Four days in Amsterdam: 1,500 bridges

Three nights in the centre, everything on foot or by tram, with the ticketed museums booked before you leave home.

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Length
4 days, 3 nights
Where you stay
Amsterdam
Places
10 across 4 days
OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles Data from OpenStreetMap

Amsterdam is small. The half circle of streets that most visitors mean when they say the city is about two kilometres across, ringed by five canals (Singel, Herengracht, Keizersgracht, Prinsengracht and Singelgracht) and stitched together by more than 1,500 bridges. From Centraal station you can walk to nearly everything worth seeing in half an hour, which is why four days is generous rather than rushed.

The two things that will decide how your trip feels are both booked from your sofa weeks earlier. Van Gogh and Anne Frank sell timed tickets online and nothing else, and the good slots go long before you arrive. Everything else, the churches, the canals, the parks, the brown cafes, you can decide on the morning.

Four days splits neatly: an afternoon in the old centre to get your bearings, a museum day in the Museum Quarter, a canal and Jordaan day on foot, and a short last morning near the station. Nothing here needs a car, and almost nothing needs a tram.

Highlights

  • The Rijksmuseum first thing in the morning, upstairs to the Dutch Golden Age rooms before the tour groups reach them
  • Van Gogh hung in the order he painted it, a five minute walk across the same square from the Rijksmuseum
  • The Anne Frank House on Prinsengracht, in a timed slot booked weeks in advance
  • The Jordaan and Brouwersgracht on foot, which costs nothing and is the part people remember
  • A hidden Catholic church folded into the attic of a 17th century merchant's house, five minutes from Centraal

Where to stay

Amsterdam, three nights in the centre

Stay inside the canal ring or immediately outside it, and everything below is walkable. The Jordaan and the western canals are quiet at night and full of cafes; the streets around Dam and the Red Light District are loud until late, and cheaper for a reason. De Pijp, a walk south past the Rijksmuseum, trades a little distance for better food.

Just over 900,000 people live here, and the centre carries a good deal more than that during the day. English is spoken everywhere, to the point that trying out your Dutch usually gets answered in English.

Day by day

Day 1 in Amsterdam

The Begijnhof, Dam square and the first canals

Drop your bags and walk. The old centre is fifteen minutes from Centraal and is the part of Amsterdam that explains the rest: a medieval street plan that the 17th century canal builders wrapped around rather than replaced.

Start at the Begijnhof, a walled courtyard off the Spui that most people walk past. Then Dam square, the Royal Palace and, if there is light left, an aimless hour along the Singel and Herengracht. Eat early; the kitchens here close earlier than you expect.

  1. 14:30

    Begijnhof

    Landmark

    A walled courtyard of almshouses off the Spui, built for a lay religious community of women. The wooden house at number 34 is the oldest in the city, and there are two churches inside, one Reformed and one Catholic and disguised. People still live here, so it is kept quiet.

  2. 15:30

    Royal Palace

    Historic

    Built in 1651 as the city hall of a republic at the peak of its wealth, and standing on 13,569 wooden piles driven into the marsh. Louis Bonaparte turned it into a palace in 1808 and it never went back. Open most days when the king is not using it.

  3. 19:00

    Dinner in the centre

    Eat

    Dutch kitchens start early and stop early. Aim to sit down by seven, and book anywhere with a canal view.

With more time: If you land early, the hour before dinner is well spent on the Nieuwmarkt and the little streets behind it, or on a canal boat, which is touristy and still the best way to understand how the ring is put together.

Day 2 in Amsterdam

The Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum and Vondelpark

Two of Europe's great museums face each other across one square, which makes this the easiest day to plan and the easiest to overdo. Two collections in a day is the ceiling for most people, and the park afterwards is what stops the second one blurring into the first.

Go to the Rijksmuseum at opening and head upstairs first. The Night Watch draws a crowd that thickens by the hour, and the rooms around it hold Vermeer, Hals and a wall of ship paintings that most visitors walk straight past.

