MORE INFORMATION

Rodney Bolt’s guide to the city’s sights, hotels and restaurants is at telegraph.co.uk/ tt-amsterdam guide. The tourist information site is iamsterdam. com. done for decades. From time to time, Amsterdam has also experienced rich periods of intense architectural creativity. Another is happening now: witness the exhilarating aerodynamic zigzag of the EYE film museum (eyefilm.nl), across the water behind Centraal Station. The museum houses a wide-ranging collection of sometimes extremely rare films, dating back to the 19th century.

Other outbreaks of bravura modern architecture can be found in the former Eastern Docklands nearby, and among the bigger-than-you company headquarters buildings in the Zuidas district, south of the city centre. Of course, the Golden Age boom, which gave Amsterdam its main canals, provides the city with its most august architectural heritage, but quirkier moments from the past – such as the undulating, almost Gaudí-esque buildings of the architects of the early 20th-century Amsterdam School – can be even more rewarding. You’ll find prime examples in the Rivierenbuurt, south of the centre, and Scheepvaartbuurt to the west.

Dancing until dawn, puzzling over a curious installation, listening to a top string quartet, or standing quietly before a Vermeer: hopefully your appetite for Amsterdam has been whetted. In which case, before you go, you may like to peruse our selection of the city’s best cafés and restaurants – see panel on page 9 – the foodie vibe is as resurgent and as culturally rich as the arts scene.

WHERE TO STAY