Museumplein: Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh Museum and Vondelpark

South of the outer canal ring, a wide green square brings Amsterdam's three flagship art museums within a two-minute walk of one another: the Rijksmuseum at the northern end, the Van Gogh Museum and the modern Stedelijk Museum along the western flank, and the neoclassical Concertgebouw across the street to the south. Resist the temptation to tackle both the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum in a single back-to-back morning; splitting them across two days or placing a two-hour lunch break in De Pijp or Vondelpark in between keeps both visits sharp.

The Rijksmuseum: start on the second floor

Designed by Pierre Cuypers with a soaring brick bicycle passage running right through its belly, the Rijksmuseum holds 800 years of Dutch art and history across four floors. Most visitors lose their energy on the lower floors before reaching the masterpieces. Go immediately up to Level 2 at opening time:

• The Gallery of Honour (Eregalerij): a long vaulted hall leading straight to Rembrandt's monumental The Night Watch (1642) at the far end. Side bays along this hall hold four quiet, jewel-like interiors by Johannes Vermeer (The Milkmaid, The Little Street, Woman Reading a Letter and The Love Letter), alongside portraits by Frans Hals and tavern scenes by Jan Steen.
• Delftware and dollhouses (Rooms 2.20 to 2.24): intricate 17th-century miniature merchant houses furnished down to real silver spoons and hand-blown glass, plus blue-and-white Delft tulip pyramids.
• The Cuypers Library: the oldest and largest art history library in the Netherlands; view the multi-tiered cast-iron spiral balconies silently from the second-floor viewing gallery.

The Van Gogh Museum

Housed in a Rietveld modernist building with a bright elliptical wing by Kisho Kurokawa, this museum holds over 200 paintings and 500 drawings from the family collection of Vincent's brother Theo. The permanent display on Levels 1 to 3 follows Van Gogh's short, intense career step by step: dark early canvases from Nuenen (The Potato Eaters), the sudden burst of colour after he met the Impressionists in Paris, the yellow-drenched Arles period (Sunflowers, The Bedroom), the swirling cypresses and Almond Blossom painted at Saint-Rémy, and the final wheatfields of Auvers-sur-Oise. Tickets are strictly online with a timed slot; see our booking warnings.

Stedelijk Museum and Vondelpark

Next door under a striking white overhang nicknamed "the Bathtub", the Stedelijk Museum covers modern and contemporary art and Dutch design from Mondrian and De Stijl to Warhol. One block west begins Vondelpark, Amsterdam's 47-hectare English-style park, where locals jog, picnic by the ponds and drink at the 1930s round modernist pavilion, 't Blauwe Theehuis.