Description: OLD CENTER / RED LIGHT DISTRICT. Affiliated with the University of Amsterdam, this museum offers a glimpse into the life and culture of the ancient world. From the Egyptian to the Roman period, and including the Greeks and the Etruscans, the institution puts forth exhibits featuring mummies, textiles, pottery, sculpture, domestic goods and decorative objects. The influence of particular cultures on successive generations is addressed, and the models and artifacts representing various time periods prove enlightening. Traveling exhibits can also be viewed.

 

Description: OLD CENTER / RED LIGHT DISTRICT. Via a host of artifacts and interactive exhibits, this terrific museum documents Amsterdam's growth and development from the medieval era to the present. Within the walls of the city's former orphanage, the museum delivers artwork, archaeology, porcelain, silver and illustrative models. Although the content may seem a bit staid at first glance, you'll be pleasantly surprised at how engaging this journey through the centuries can be. The courtyard makes a wonderful place to catch your breath, and walk through the outdoor Civic Guard Gallery into the Begijnhof.

 

Description: WESTERN CANAL RING / JORDAAN. Thanks to her diary, the story of Anne Frank's hiding from the Nazis is a well-known historical event. Nevertheless, visitors to the actual building where she, her family and friends hid during the German Occupation will find themselves thrown into instant contemplation in the face of this tangible reminder. Once-hidden rooms still contain period memorabilia, along with the haunting presence of those who spent two years of their lives secreted behind walls, dreaming of eventual freedom. Although only Otto Frank, Anne's father, would realize that hope, the experience of the rest will never be forgotten. Come early – or in the evening – to avoid the lines at this humbling site.

 

Description: CENTRAL CANAL RING. Seeking to expand the biblical knowledge of visitors and to illustrate the influence of the age-old text on the people of the Netherlands, this informative museum is a must for religious scholars and those who delight in their faith and in history. Set in two remarkable, 17th-century buildings, the museum helps flesh out the world of the Bible and of the Levant and boasts period artifacts, temple models, significant printings of the Bible, and the artistic works of Dutch believers. Built from the collection of Leendert Schouten, the museum also offers lovely ceiling paintings and a private garden complete with plants known to the ancients.

 

Description: AMSTELVEEN. Housed in a contemporary, geometric structure, this modern art museum elucidates the creative movement of a mid-century coterie of artists, who derived their collective name (CoBrA) from the cities where they practiced (Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam). The colorful, expressive art strikes a particular chord with modernist aficionados, who find delight in works by such figures as Jorn, Appel, Corneille, Constant, Alechinsky and Dotremont. Temporary exhibitions are creative and inspired and its well worth the metro ride out of town.

 

Description: OLD CENTER / RED LIGHT DISTRICT. Exploring various aspects of human sexuality, this museum is a curious amalgam of dioramas, exhibits, and art from our era and from ages past. Strewn across five floors are displays that articulate different fetishes (including bondage scenarios), that play pornographic animation, and that illustrate how sexuality and erotica are communicated through drawings, postcards, photographs, and the like. Note that admission is strictly for those over the age of 16.

 

Description: EASTERN CANAL RING. The city's leading photography museum occupies three adjoining canal houses and mounts simultaneous exhibitions in its variety of gallery spaces, focusing on all forms of the medium: from documentary to fashion, historic to contemporary. As well as major exhibits of leading luminaries such as Cecil Beaton, Annie Leibovitz and Guy Bourdin, Foam also stages impressive smaller shows of emerging talent. To beat the crowds head here on Thursday or Friday when it stays open until 9pm and relax after your browse in the museum's modern basement café.

 

Description: PLANTAGE. Able to exhibit only around five percent of its massive three million-strong collection of art and antiquities, Russia's famous State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg opened a satellite museum in Amsterdam in 2004 devoted to staging rotating exhibitions. Its home is within the monumental Amstelhof, which dates from 1683 and is an impressive example of Dutch classicist architecture. Following renovations completed in summer 2009, the museum now totals 9,925 square meters of exhibition space. Already hundreds of thousands have flocked to previous exhibitions such as one focusing on 18th-century Venetian art and another which displayed personal objects, paintings and photographs belonging to the last Tsar and Tsarina of Russia, Nicholas II and Alexandra.

 

Description: OLD CENTER / RED LIGHT DISTRICT. Although its mission is to document Jewish history, experience and culture, this museum is a worthwhile stop for all visitors. Originally opened in 1932, JHM closed during the German invasion of the 1940s, when the Nazis confiscated much of the collection. It reopened in 1955, bolstered by donated materials, and now occupies a complex of four former synagogues dating from the 17th and 18th centuries. The architecture itself is amazing, especially when coupled with artwork, religious artifacts and exhibits. Temporary exhibitions also pass through regularly.

 

Description: OLD CENTER / RED LIGHT DISTRICT. Rembrandt lived in this gracious, multi-storied home during his greatest period of success. The expansive structure – from 1639 to 1658 – was his home, studio and gallery space. When he went bankrupt in 1656, the house and his belongings were sold, Rembrandt moved to a rented home, and the building was given over to other uses. A meticulous renovation, completed in 1999, restored the structure to its 17th century prominence, and furnishings were replaced based on evidence collected in his own artwork. Today, visitors may tour the rooms, his effects, and view hundreds of drawings and etchings collected by the museum.