Amsterdam

AMSTERDAM, HOLLAND

One of Europe’s top short-break destinations and a good all-year-round travel choice, Amsterdam, or the Dam, as it’s affectionately called, is a hub for museum-lovers, gallery-goers, city explorers, and not to forget, cycling enthusiasts (the 22.5 million bicycles in the country far outnumber its 17 million population). Once the headquarters of the Dutch East India Company megacorporation, the city was one of the world’s greatest entrepôts brimming with spoils from Golden Age merchants and colonists. It’s along these same 200-year-old canals that we find the finely gabled, large-windowed townhouses that are so symbolic of Amsterdam. Other world-famous sights include the Van Gogh Museum and the Rijksmuseum, housing the most extensive collections of Rembrandt and Van Gogh. I Am Amsterdam. I’m instantly likeable and compact yet dripping in charm and history.