10 Best Things to Do in Amsterdam, Plus 2 Day Trips

I spent a week in Amsterdam in late April and early May 2026, and I left with a list of places I still want to go back to. This is the short version: ten things I would tell a friend to do, in no particular order, each with the full story in its own post.

Amsterdam in a Week — The Shortlist
🎨 The big two · Van Gogh Museum and the Rijksmuseum; book both online, give each half a day to a full day.
🚤 On the water · A small-boat canal cruise beats the big glass-roofed boats — it sits low, right by the houseboats.
🌷 In spring · Vondelpark’s floating tulip beds, and if your dates fit, King’s Day (27 April) is the best day of all.
🍜 At the table · De Pijp’s breakfast street, Greenwoods on the Singel, and a Sichuan surprise (FuLu Mandarijn) on the Rokin.
�335 Two day trips · Keukenhof (spring only, 19 March–10 May 2026) and Zaanse Schans — give Keukenhof its own day.
💡 Book early · Anne Frank House tickets go on sale Tuesdays at 10 a.m. for six weeks ahead, and sell out.

1. Van Gogh Museum

The Van Gogh Museum is the one most people come for, and it deserves a full morning. Almond Blossom is my favourite Van Gogh, and I came home with it on a magnet and a coaster because of what it stands for: almond trees flower early, and for him they were a symbol of new life.

The Sunflowers surprised me. It looked smaller than I expected, but at 95 by 73 centimetres it is actually bigger than the Mona Lisa. The landscapes were the discovery of the visit, because they show his whole career changing, from the grey hills of Montmartre to the wheatfields of Auvers.

2. Rijksmuseum

The Rijksmuseum is the Netherlands’ national museum, and it is big enough to swallow a whole day. Everyone heads for The Night Watch. I found myself lingering in the maritime gallery and among the blue-and-white porcelain, which ties Amsterdam to Lisbon in a way I had not expected.

3. A Small-Boat Canal Cruise

Our trip was the Flagship Amsterdam small-group cruise, two hours on a covered boat for 20 passengers. A small boat sits low on the water, almost level with the houseboats, and ours went from the canal ring out onto the Amstel.

I spent part of the evening looking for Rebecca’s houseboat from Ted Lasso. It turns out it was a set built in a London studio. The real houseboats were better anyway, and one of them is the Catboat, a floating sanctuary for stray cats.

4. Walk the Canal Ring

The canal ring rewards wandering. On the Prinsengracht, the Gunters & Meuser building still carries its old hardware-shop lettering, and every bridge seems to have a row of bikes chained along its railings.

The bikes are the other lesson. I come from Montreal, a cycling city, and I still spent most of my walks watching for bikes, not cars. The red lanes belong to the cyclists, and they take that seriously.

5. Dam Square and the Royal Palace

Dam Square is the centre of everything, and the Royal Palace on its west side, with the Nieuwe Kerk beside it, is worth going inside, not just photographing. The Burgerzaal is one of the grandest rooms in the city, and the Vierschaar, where death sentences were once passed, is as sobering as it is beautiful.

6. Vondelpark

Vondelpark is where Amsterdam goes to breathe. In April, during the Tulip Festival, beds of tulips float on its pond, and I walked past them in the early evening with the light turning gold.

7. Moco Museum

The Moco Museum, in a villa on Museumplein, is the modern counterweight to the Rijksmuseum next door. The Banksy rooms are the draw, and the immersive rooms and the garden make it a fun hour even for people who do not usually do museums.

8. Heineken Experience

I am not much of a beer drinker, and I still enjoyed the Heineken Experience. I had Heineken 0.0 instead of regular beer, and as a Mercedes fan, the F1 room was the highlight for me, even if the case at its centre holds Max Verstappen’s Red Bull race suit.

9. King’s Day, If Your Dates Fit

I did not plan my trip around King’s Day on 27 April. I wished for a while that my dates did not cover it. It turned out to be the best day of the trip.

The celebration happens on the canals, not in the Museum Quarter: boats full of people in orange, packed bridges and bars spilling onto the quays. Plenty of places close for the day, but some stay open. The Heineken Experience and Moco were both open when I went.

10. Eat Your Way Across the City

Some of my favourite hours in Amsterdam were at the table. The De Pijp breakfast street, the Eerste Jacob van Campenstraat, has three breakfast places on the same street: Locals, Flow and Bakers & Roasters. Greenwoods on the Singel has been serving breakfast since 1988, and it is worth the queue. For something sweet, Hans Egstorf makes fresh stroopwafels.

The surprise was FuLu Mandarijn on the Rokin, a Sichuan restaurant up a flight of stairs from the street. It beat the Chinese food I have had in Montreal and New York.

Two Day Trips Worth Adding

Keukenhof and Zaanse Schans are both outside the city, but they are easy to reach from it. Keukenhof, in Lisse, opens only in spring, and I had just half a day there because I paired it with Zaanse Schans. It deserves a full day.

Zaanse Schans is windmills, a cheese farm and a clog workshop. The Catharina Hoeve cheese farm taught me more about Dutch cheese than I expected to learn in an afternoon.

Bubbly Tips

• Book the Anne Frank House six weeks ahead. Tickets are sold only online at annefrank.org, with no sales at the door. They are released every Tuesday at 10 a.m. Amsterdam time for the week six weeks later. I missed out because they were sold out.
• Book the Van Gogh Museum online too. Tickets are sold online only, with a timed start.
• Don’t count on the I amsterdam City Card for the big two. The Van Gogh Museum stopped accepting it in 2022, and the Anne Frank House does not take it either.
• Try a Friday evening at the Van Gogh Museum. On most Fridays it stays open until 9 p.m.
• Stay off the red lanes. They are bike lanes, and on one-way streets bikes can still come from both directions.
• Pick a small boat for the canals. A small boat gets much closer to the houseboats than the big glass-roofed tour boats do.
• Expect breakfast queues. We waited about half an hour at Greenwoods, and far longer at Flow the morning after King’s Day.
• Check opening hours for King’s Day one by one. Some places close for the day and some stay open, so check each one before planning around it.
• Give Keukenhof its own day. Pairing it with Zaanse Schans left me rushing through it.
• Use the metro and trams for longer hops. The centre is compact enough to walk, and Rokin metro station has an exit just south of Dam Square, with trams 4, 14 and 24 stopping there too.

Final Thoughts

A week in Amsterdam was not enough to see everything, and I still have a list for next time, starting with the Anne Frank House. Late April and early May gave me tulips, King’s Day and some of the busiest days of the year, so it pays to book the big museums early.

What stayed with me most were the small things between the famous ones: a houseboat with flower boxes on its terrace, a breakfast queue on the Singel, and a Chinese restaurant up a flight of stairs that is easy to walk past without noticing.

Until next time!

xoxo,
Bubbly 🎈