25 Things to photograph in Amsterdam

If it’s your first time visiting Amsterdam, here are some photo spots to add to your list. And if you’ve been to Amsterdam before, you could use this list as a scavenger hunt! In no particular order..

1. Roam the many canals

The Jordaan neighbourhood where the Anne Frank House is located had some great photo opportunities.

2. Anne Frank’s House

Her house is on the left just before the church tower. It’s hard to get a photo of the front of the house as so many people walking past obscure’s it. I don’t like how they’ve created a new cube / glass building that’s the entrance to the museum and just stuck it on the end of the row of houses – it doesn’t fit in with the neighbourhood.

3. Bike parking

The biggest clusters of bike parking are right outside the front of Amsterdam Central Station and at the back near the ferry that will take you to A’Dam Lookout.

And you thought trying to find your car in the shopping centre was hard…

4. Armbrug Bridge

Up near Central Station this was the first canal I saw in Amsterdam (way to make a good first impression!) I’ve seen better photos of this spot on the internet but it’s a cafe area and there were too many tables and chairs in the way to get a better angle. Go early in the morning before anything’s open and you might be able to get the houses and the bridge in the one photo.

5. One of the many canal bridges

I took this photo on one of the canal tour boats, but also took many great photos from parallel bridges, before walking onto a bridge and from the side of the canal.

6. Multiple canal bridges in a row

There are numerous instances where you’ll see multiple bridges in a row. See how many you can get in the one picture!

7. Damrack

This is near the main central station and where the canal cruise boats dock, also near Manneken Pis fries shop.

8. Amsterdam Central Station

While you’re there, get a photo of Amsterdam Central Station. Best taken directly in line with the main front entrance but on the other side of the water so you’re far enough away to capture most of the building. There was major construction works in that area during my visit so this is the best photo I could get.

9. Damrack street

This is the main main shopping street with the trams that you’ll likely frequent multiple times during your stay in Amsterdam. Starting up near Amsterdam Central Train Station all the way to Dam Square.

10. Dam Square

11. Amsterdam’s trams

So some people might find it weird that I’ve included this on the list but I have a thing for trams. They just add something extra to a generic street photo.

12. Photo from one of the canal cruise boats

I took this at the start of the route just past Central Station, before the boats start to go down the narrow canals.

13. Red light district

Photos of the girls in the windows is not allowed.

14. Henry Willig Cheese shop

Make sure you pop in and try some too!

15. One of the many cannabis shops

Included on this list purely because Amsterdam is famous for them and I like ‘typical’ photos of the destinations I visit.

16. Laneways

Plenty to choose from – wide ones like these with shops

Or less busy side laneways (I don’t recommend actually going down the smaller laneways, some of them seemed a bit sketchy).

17. Crossing one of the canal bridges

Everyone gets photos while on the bridge but don’t forget to take a picture of one of the canal bridges.

18. The front doors

Away from the canals are less busy neighbourhoods with these brick apartment buildings (wander around Nieuwe Pijp and it’s surrounding neighbourhoods).

19. Close ups of the architecture of the houses

You can see the hooks at the top of the houses they use to lift the furniture in through the window.

20. Lopsided houses

If you look closely, some of the buildings in Amsterdam lean at quite the angle.. but when you’re inside them it’s not even noticeable.

21. Someone moving in

I was hoping I’d see someone moving furniture into one of the houses along the canals and while I didn’t get to see that I did see the next best thing: using a conveyorbelt to get stuff in and out. This might be boring to some but I found it interesting!

22. House boats

There are plenty of these to photograph. Some colorful, some with fake grass on the roof, lots of variety you’ll have trouble sifting through all your photos to pick just one.

23. Excessive sweet shops

There are plenty of over the top sugar hit shops around the red light district and the side streets around Damrak. Over the top waffles, brownies, candy, gelato etc.

The food in the window is nicely displayed but after wandering around and being overwhelmed by the options (all the sweet shops look the same after a while), I tried a nutella brownie from one of them.. And came to the conclusion the shops all sell the same sweets they probably order from the same supplier and they sit in the window for days because that brownie was not fresh.

24. Amsterdam Sign

Sadly they’d taken away the I Amsterdam sign from in front of the Rijksmuseum prior to my visit (it’s still worth heading that way to get a photo of the Rijksmuseum).

The next best thing is the A’Dam sign at the top of the A’Dam lookout.