Product Description

The Rough Guide to Amsterdam is your indispensable guide to this compact and instantly likeable city. The full- colour introduction highlights 'what not to miss', from elegant canal-side architecture and vibrant markets to outstanding art collections and traditional bars. This fully-updated ninth edition includes expanded coverage of Amsterdam’s best sites from Anne Frankhuis to the Reijksmuseum, complete with brand new “authors picks” highlihgting all the top places to eat, drink and stay to suit every budget. You’ll find plenty of practical advice and entertaining accounts of the city's sights including day trips to Haarlem, Alkmaar and Edam. The guide also takes a comprehensive look at Amsterdam’s history and culture and comes complete with maps and plans for every area. The Rough Guide to Amsterdam is like having a local friend plan your trip!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #102116 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Amazon.co.uk
Amsterdam was always a very easy-to-get-to destination for British travellers, but with the speeding up of Eurostar, it is even more accessible than ever. And if you are one of the many people who've realised this fact, you should be packing a copy of The Rough Guide to Amsterdam in your luggage. Of course, it is always safe to assume that this series will present a nonpareil guide to the country under view, but this is a particularly quirky and individual volume, crammed full of lateral thinking on the part of its team (Martin Dunford, Phil Lee and Karoline Densley), along with the requisite basic information.

Amsterdam, capital of the Netherlands, may boast all the attractions of a large city, but is actually rather compact, and thus a perfect place for walking around (if, however, you want to use public transport, the city has one of the best systems in Europe). As the authors of point out, parts of the centre are quiet and not congested with traffic – principally because of the canals. The latter are, of course, the element that gives a particular character to the city, with the large gabled houses dotted along them. Dunford and co. draw attention to all the important sights that one must visit, such as (of course) the Anne Frank house; visiting the place where this most famous youthful victim of the Nazis hid away is still a moving experience (as ever, of course, the guide warns us to beware of the long queues, and suggests coming early or late to avoid the crush).

There is a particularly accessible section of the guide on the history of the city -- one of the richest and most impressive histories in Europe, as well as listing the legendary venues for music and the visual arts (the section on the wonderful concert house, The Concertgebouw, is particularly instructive, detailing ticket availability and tours). But whatever your destination in Amsterdam -- from the astonishing treasures of the Rijksmuseum to the erotic diversions of the sex museums and the famous Red Light district -- this is the guide to take with you. --Barry Forshaw

About the Author
Martin Dunford is co-founder of the Rough Guides series. Phil Lee is co-author of Rough Guides to Mallorca & Menorca, Norway, England, the Netherlands and Canada. Karoline Densley is a Rough Guides travel editor in London.

Customer Reviews

Good Guidebook With an Infuriating Layout
This Rough Guide is as comprehensive, up to date and well researched as most if not all Rough Guides seem to be. I have used numerous examples of their guides and I found them to be among the best if not the best ones there are.

They do seem to have moved upmarket a bit since I first started to use them in the early 90s - but they still provide the best balance in descriptions covering practicalities, context, history, sightseeing, entertainment, drinking, clubbing and even (in Amsterdam at least) dope smoking.

We used this RG during our visit in February 2009, and generally it was very good, although all prices were already slightly higher (but that is to be expected). The only reason I can't possibly give it full five stars and I was even contemplating giving three is that layout mentioned in the title.


The whole book is divided into sections within sections within sections.

Thus, we have a sightseeing section (divided into city districts).

Then we have accommodation section, and that is also divided into districts. So far, not so bad. After all, accommodation is organised once or twice, the over and done with, while sightseeing is an ongoing process. There is nothing wrong with separating the two.

But then we have restaurants, bars, snack and cafe places.... and each of those categories is GIVEN ITS OWN SECTION. And each of those is separated into districts. This was really impractical, especially as (at least during the day) the difference between restaurant, cafe or bar is not that great for practical purposes To find a place to eat lunch or snack or stop for a coffee while using this Rough Guide, I had to first check the bars for a given district, then skip over bars in all other districts to find the cafes in mine, then skip over cafes in all other districts to find restaurants ...

Finding anything (especially on the go!!!!) means either manipulating several bookmarks/bent pages or furiously thumbing the pages as you walk straight into a canal.


It would have been much better to have all the listings (separated into types of venues) in one place, ideally after the sightseeing text. This is a much more natural system, as it doesn't assume that sightseeing is separate from eating and that is separate from drinking. It would also allow a visitor who wished to do so to split the book (physically) into sections to lower the weight to carry on any given day.

Great guide for amsterdam
I used this guide when I went to Amsterdam for a weekend break. It's great, with useful maps and listings. I recommend Rough Guides to anyone travelling abroad