This wonderful museum traces Van Gogh's life and artistic development via the world's largest collection of his work. More than 200 canvases are on display, stretching from his early, bleak portraits of peasants in the Netherlands through to his later years in sunny France, where he produced his best-known work with its characteristic giddy colour. Also on show here are 500 of his drawings and 700 hand-written letters. 

Attracting over 12 million visitors per year, Amsterdam’s favorite playground is the green expanse of Vondelpark, with its 116 acres (47 hectares) of manicured lawns, ponds, quaint cafes, charming footbridges and winding paths. 

Located southwest of the city center close to the wealthy Old South neighborhood, Vondelpark is free and open all day and night, year-round, offering plenty of activities and events ­from cycling to open-air theatre. 

Visiting the Anne Frank Huis is one of Amsterdam's most profound experiences. Tragically, of the 107,000 Jewish adults and children deported from the Netherlands to concentration camps during WWII, only 5000 survived.

Entering the "Secret Annexe" where the teenaged girl and her family desperately hid from the Nazis for over two years until their capture puts the Holocaust's atrocities into acutely human scale, intimately personalizing the war's catastrophic effects. Standing in these sombre, airless rooms and viewing the diary Anne wrote while hiding here is impossible to forget.

There have long been links between Russia and the Netherlands – Tsar Peter the Great learned shipbuilding here in 1697 – hence this branch of St Petersburg’s State Hermitage Museum. Blockbuster temporary exhibitions show works from the Hermitage's vast treasure trove, while the permanent Portrait Gallery of the Golden Age has formal group portraits of the 17th-century Dutch A-list; the Outsider Gallery also has temporary shows. I Amsterdam and Museum cards allow free entrance or a discount, depending on the exhibition. 

Opened as a town hall in 1655, this resplendent building became a palace in the 19th century. The interiors gleam, especially the marble work – at its best in a floor inlaid with maps of the world in the great burgerzaal (citizens’ hall) at the heart of the building. Pick up a free audioguide at the desk when you enter; it explains everything you'll see in vivid detail. King Willem-Alexander uses the palace only for ceremonies; check for periodic closures. 

Some 260 stalls fill the Albert Cuypmarkt, Amsterdam's largest and busiest market. Vendors loudly tout their array of gadgets, homewares, flowers, fruit, vegetables, herbs and spices. Many sell clothes and other goods, too, and they're often cheaper than anywhere else. Snack vendors tempt passers-by with raw-herring sandwiches, frites (fries), poffertjes (tiny Dutch pancakes dusted with icing sugar) and caramel syrup-filled stroopwafels. If you have room after all that, the surrounding area teems with cosy cafés (pubs) and restaurants.