Amsterdam

Amsterdam is not a beach destination. The nearest real beach is the long sandy shore at Zandvoort and Bloemendaal, about half an hour by train, backed by dunes and lined with beach pavilions in summer. The North Sea is the drawback. It rarely gets above 17°C to 18°C even in August, the wind is often strong and grey days are common, so most visitors walk the sand rather than swim.

Within the city, locals swim from the IJ shore at the man-made beaches of IJburg and jump into lakes such as the Sloterplas on warm days. On a hot summer weekend this is a pleasant change of scene, but nobody plans an Amsterdam trip around it.

Dutch cooking is plain and hearty, and the city's best eating comes from what has arrived through its trading history. Indonesian rijsttafel, a spread of many small dishes, and Surinamese roti and broodjes are the local specialities worth seeking out, alongside raw herring with onions from street stalls, warm stroopwafels at the Albert Cuyp market and thick fries with mayonnaise.

The real pleasure is the drinking culture: old brown cafés with sanded floors, jenever tasting rooms that have poured Dutch gin for centuries, and the early-evening borrel of beer and bitterballen. De Pijp, the Jordaan and Oost have the most interesting neighbourhood restaurants. Around Damrak and the central streets the food is mostly made for passing tourists and is best avoided.

Amsterdam packs a remarkable amount into a small centre. The Rijksmuseum holds Rembrandt's Night Watch and the great Dutch masters, the Van Gogh Museum has the largest collection of his work anywhere, and the Stedelijk covers modern art and design, all around the Museumplein. The Anne Frank House is the most moving visit in the city and needs planning ahead.

The city itself is the other draw. The 17th-century canal ring, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is lined with tall, narrow merchant houses, and the Jordaan, the Royal Palace on Dam Square, the Oude Kerk and the Portuguese Synagogue add depth. Most of it can be seen properly in three or four days.

Going out in Amsterdam ranges from a beer in a candlelit brown café to dancing until morning. The city has a serious reputation in electronic music, with several clubs holding all-night licences, many in converted industrial buildings on the edges of the centre and across the IJ in Noord. Every October the Amsterdam Dance Event fills the city with parties.

For bars, Leidseplein and Rembrandtplein are loud and crowded with visitors, while the Jordaan, De Pijp and Oost are where locals drink on canal-side terraces in summer. The Red Light District draws crowds at night but is more spectacle than a night out. Bars mostly close around one on weekdays, later at weekends.

The landscape around Amsterdam is completely flat, and its charm is quiet: wide skies, polders crossed by dykes, windmills and grazing cows. The best way to enjoy it is by bike. A short ferry ride across the IJ leads into Waterland, where cycle paths run past wooden villages and meadows within half an hour of the centre.

In the city, the Vondelpark is the classic green space and the large Amsterdamse Bos on the southern edge has woods, rowing and walking trails. Further out, the dunes of Zuid-Kennemerland National Park near the coast have walking routes and grazing bison. There are no hills or wild landscapes, and wind and rain are frequent companions.

This is one of Amsterdam's real strengths. The Netherlands is small and its towns are close together on fast, frequent trains, so a different historic city is rarely more than an hour away. Haarlem, with its Frans Hals Museum and old market square, is barely a quarter of an hour. Leiden, Delft and Utrecht offer canals and medieval centres on a smaller, quieter scale, The Hague has the Mauritshuis and Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring, and Rotterdam brings bold modern architecture.

Closer to home, Zaanse Schans has working windmills and old fishing villages such as Volendam, Marken and Edam lie on the former Zuiderzee. Kinderdijk's UNESCO windmills, Gouda and, in spring, the Keukenhof bulb fields are easy outings, and Antwerp is under two hours by train.

Amsterdam is easy with children. It is safe, compact and relaxed, and Dutch culture is very welcoming to families. The Artis zoo in the Plantage is one of the oldest in Europe, the NEMO science museum near the station is built for hands-on play, and the Vondelpark and many neighbourhood parks have good playgrounds. Canal boat trips, pancake houses and city farms round things out.

The main challenges are the bikes, which move fast and in large numbers, and unfenced canal edges everywhere, so small children need holding on to. Many old canal houses have steep stairs. There is no big theme park in the city, though Efteling lies about an hour and a half away.

The historic centre is small and flat, and most of the major sights lie within half an hour's walk of each other. Trams cover the canal ring and the museum quarter, a metro line runs north to south under the city, and free ferries cross the IJ to Noord from behind Central Station. Contactless cards work on all of it, and Schiphol airport is a short, direct train ride away.

Cycling is how locals move, and hiring a bike is the most natural way to explore, though the busy lanes take confidence. For walkers, the main hazard is stepping into a bike path without looking. A car is a burden here, with narrow streets and very limited parking.

Amsterdam's best shopping is small and independent. The Nine Streets, a grid of lanes crossing the western canals, are full of boutiques, vintage shops and specialist stores, and the Jordaan has more of the same alongside galleries. PC Hooftstraat near the museums holds the luxury labels, Kalverstraat and Leidsestraat are the busy high streets, and De Bijenkorf on Dam Square is the city's grand department store.

Markets add character: the Albert Cuyp in De Pijp for everyday goods and food, the Waterlooplein flea market, the Saturday Noordermarkt and the floating Bloemenmarkt for bulbs. Delft blue pottery, Dutch cheese and design objects are the classic things to take home.

Amsterdam is an expensive city to visit, above all for accommodation. Hotel rooms in and around the canal ring are among the costliest in Europe, the city adds a substantial tourist tax, and good-value options are few and book up early. Eating out and drinking cost Northern European prices, and museum tickets add up quickly.

Transport is reasonable, walking and cycling cost little, and markets and snack stalls help keep daytime spending down. Staying outside the centre or in a nearby town such as Haarlem or Utrecht can ease the cost of rooms.

Classical music is the high point. The Concertgebouw is one of the world's great concert halls, famous for its acoustics and home to the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and it presents concerts most days of the season. The Dutch National Opera and Ballet perform at the modern opera house on the Amstel, and the Muziekgebouw on the IJ waterfront hosts contemporary music, with the Bimhuis jazz club in the same building.

For rock, pop and electronic acts, Paradiso, a former church, and the Melkweg near Leidseplein are long-standing venues that draw international touring bands. Theatre is mostly in Dutch, which limits it for visitors. The Holland Festival each June brings ambitious international performance.

Amsterdam has no thermal baths or historic bathhouse tradition, but the Dutch take saunas seriously, and there are several large day spas and wellness centres on the city's edges, typically mixed and nude in the Northern European way. Hotel spas fill in the rest.

The city can be restful away from the centre. An early morning on the quieter canals, an afternoon in the Vondelpark or a ferry ride across the IJ slows things down. The central streets, though, are crowded with visitors and bikes for much of the year, so this is not a place people come to unwind.