Top Spots to Fully Enjoy Sightseeing in Amsterdam
Amsterdam, the Netherlands, is a beautiful city of water crisscrossed by canals. From museums housing world-renowned masterpieces to historical buildings that stir the soul, tourist attractions that charm visitors are scattered throughout the city.
However, the most crucial points to remember for Amsterdam sightseeing are ‘advance booking’ and ‘the order of your visits’. With tourists flocking from all over the world, it’s not uncommon for tickets to popular spots to sell out weeks in advance.
This article carefully selects four major spots you absolutely must visit when in Amsterdam. Beyond mere facility introductions, we delve deep into practical traveler information, including the best visiting hours, ‘booking pitfalls’, and how to navigate locally.
Rijksmuseum
📍 Address: Museumstraat 1, 1071 XX Amsterdam, Netherlands
The Rijksmuseum is a world-class temple of beauty, featuring a magnificent array of artworks representing the Dutch Golden Age. Especially on the second floor, in the ‘Gallery of Honour’, masterpieces like Vermeer’s ‘The Milkmaid’ and Van Gogh’s self-portrait—works you’ve only seen in art textbooks—are generously displayed. You’ll be overwhelmed by the close proximity, allowing you to see even the brushstrokes with your own eyes.
The greatest highlight is undoubtedly Rembrandt’s masterpiece, ‘The Night Watch’. Currently, the largest-ever research and restoration project, ‘Operation Night Watch,’ is underway, allowing visitors to watch restorers at work in a glass-enclosed restoration booth in real-time. Witnessing a masterpiece being reborn is, in a sense, a truly rare experience only available now. If you ask a nearby curator, they might even carefully explain the details of the restoration work.
You don’t need to rent a paid audio guide to navigate the museum. By downloading the official free app on your smartphone, you can enjoy a comprehensive audio guide in Japanese while appreciating the art. Don’t forget to bring your earphones.
One ‘trap’ that travelers often fall into is the luggage storage rules. Although there are small lockers in the museum, large items like suitcases cannot be stored. If you have large luggage, you’ll need to go to the paid lockers (credit card compatible) in the underground parking garage near the Van Gogh Museum, which can cost nearly 30 minutes round trip. Since you’ll need at least 2-3 hours for your visit, it’s best to come unencumbered.
Van Gogh Museum
📍 Address: Museumplein 6, 1071 DJ Amsterdam, Netherlands
The Van Gogh Museum boasts the world’s largest collection of Vincent van Gogh’s works. From his early dark-toned peasant paintings to the explosion of color as he moved to Paris and Arles, you can trace the trajectory of his life and the evolution of his painting style chronologically, making for a highly satisfying museum experience. The exhibition showcasing how much Van Gogh was influenced by Japanese Ukiyo-e is also a must-see.
What you absolutely must utilize here is the ‘Japanese audio guide’. It dramatically narrates Van Gogh’s struggles behind his paintings and episodes with his brother Theo, who supported him, drawing you deeper into Van Gogh’s life the more you learn.
Advance online booking (time slot specific) is ‘mandatory’ for admission. Same-day tickets are generally not sold, so you won’t be able to enter if you show up without a reservation. If you want to leisurely appreciate your favorite works without being jostled by crowds, we highly recommend the ‘9:00 AM’ slot, right after opening. With only dozens of people in the museum right after opening, you can enjoy a luxurious time as if you have the masterpieces all to yourself.
Notably, in the summer of 2025, news reported the ‘risk of closure’ due to building deterioration and a lack of funds for major renovations, surprising art fans worldwide. As a museum at a crossroads in how to preserve cultural heritage, we strongly recommend visiting sooner rather than later if you plan to go someday.
Anne Frank House
📍 Address: Westermarkt 20, 1016 GV Amsterdam, Netherlands
This museum preserves the hiding place where Anne Frank’s family lived in secret, escaping Jewish persecution during World War II, retaining its original appearance. By walking through the secret entrance hidden behind a bookcase, seeing Anne Frank’s original diary, and exploring the narrow, dimly lit rooms, the horrific history and family tragedy of those who didn’t survive by just a slight twist of fate deeply resonate with your heart.
The ticket price includes an audio guide, and you can receive a Japanese device upon entry. As you proceed through the exhibition listening to explanations for each room, even those unfamiliar with English can deeply understand the history. The interior paths are narrow, following a slow single-file route, so allow for about 1 to 1.5 hours for your visit (photography is prohibited inside the museum).
The most crucial aspect to note for this spot is the ‘ticket scramble’. It is an extremely popular attraction, often the first to sell out among Amsterdam’s tourist spots. Currently, tickets go on sale on the official website ‘6 weeks prior to the desired date, on Tuesday (10 AM local time)’. If you miss this window, securing a reservation during your travel dates becomes extremely difficult. While it’s not impossible to snag last-minute cancellations or additional slots a few days before, the golden rule is to set a reminder on your calendar once you decide your visiting day and secure tickets as soon as they go on sale.
Museum of the Canals
📍 Address: Herengracht 386, 1016 CJ Amsterdam, Netherlands
If the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum are the ‘classic’ choices, then this is a ‘hidden gem’ that elevates the quality of your Amsterdam sightseeing experience. You can quickly and fascinatingly learn about the origins of Amsterdam’s beautiful canals, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and the ‘canal houses’ lining them, all in about an hour.
This isn’t just a museum with old artifacts. As you tour the interior of a luxurious canal house, using projection mapping, elaborate dollhouses, and pop clay animation, the museum vividly illustrates the urban planning of that era. Fundamental aspects of Amsterdam’s history, such as ‘Why were houses built on canals?’ and ‘How did people coexist with water?’, are effortlessly understood with the Japanese audio guide.
We highly recommend visiting this spot on your ‘first day of Amsterdam sightseeing’ or ‘before serious city exploration’. After leaving this museum, your perception of the casually walked canal-lined streets and the curiously leaning houses will dramatically change, transforming from mere beautiful scenery into a ‘meaningful, living city’.
Tips for Scheduling Your Amsterdam Sightseeing
Amsterdam is a very tourist-friendly city where major attractions are compactly located in the city center, easily accessible by tram or on foot. However, as introduced, many popular spots require ‘time-specific advance booking,’ so the spontaneous ‘drop-in’ style doesn’t often work here.
When planning your schedule, the standard approach is to prioritize securing tickets for the ‘Anne Frank House’ first, followed by booking the earliest morning slot for the ‘Van Gogh Museum’. By incorporating the ‘Museum of the Canals’ during open slots, along with city churches and parks that don’t require reservations and are relatively easy to enter for breaks, you can smoothly and efficiently enjoy the charms of Amsterdam without wasted time.
