Rijk’s Museum
Opened in 1885, the Rijksmuseum houses Holland’s largest collection of art and artifacts, more than a million pieces.  It is Amsterdam’s most popular tourist attraction as more than 1.2 million visitors per year include the Rijksmuseum in their Amsterdam tour.  The museum features popular Dutch Masters, such as Rembrandt and Vermeer, Van Dijk and Halls.  Rembrandt’s largest painting, The Night Watch, hangs prominently for all to see.

Van Gogh Museum
Since opening in 1973, the Van Gogh museum has been one of Amsterdam’s true highlights.  Inside on display are more than 500 drawings, 200 paintings and 700 letters by the artist.  Van Gogh died a poor man in 1890 by his own hand, aged 37 years, having only sold a handful of paintings to sympathetic friends for very little.  Ironically, the paintings and drawings are worth millions today, and the artist is considered one of the greatest masters of painting in European history.

Scheepvaart Museum
The Scheepvaart Musuem is Amsterdam’s premier maritime museum.  Opened in 1973, the museum is in the renovated Admiralty’s Store Building of the Dutch East India Company, built in the 17th Century.  Ships would deliver or load up on stocks and supplies from this building.  At one point, slaves also were detained in its basement.   The museum contains displays of various media covering Dutch Maritime History, including many boats from small to the full-size replica square-rigger Dutch East Indiaman moored right outside

The Anne Frank House
On her 13th birthday in 1942, Dutch girl Anne Frank received a diary.  Three weeks later, to escape Nazi persecution, the teenager and her jewish family went into hiding inside Prinsengracht 263, along with another jewish family.  Behind a bookcase and up a hidden staircase, two families lived in hiding for more than two years.  During that time Anne kept a diary of life under cover, until the families were discovered by Nazis and deported to death camps.  A few weeks before liberation, Anne was killed.  Only her father survived the camps. When he returned to Amsterdam, a kindly woman who had saved Anne’s diary gave it back to Mr. Frank.  He published it, and it quickly became a best-seller and a classic, available now in more than 200 languages worldwide.

Stedelijk Museum
(Municipal Museum)
This museum is regarded as one of the world’s leading modern-art museums, have works by artist such as Monet, Cezanne and Picasso.  It has moved temporarily to the former Mail Distribution building near Central Station until 2008.

Tropen Museum
(Tropical Museum)
This is a museum dedicated to what the Dutch learned during the centuries of colonial rule in tropical places, particularly Indonesia.  It shows the positive and negative in Dutch colonial history

Rembrandt’s House
This house on the Jodenbreestraat is where Rembrandt lived and worked from 1639 to 1658.  Rembrandt shared the house with his wife Saskia, sone Titus and his mistress Hendriekje.  The kitchen, living room, bedroom, art room and studio have been restored as authentically as possible to the way they were in the 17th Century.  A new wing has been added to the house to display the hundreds of Rembrandt etchings, drawing and paintings that have come to the collection.

Amsterdam Historical Museum
The Amsterdam Historical Museum traces the city’s incredible history from its foundings through the Golden Age on to the present day.  The museum building is housed in a 17th-Century orphanage.

Torture Museum
Situated opposite the floating flower market, this is one place where people were severely tortured during the medieval period.  On display are weapons, instruments of coersion, a guillotine and a torture chair, among other items.

Sex Museum
An extensive collection of erotic paintings, pictures, objects and recordings from different ages and cultures around the world.

Marijuana and Hemp Museum
An in-depth look at marijuana horticulture, including live specimens