n Amsterdam, you can do, or do nothing. Both are equally enjoyable. If you want to ‘do’ – you can head for the Van Gogh Museum, Rembrandt House, Rijksmuseum, Moco Museum, Anne Frank House, a canal cruise and the myriad of other offerings for tourists.

If you want to do nothing, you can just wander the streets, look up at the leaning gabled architecture of canal houses, with their hooks at the top for hoisting up furniture, the old bricks with anchor plates to hold them together. You can wander through Nieumarkt and buy fruit from the farmers market on the weekend, or sift through the flea market at Waterloopein for some vintage clothing or curiosities.

If you really want to do nothing you can just lay in your bed, window open, and watch the canal boats pass all day. This is the magic of Amsterdam, one of the few cities in the world where it just feels good to exist in.

1. Things to see

I’ve been to Amsterdam three times, and my travel partner almost 20. So we each have our favorite haunts. In no particular order:

1. Sauna Deco: an art deco extravagance for your body and senses, an all-day ticket will allow you to use the Finnish saunas, steam room, cold dipping pools, and other health facilities. However, you’ll have to banish your shyness and do it all nude. You can read about our visits here.

2. Puccini Bomboni (Singel 184), after your done pampering your body what else but feed it homemade chocolates from this delicious chocolate boutique – ginger, coffee, fig marzipan, cognac, Cointreau, vanilla poppyseed, plum, pecan, cranberry, Drambuie and many other flavors

3. Shopping: Hudson Bay, the 9 streets or just shopping for souvenir and discount clothes down Nieuwendijk

4. Vondelpark: on good days a perfect place for a picnic, just relax in the grass on a blanket and watch life pass. Note: you can’t drive your scooter in the park so you’ll have to park it, then walk in.

5. Zandvoort: on very good days a trip to the beach is in order, you can take the train or take a long way and rent a scooter, stopping off in small towns for lunch and snacks and make an entire day of it – before ending up on the beach and eating from delicious fish carts driven by tractors. You can read our last account here.

6. Moco Museum: a converted house showing the work of street artist Banksy. From little girls holding heart balloons (or hugging bombs) to policemen kissing – the stencil paintings are good but the sculpture garden is even better.

7. Van Gogh Museum: Sadly some of his best works are at MOMA (NYC), and the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. However, there’s a huge collection here which is worthwhile for an afternoon.

8. Sex Museum, for something a bit more low-brow and vaudeville – there are two sex museums, one is worth the entrance fee and the other is not. However, I always mix them up. The good one has four or 5 stories of paintings, sculptures and curiosities related to all things sex through history. There’s also an amusing gift shop

9. Cat Museum: there are cat cafes, a catboat and then a cat museum, if you love cats all make good diversions. The museum has several cats inside, but the real draw is the collection of cat artwork, vintage posters and weird collection of everything feline.

10. Anne Frank House: this has been turned into an institution, they may as well give you an entrance ticket when they stamp your passport at Schiphol. It’s an ‘okay’ tour through an extremely touristic spot and is maybe worth it… once… And only once. Luckily there’s a very good pancake house just down the road.

11. Walking around the Red Light District with the other throng of tourists, making your way down tiny cobbled alleys to look at the girls standing in windows under red lights trying to entice customers inside.

12. Renting boats. You used to be able to rent fairly fast boats and cruise the canals at will. But, all things change – and now you only have access to very small and extremely slow boats (hint: you can walk much faster than these toy boats go at full throttle), and many of the inner canals are off-limits. I think its reached the point that it’s no longer worth it to rent a boat in Amsterdam, better if you make friends with someone who has a real boat and hitch a ride.

Staying on the houseboat

New Years Eve DJ

Scenes from around Amsterdam

One of the many bridges

Boathouse

Iceskating

… Amsterdam life (in Winter)

Canal boats

2. Nightlife

Leidseplein supposedly rules for nightlife, but I prefer the Red Light district bars. You either get old school oak paneling with a single bartender that plays to a repeat crowd or a series of dive bars where already drunk tourists crash in to get a little drunker. My fave is still Hotel Internationaal, because the bartenders are cool and you never know what will drag itself in out of the night. Queens Bar (a gay bar) is also good fun with bingo night and regular drag shows.

