle.

Day by day

Day 1 · 9 placesArrival, the canals and the Anne Frank House
Schiphol → Amsterdam Centraal, train 17 min
  • Rondvaart · Rederij Lovers
    An hour on the canals in a covered boat — the best way to understand the city on the first day: you see how the houses stand on piles, what the hooks under the gables are for, and why every bridge is humped.
  • Dam en Koninklijk Paleis
    The main square: the Royal Palace is the old town hall, built on 13,659 wooden piles, with the New Church next to it. The palace is not always open inside; from outside it is still the main thing on the square.
  • Anne Frank Huis
    The house on Prinsengracht where eight people hid for two years. You go up behind the bookcase into empty rooms — there is no furniture, by Otto Frank’s own wish. Tickets online only, for a set time.
  • Schiphol Airport (AMS)
    The train station is right under the terminal: go down one level and get on — no buses.
  • Amsterdam Centraal
    The city starts here: leave by the south exit and the Damrak and the canals are in front of you. You come back here for the train to the airport.
  • Begijnhof
    A courtyard of the Beguines two steps from the crowd: silence, a lawn and the oldest wooden house in Amsterdam. Free; they ask you to keep quiet — people live here.
Day 2 · 6 placesThe museum quarter, Vondelpark and De Pijp
the whole day in the west and south; trams 2, 12 and 24
  • Van Gogh Museum
    Two hundred paintings and five hundred drawings by one man, hung in the order of his life: you watch dark peasant canvases turn into sunflowers in ten years. Timed ticket, online only.
  • Rijksmuseum
    The country’s main museum: Rembrandt’s Night Watch in its own hall, Vermeer’s Milkmaid, ship models and dollhouses. You cannot see it all — take the Gallery of Honor on the second floor and one more wing.
  • Vondelpark
    The city park all of Amsterdam cycles through on the way to work. In the morning it is almost empty — the best hour to get on a rented bike for the first time: wide paths, no cars.
  • Museumplein
    A lawn with a pond between four museums: this is where you catch your breath between Van Gogh and the Rijksmuseum, and in winter it becomes a skating rink.
  • Albert Cuypmarkt
    The long street market of De Pijp: cheese, herring, stroopwafels fresh off the griddle, Surinamese roti. Monday to Saturday, closing at five — go by day, not after the museums.
  • Ferdinand Bolstraat en Gerard Doustraat
    The city’s second “local” street, no longer a tourist one: after the market closes, small kitchens of every kind light up here, from Dutch cafés to Indonesian and Syrian.
Day 3 · 6 placesThe windmills of Zaanse Schans and Amsterdam-Noord
train Centraal → Zaandijk Zaanse Schans, 17 min
  • Zaanse Schans
    A village of green wooden houses and working windmills on the Zaan: they were moved here from all around to save them. Walking the village is free; you pay only to go inside a mill or the museum.
  • Molen De Kat
    The only working paint mill in the world: the stones still grind rock into pigment, and it is sold to painters on the spot. A steep ladder leads inside; the deck on top is open.
  • Kaasboerderij Catharina Hoeve
    A cheese farm in an old barn: they show how the cheese is made and pressed, and you taste a dozen kinds for free. The clog workshop is next door.
  • Zaans Museum
    Explains what the village does not show: how the world’s first industrial district ran on these mills, and why chocolate and waffles are still made right here.
  • EYE Filmmuseum
    The white sail of a building on the north bank. The ferry there is free and runs around the clock; even without an exhibition ticket it is worth going in for the view of the water from the café and the basement of old projectors.
  • A'DAM Lookout
    The roof of the old Shell tower: the whole city below, and the swing “over the edge” — the highest in Europe. In late October the sun sets around five, so you catch the sunset and the lights in one visit.
Day 4 · 6 placesThe Jewish quarter, the Amstel and the flight home
Amsterdam Centraal → Schiphol, train 17 min
  • Museum Het Rembrandthuis
    The house Rembrandt bought at the height of his fame and lost when he went bankrupt. The rooms were refurnished from the inventory of the sale; in the studio they grind paints and pull etchings while you watch.
  • Waterlooplein
    The city’s oldest flea market: records, army jackets, bicycle bells and honest junk. Monday to Saturday from half past nine.
  • Portugese Synagoge
    A synagogue from 1675 with no electricity: in the evening it is lit by a thousand candles on brass chandeliers. A huge bare hall with sand on the floor — as it was three hundred years ago. Closes early on Friday, closed on Saturday.
  • Magere Brug
    The white wooden drawbridge over the Amstel — the last picture of the trip. It is still raised by hand, and in the evening it is strung with lights.
  • Amsterdam Centraal
    Collect the bags from the lockers and get on the airport train — it leaves every few minutes from platforms 1, 2 and 14.
  • Schiphol Airport (AMS)
    Allow extra time for security at Schiphol: the line can be long even on a weekday.
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