Amsterdam

It’s a great city, art galleries, museums, canal trips, brown cafes (food not smokes) good variety of food places. Great city to explore on foot or bike.
Tulip - flower markets.
Anne Frank house if you can avoid queues

Anne Frank's House is definitely worth a visit, but I think you need to book before you go now. As Iam64 says, it's a great city to explore and lots to see and do.

How lovely to be taken away by y our family.
My top suggestion is prepare for all the bikes. They don’t seem to notice pedestrians. Comfy shoes as many streets are cobbled. Charming but sometimes awkward.
You will find plenty to do but have a boat ride, Anne Franck museum, and van gough museums, book before hand .
Enjoy yourself and happy 70 th.

Thanks. Belgium is full of bikes they ring 🔔 but make no attempt to stop!

DD and DGD1 just back from there. They particularly spoke about the Van Gogh immersive experience, a cocktail-making evening and in particular their visit to Anne Frank's house. What they wouldn't recommend is hiring bikes to get around, which they said was an absolute nightmare!! (They're usually game for anything!). Enjoy your trip, lucky lady.

Rijsmuseum (wrong spelling probably) is worth a visit. The flower market along the canal, a cruise on the canals, definitely Anne😉 Frank's house, lots of cafes to choose from.

How Amsterdam has changed since I lived there, almost sixty years ago. It was a much quieter city. Extremely clean. No need to pre book for museums. Anne Frank's house was as the family left it, and we were the only family visiting on the day we were there. I loved living there and my second child was born there.
Such happy days.

There's a Van Gogh experience in East London. Is it the same?

The Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam is wonderful, but book in advance

We went at a quiet time, in January last year.
Easy to get around on foot, watch out for the pesky bikes. Anne Frank House was supposed to be my highlight, but I was surprised how interesting I found the Resistance Museum. Preferred Van Gogh Museum over the Rijksmuseum. Did a boat trip by day and another by night. The Heineken experience was fun, probably aimed at younger people, but worth it for the free beers! The department store in Dam Square was great for a quick lunch, and use of very clean loos. We're going back in 2026, there's a lot to see.

Book ann frank house if you want to go....it books up about 3 to 4 months ahead....when you going? If its now tulip season then go see the tulip fields ( we hired bikes and cycled round them all, it was glorious!) .

How lucky are you. Yes Amsterdam is a fabulous city, canal cruise, Rijksmuseum, Cheese making. Great coffee, delicious taart, so very friendly people. Go on !!

Van Gogh Museum. Seeing the originals blows your head off.The first time I visited in the 1970s I saved a paper table mat with a picture of the city as it then was. I think I've still got it somewhere.
I last visited it in the early 2000s and it had changed enormously then.
Have a lovely holiday.

If you enjoy stand-up comedy, I thoroughly recommend an evening at Boom Chicago just off the Leidseplein. The shows are all in English and you can make a night of it by having your dinner there too. Every time I've been to Amsterdam over the years I've gone to a show and never been disappointed. (Their website is currently off-limits due to a Trojan horse but there's plenty of info from other sources online).

Lucky you.. I love Amsterdam.. see the rt Galleries and take a boat trip but also just stroll along the canals and look at the amazing houseboats.. they are fabulous

All the art galleries are first class. Anne Frank House too but it will upset you I think it’s mind blowing . At the end there are all the stats written down of all the races who died on the war.

Go to a restaurant with a reiststafel ( not sure of spelling ) it translates to rice table like a meze of high quality Chinese, it’s delicious.

If you’re going soon try to see the tulip fields or if not the flower market which is gorgeous. I think they still have the prostitutes in the windows when you’re walking down one side of the street in the red light district, nobody bats an eyelid!

Go in one of the many bars and have bitterballen or frikendal with chips for lunch , try a brown beer or a cherry flavour .

Lovely shops many not expensive maybe buy a piece of delft or a pair of clogs .

I love Holland it’s very reasonable to get on the train and go to another city for the day, try Dordrecht or Rotterdam . We lived in Holland when the children were small you’ll have a great time

Sorry forgot a canal cruise is a must

As well as all the excellent suggestions above we have enjoyed Rembrandt’s house and the Church in the Attic. This is in a canal side house and was made in the 17th century when Catholic Churches were banned in the Netherlands by the Protestant Church.

Indonesian food in the many restaurants is very good,especially the Rijsttafel which would be ideal for your family group…lots of side dishes with rice. Enjoy your treat.

Amsterdam has tried to clean itself up to cut down on drunken stag parties and the like. The famous/ infamous red light district has been cut down and there is talk of the ladies being moved out of the city centre, and the opening hours of some of the cafes have been reduced. I was last there in 2002 and while the RLD is controversial, it is part of the Dam's tourist appeal.

Thanks everyone. Vondel park what happens beside free concerts?

The Heineken experience was fun, probably aimed at younger people, but worth it for the free beers!

Yes, we enjoyed this - we only went in to escape a heavy rain shower (well that’s our excuse!). The best bit was when the lovely girl at the reception desk told us British tourists were her favourites, because they always said please and thank you, and smiled at her, when most didn’t.

We took advantage of one of the free (tips only) guided walking tours on offer, which was very good. And of course a canal trip. Though be warned - don’t wear a dress and sandals for it as I did. There were ferocious mozzies hovering over the standing water in the boat, and I ended up with a dreadful bite that took ages to heal.

We’ve been trying to book Anne Frank museum for the past two weeks but it’s saying too early to book, we’re going mid July

.

We've done a few overnighters in Amsterdam whilst on Cunard cruises.

We always book the evening cruise with a supper on board of local wine and cheeses. The boats are glass on the top and sides so you don't miss anything
and see a lot more than you do ashore.

We book with Cunard but there's other of places that take bookings. About £20 a head last time.

Also the Rijksmuseum is worth a visit.
My husband could stand looking at Rembrandt's "The Night Watch' for hours (and almost does!!).

Google -

Flashmob, The Night Watch, Rijksmuseum.

If you haven't already watched. Great fun.

P.S. The museum cafe also does the best Hot Chocolate that we've ever had. Anywhere.

Lovely city. You'll have a great time.
.

Aldom visited Amsterdam 40 years ago and then 3 years ago. Like you I found it a lovely place way back when. I wished I hadn't gone back 3 yeas ago, I found it awful, could hardly move for bikes and most totally ignored pedestrians. Quite expensive too. Not for me again, glad I visited when it was civilised by coparison to nowadays.

Book anything you want to go to in advance. I booked the Rijksmuseum but couldn't get into the Van Gogh one or Anne Frank's house as all fully booked. Rembrandt's house is intereesting. We used the trams a lot and bought a 3 day ticket. Sadly the Concertgebouw was closed last August