  1. 09:00

    Rijksmuseum

    Culture

    The national collection: Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals and eight centuries of Dutch history in a building that is worth an hour on its own. Upstairs first, at opening. The garden outside is free and open during museum hours.

  2. 12:30

    Lunch off the museum square

    Eat

    The museum cafes are fine and expensive. The streets between the museum square and Vondelpark have better sandwiches for half the money.

  3. 13:30

    Van Gogh Museum

    Culture

    The largest collection of Van Gogh anywhere, hung roughly in the order he painted it, so you watch the palette change. Sunflowers and The Potato Eaters are here; Starry Night is in New York, and people are disappointed by that every single day.

  4. 16:00

    Vondelpark

    Leisure

    The city's big park, ten minutes west of the museums, and where Amsterdam goes to lie on the grass with a bottle of something. Open air theatre runs on summer weekends and Friday evenings, free.

With more time: With more time, the Stedelijk sits on the same square and covers modern and contemporary art, and it is quiet on the afternoons when the other two are heaving. If the weather has turned, the city's main concert hall is a short walk south and sells last minute seats, sometimes very cheaply, on the day.

Day 3 in Amsterdam

Anne Frank House, the Westerkerk and the Jordaan

Whatever slot your Anne Frank ticket carries, build the day around it. An early one is better: the house is narrow, the stairs are steep, and it is a calmer experience with fewer people behind you.

The Westerkerk is next door, and after that the day stops being a schedule. The Jordaan was built as a working quarter for the canal ring's servants and craftsmen and is now the most expensive place to live in the city, which has left it with narrow streets, small shops and an unreasonable number of good bars.

  1. 09:00

    Anne Frank House

    Historic

    The canal house where the Frank family and four others hid for two years behind a hinged bookcase. Tickets are online only, timed, and released weeks ahead; there is no queue to join on the day. Allow ninety minutes, and something quiet afterwards.

  2. 11:00

    Westerkerk

    Religious

    Built between 1620 and 1631, with the tallest church tower in the city. Climbs are guided, run every half hour and are worth it for the view over the canal ring. Rembrandt was buried somewhere under the floor in a rented grave nobody marked.

  3. 12:30

    Lunch in the Jordaan

    Eat

    Anywhere off the main canals. The rule that works: if it has a menu in six languages outside, keep walking one street west.

  4. 15:00

    Brouwersgracht

    Landmark

    Often called the prettiest canal in Amsterdam, and the argument is hard to make against it. The name means Brewers' Canal, after the breweries that lined it in the 1600s; a jenever distillery has been at work here since 1782. Walk it slowly, then wander south into the Jordaan.

With more time: On Saturday the Noordermarkt holds a farmers' market, and on Monday morning the same square has a flea market that is worth arriving early for. In the evening, a brown cafe with a Dutch beer list and a plate of bitterballen is the most local thing you can do here, and the Jordaan has more of them per street than anywhere else.

Day 4 in Amsterdam

Breakfast near the station, the Oude Kerk and the hidden church

The oldest part of the city is also the closest to Centraal, which makes it the right last morning. Two churches within two hundred metres of each other tell you most of what happened here: one built when Amsterdam was a fishing town, the other hidden in an attic because the Protestant city had banned the Catholic mass.

Both open at ten. If your train is early, breakfast and the walk along the Oudezijds Voorburgwal is still worth doing.

  1. 08:30

    Gebr. Niemeijer

    Eat

    A French style bakery five minutes from Centraal that bakes everything on the premises. Breakfast, coffee and a bag of pastries for the train.

  2. 10:00

    Oude Kerk

    Religious

    Probably the oldest building in Amsterdam, standing in the middle of the Red Light District, which is a contrast the city has stopped noticing. The tower can be climbed at weekends from April to September.

  3. 11:00

    Ons' Lieve Heer op Solder

    Religious

    A merchant's house of 1663 with a complete church built into its top three floors, organ and all, from the years when Catholics could worship but not be seen doing it. Small, strange and the best hour in this part of town.

