Amsterdam

The vibe & who it suits

A concentric ring of 17th-century canals lined with narrow gabled houses, Amsterdam is a city built for bicycles, with more bikes than people and cycle lanes that dominate traffic law. World-class museums like the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum sit within walking distance of coffeeshops and a red-light district that draws its own separate crowd of visitors. It is compact, cosmopolitan and unapologetically liberal, but also one of Europe's most overtouristed centres.