Boat tours of Amsterdam’s canals

Picturesque Golden Age canals, premier league art, cosy cafés, and liberal urban living combine to make Amsterdam one of Europe’s most vibrant capitals.

The canal-house annexe – now a moving museum – is where Anne Frank hid and wrote her world-famous diary.

Stroll the city’s most stylish streets, packed with independent boutiques and vintage fashion stores, the latest Dutch and Flemish brands, and locally-made soaps and luxe toiletries.

The second-largest maritime collection in the world charts the golden age of Dutch seafaring, with interactive exhibits and memorabilia including a replica 18th-century sailing ship.

A 17th-century old people’s that is now the overseas outpost for St Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum. Lavish, must-see exhibitions of exquisite treasures selected from the Hermitage’s vast collections.

One of the few remaining ‘clandestine churches’ of the 17th century, when Catholics were forced to worship in secret, this Baroque-style jewel is tucked inside the attic of a stately Red Light District canal house.

The Netherlands’ equivalent of Harrods, De Bijenkorf is one of the oldest and grandest department stores in Amsterdam, with over 20,000 square metres of fashion, jewellery and pretty much everything else.

Alongside Tussauds’ world-famous waxworks, the revamped Amsterdam boasts multi-media exhibits, and uses real-life actors and extras to add to the celebrity illusions.

From 1639 to 1656, Rembrandt lived and worked in this graceful townhouse, which features a recreation of his studio and period furnishings from the Golden Age; a modern addition displays his prints and lesser paintings.