If these aren’t your scene, just get off the main tourist streets and you’ll find lots of small hole in the wall bars scattered about. It’s easy to develop a favorite and then frequent it every night. It takes a few days, but eventually, the bartenders will recognize you and start to get friendly.

Still, Amsterdam has some of the best nightlife on the planet, along with Bangkok, and Paris.

More bars than people, I think

Hotel Internationaal, Queens Bar, random bars around the Centrum

3. Spend

Amsterdam is probably one of the best shopping cities, especially If you’re after sales from mainstream brands, small souvenirs to bring home, and oddities. You never know what you’ll find and hardly ever make it back to your Airbnb without a bag full of something.

More souvenirs than suitcase space

4. Food

Fondue – Café Bern (Nieuwmarkt 9) is probably my favorite fondue restaurant, find a seat at the bar and eat till you can’t move, then let your partner roll you home. The food is delicious, beers on tap, and prices ultra reasonable.

Pancake houses – actually vary in quality a lot. From thick western pancakes to soggy knock-off Amsterdam ones. The best pancakes we’ve had are still from the touristed Pancake Bakery (Prinsengracht 191). If you like plain pancakes there are plenty of other good places, you just have to try them and see.

Endless food choices

5. Getting Around

Most everything can be reached with your feet. I prefer to rent a scooter for the summer months, and the trams are also useful. Take taxis as a last resort as I’ve been ripped off a few times.

6. Costs

All prices have skyrocketed since the Guilder changed to the Euro, however prices are still on the upswing (yearly) accommodation is downright expensive now. The rest of the expenses are what you want them to be. You can eat at upscale restaurants or chomp down on Falafel and hot dogs.

7. Tips

So many tips for Amsterdam, most of it is trial and error. Any trouble you get into will probably be alcohol-related. If you can control your intake and know when you head home you’ll be fine.

8. Notes from Christina

1. There are street markets that a lot of stalls you can see and you can buy in Waterloopein markets in Amsterdam like local foods, vintage fashion, second-hand books handcrafted jewelry and fruits and so more on stuff you can find, good prices that you can buy a lot of pasalubong in there for your family.

2. Red light district is the famous tourist attraction when the night is comes, all the tourist crowded in the street while the everybody staring to the girl in the window. Every red light district street is crowded in lots of people that’s why it’s hard to walking by to go to bar, cafes, restaurant and more.

3. There have also erotic museum located in the middle of Amsterdam red light district, the museum looks eroticism in all form of the ages. Includes sculptures, paintings, drawings, photographs and other artwork. And if you want to have souvenir just go to the gift shop in the museum.

4. What most I like about Amsterdam it because I love the cultures, the old bricks houses, the canals, shop malls, a lot of souvenirs shops, a lot of bars, Asian restaurant, international restaurant, when we’re stay in Amsterdam the Asian food is my favorite food to eat at dinner time, also crepes with ham egg and cheese. And the het karbeel cafes and restaurant that they have my favorite pancake the natural with have butter, sugar, and honey.

5. And whenever we going to the outdoor like museums, after we finish look the stuff and done we just go straight to gift shop museum and buy a souvenirs like magnets, postcards or keychains. I love to collect magnets souvenirs each museums we go. And when we come back home I just put it on my refrigerator.

6. I love to comeback in Amsterdam every year that to spend my birthday, Christmas or New Years. A lot of fun and cool stuffs to do. And I love the apartment so beautiful, while stay in Amsterdam. It feels like you own that house that you can do what ever you want, such a watch tv, cook breakfast, lunch and dinner, organize the cute display in apartment, and a big space to go see around the houses and do something.

A full-on side-show circus that has been toned down over the last decade to just a street fair. It’s still a lot of fun, but the writing’s on the wall with new rules, regulations and a new, improved, and socially acceptable Amsterdam. Come while the party still swings and respect the locals.

Links to other useful sites

• Lonely Planet – Paris