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seventeenth-century urban extension and, with the interconnecting radial streets, form the city’s distinctive web shape. This is Amsterdam’s most delightful area, full of the handsome seventeenth- and eighteenth-century canal houses, with their decorative gables, and narrow, dreamy canals, that most people associate with the city; a well-worn image, perhaps, but one that is still entirely authentic. Here you’ll also find perhaps the city’s most celebrated attraction, the Anne Frank Huis, the house in which the young Jewish diarist hid away during the German occupation of World War II, now a poignant reminder of the Holocaust.

Leidsegracht

Immediately to the west of the Grachtengordel lies the Jordaan, one-time industrial slum and the traditional heart of working-class Amsterdam, though these days almost entirely gentrified. The same applies to the adjacent Western docklands, although the origins of this district are very different; the artificial islands of the Westerdok were dredged out of the river to create extra wharves and shipbuilding space during the seventeenth century, and only in the last few decades has the shipping industry moved out.

On the other side of the centre is the Old Jewish Quarter, home to a thriving Jewish community until the German occupation of World War II. Postwar development laid a heavy hand on the quarter, but nonetheless there are a couple of significant survivors, principally the Esnoga (Portuguese Synagogue) and the Joods Historisch Museum (Jewish Historical Museum). The adjacent Plantagebuurt is greener and more suburban, but it does possess one excellent museum, the Verzetsmuseum (Resistance Museum); the neighbouring Eastern docklands, in particular Zeeburg, is another formerly industrial area that has undergone rapid renewal – as have some parts of Amsterdam Noord, just across the river from Centraal Station. Amsterdam’s Museum Quarter contains, as you might expect, the city’s premier art museums, principally the Rijksmuseum with its wonderful collection of Dutch paintings, including several of Rembrandt’s finest works, and the excellent Van Gogh Museum, which holds the world’s largest collection of the artist’s work. Both lie just a stone’s throw from the city’s finest park, the Vondelpark.

Traditional café

Finally, the residential suburbs – or outer districts – spreading beyond Singelgracht – are relatively short of attractions – notable exceptions being the wooded parkland of the Amsterdamse Bos and the Amsterdam ArenA, home to the city’s celebrated Ajax football team.

Talk to Amsterdammers about visiting other parts of their country and you may well be met with looks of amazement. Ignore them. The Netherlands is a small nation, and the Dutch have an outstanding public transport system, an integrated network of trains and buses that makes a large and varied slice of the country easily reachable. Consequently, the choice of possible day-trips is extensive; the towns of Haarlem and Alkmaar, the old Zuider Zee ports of Marken and Volendam, and the pretty town of Edam are all worth a visit – not to mention the much-touted Keukenhof Gardens, which are at their best during spring and early summer.

Amsterdam bar

When to go

Amsterdam enjoys a fairly standard, temperate climate, with warm summers and moderately cold and wet winters. The weather is certainly not severe enough to make much difference to the city’s routines. That said, high summer – roughly late June to August – sees the city packed to the gunnels, with parts of the centre almost overwhelmed by the tourist throng, whereas spring and autumn are not too crowded and can be especially beautiful, with mist hanging over the canals and low sunlight beaming through the cloud cover. At any time of the year, but particularly in summer, try to book your accommodation in advance.

20 things not to miss

It isn’t possible to see everything Amsterdam has to offer on a short trip, and we don’t suggest you try. What follows, in no particular order, is a subjective selection of the city’s highlights, from elegant canal-side