With more time: With a later train, the maritime museum is twenty minutes east along the water and covers five centuries of Dutch shipping in an old naval arsenal. Luggage lockers at Centraal make either version easy.

Before you go

Getting in and getting around

Trains from Schiphol to Amsterdam Centraal run several times an hour and take about twenty minutes, which beats every taxi and most airport buses. Trains from Rotterdam, Utrecht and The Hague all arrive at Centraal too, so a Dutch trip that starts elsewhere still begins on the same platform.

Since 2023 you can tap a contactless bank card or a phone on trams, metros, buses and NS trains, and skip the OV-chipkaart entirely. The rule that catches people is that you tap both at the start and at the end of every journey, including on the tram: forget the second tap and you are charged for a much longer trip.

Trams cover the spokes out of the centre, but the centre itself is faster on foot. Distances look longer on a map than they feel, because the canals fan out rather than run in a grid.

Book these before anything else

The Anne Frank House and the Van Gogh Museum are online only, with timed entry, and both sell out. Anne Frank slots in particular disappear weeks ahead in summer. Book them as soon as your dates are fixed, then build the rest of the days around whatever slots you got.

The Rijksmuseum also sells timed tickets, but it is big enough to absorb people, so a morning slot booked a few days out is usually fine. If you plan on four or more museums, the Museumkaart pays for itself, and it is valid at the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum and the Anne Frank House.

Bikes, and why you are walking

Renting a bike is the classic Amsterdam mistake for a short trip. The city cycles fast, in dense traffic, with tram rails to catch your wheel and locals who will not slow down for a tourist reading a map at a junction.

You still have to think about bikes as a pedestrian. What looks like a pavement beside a canal is often a bike lane, marked by red asphalt and a painted bicycle, and standing in one gets you a bell rather than an apology.

When to go

April and May bring the bulbs and the longest queues; the tulip fields around Lisse are an hour away and busiest at exactly the same time. September has warm canals and thinner crowds. Winter is grey and wet at four in the afternoon, and it is also when you walk into the Rijksmuseum without booking.

Museums cluster their closures on Monday less than in most European cities, but check individually: the small canal house museums are the ones most likely to shut for a day.

The best hours in Amsterdam tend not to be the ticketed ones. A bench on the Brouwersgracht at six in the evening, a bar with its door propped open onto the water, the moment on a bridge when you can see six more bridges in a line: none of it needs booking, and all of it is why people come back.

Leave the far end of the map for next time. Zaanse Schans, Haarlem, the beach at Zandvoort and the Keukenhof bulb fields are all under an hour from Centraal, and each of them is a better second trip than a fifth day walking the same canals.

Make it your trip

Every stop, day and place here lands in your account as an editable trip. Move the days around, swap a city, add your own bookings and costs, and share it with whoever is coming.

Copy to my trips

Common questions

Is four days enough for Amsterdam?
Yes, comfortably, for the centre. Four days covers the two big museums, the canal ring, the Jordaan and the old town without marching. A fifth day is better spent on a train to Haarlem, Utrecht or the windmills at Zaanse Schans than on more of the same city.
How far in advance should I book the Anne Frank House?
As early as you can. Tickets are sold online only, in timed slots, and summer dates go weeks ahead. There is no ticket window at the door, so an unbooked visit is a walk past the queue and nothing more.
Do I need a tram ticket or a travel pass?
Neither, usually. A contactless bank card or phone works on trams, buses, the metro and NS trains, and the centre is small enough that most days need no transport at all. Tap in and tap out on every journey.
Should I rent a bike?
Not for a first short visit. Amsterdam cycling is fast and unforgiving, with tram rails, blind junctions and no patience for hesitation. Walk the centre, take a tram when it rains, and rent a bike in a smaller Dutch town if you want the experience.
Can I change the days around?
The order only matters where tickets do. Fix the museum day and the Anne Frank slot to whatever times you were given, and the walking days will fit around them in any order. Copy the trip and move the days to match.