Old Center: This core area around the Dam and Centraal Station, and through the neighborhood known as De Wallen (The Walls), which contains the Red Light District, is the oldest part of the city. It includes the main downtown shopping areas and attractions such as the Royal Palace, the Amsterdam Historical Museum, Madame Tussaud's, and many of the canal-boat piers. It is a busy part of town, filled with traffic, noise, and social whirl.

The Canal Belt: The semicircular, multistrand "necklace" of waterways called the Grachtengordel in Dutch, was built around the old Center during the city's 17th-century Golden Age. Its vista of elegant, gabled mansions fronting long, tree-lined canals forms the image that's most often associated Amsterdam. It includes many hotels, both large and small, restaurants, sightseeing attractions such as the Anne Frankhuis and the canal-house museums, and antiques shops.

Around Leidseplein: The city's liveliest nightlife square and its immediate surroundings cover such a small area that it could have been included under "The Canal Belt." It is so distinctive that it deserves to be highlighted. In addition to performance venues, movie theaters, bars, and cafes, there are many fine hotels and restaurants in this busy area.

Around Rembrandtplein: Like Leidseplein, but on a somewhat reduced scale, this square is the focus for a grouping of hotels, restaurants, cafes, and nightlife venues that's lively enough to feature on its own.