Things to Do in Netherlands

It is one of the 20th century's most compelling stories: a young Jewish girl forced into hiding with her family and their friends to escape deportation by the Nazis. The house Otto Frank used as a hideaway for his family kept them safe until close to the end of World War II.

The focus of the Anne Frank House museum is the achterhuis, also known as the secret annex. It was in this dark, airless space that the Franks observed complete silence during the day, before being mysteriously betrayed and sent to their deaths.

The Anne Frank House is pretty much intact, so as you walk through the building, it's easy to imagine Anne’s experience growing up here as she wrote her famous diary describing how restrictions were gradually imposed on Dutch Jews.

Amsterdam might be most famous for its winding canals and pretty locks, but it’s the Amstel River that the city was first built around, even deriving its name from its early settlement at the ‘Amstel Dam’.

Today the river runs through the center of the city, lined with landmark buildings, stately mansions and colorful houseboats. A walk along the riverside pathway takes in a number of key sights: the regal Carré theatre, still a popular performance house; the post-modernist Stopera city hall and opera house, with its contemporary glass facade; and the neo-baroque domes of the St Nicolas church, all face the river front. A number of landmark bridges also cross the river, the most famous of which is the Magere Brug, or the ‘Skinny Bridge’, a white painted bascule bridge, rebuilt in the early 1900s. Don’t miss out on renowned tourist attractions like the Hermitage Museum, the Amsterdam Museum and Waterlooplein, either – all lie along the shores of the Amstel.

One of the Netherlands’ most famous buildings and the crowning glory of The Hague, the Peace Palace, or Vredespaleis, serves as a symbol of the country’s key role in international law and order. Built between 1907 and 1913 by Andrew Carnegie, the grand palace is home to the United Nations’ International Court of Justice (ICJ), the International Law Academy and the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), making it an important center of global peace.

The building itself, an imposing neo-renaissance structure constructed from Belgian stone and Dutch red brick, is notable for its opulent interiors, designed to embody the ‘grand idea of world peace’ and featuring an exquisite art collection and furnishings imported from around the world. Guided tours of the palace make popular day trips from nearby Rotterdam and Amsterdam, whisking visitors around the chambers, the Peace Palace Library, the palace museum and the picturesque gardens.

The Frans Hals Museum is known for its collection of paintings by the Dutch Golden Age masters. Nearly all the pieces date back to the 16th and 17th centuries, when Haarlem was known as the “City of Painters,” and as you make your way round the museum exhibits you’ll see works by the likes of Ruisdael, Jan Steen, Saenredam, Van Goyen, Heda, and of course, Frans Hals. Fifteen of Hals’ enormous civic guard pieces are showcased here and are a highlight of any visit. In particular, look out for Hals’ famous twin portraits, Regents and Regentesses of the Oudemannenhuis.

Built in 1609, the attractive building changed purpose from almshouse (where Frans Hals lived out his final years) to orphanage before becoming the art museum you can see today in 1913. On a visit to the Frans Hals Museum, it’s worth looking out for the separate section containing a replica of a 17th-century Haarlem street.

Conveniently located right in central Amsterdam, Jordaan is one of the city's most important, and most interesting districts. Never short of things to do, it is the location of the famous Anne Frank house, where renowned holocaust victim Anne Frank hid from the Nazis during WWII.

Currently, the district is bustling with life, with tons of opportunities to visit one of its many specialty shops, soak in Dutch culture at an art gallery, or try some of the local delicacies at its street markets.

Prideful of its early 20th-century music culture, this central district also features wonderful music festivals and has scattered statues throughout, commemorating the likes of local hero and Dutch patriot Johnny Jordaan. Not dead, you can go check out Jordaan's lively modern music scene at many of its bars and club venues, these days mainly featuring alternative, punk and grunge music.

Micropia is a unique museum in Amsterdam dedicated to microbes and microorganisms. These microscopic organisms make up two thirds of all living matter. As soon as you enter the museum, you'll start to learn about the invisible organisms living all around us. An animation in the first elevator tells you about the mites that live on your eyelashes and the bacteria and viruses that live on those mites. Other exhibits include a body scanner that tells you what type of microbes live on your body and a Kiss-o-meter that counts the number of microbes transferred during a kiss. There are Petri dishes with bacteria in them that show you what lives on everyday household objects.

Another exhibit shows a collection of animal feces and a preserved human digestive system. There are also films showing different animals decomposing. In a real-life working laboratory, visitors can view technicians preparing the exhibits through a window.

Some 20,000 works of art can be found at the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, The Netherlands. The art and sculpture museum (which opened in 1938) was founded by collector Helene Kröller-Müller, an early admirer of Vincent van Gogh. Although today Van Gogh is one of the world’s most famous artists, he received little recognition while he was alive. Kröller-Müller regarded Van Gogh as a ‘great spirit of modern art’ and was a prolific collector of his works. In fact, the attention she gave to his work contributed to his recognition as an artist. The Kröller-Müller Museum has the second-largest collection of Van Gogh’s art in the world (around 90 paintings and 180 drawings). In addition to the large collection of works by Van Gogh, the museum is home to masterpieces by artists including Claude Monet, Georges Seurat, Pablo Picasso, and Piet Mondriaan. The museum also has one of the largest sculpture gardens in Europe.

The Venustempel Sex Museum in Amsterdam is the world’s first sex museum. Housed in a 17-th­century building in the very heart of the city, it features an extensive collection of erotic paintings, statues, recordings, photographs, and other items relating to sex and eroticism. All of the exhibits were personally curated by the owners and remain on permanent display. The main theme is the evolution of human sexuality throughout the ages.

Venustempel began in 1985 with just a small display of erotic artifacts from the 19th century. Due to its huge popularity with the general public, its collection was later expanded upon, and the museum now sees more than 500,000 visitors through its doors each and every year.