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Founded in 1840 and now occupying three grand villas, Coster is one of a handful of diamond workshops offering guided tours. About 30 minutes in length, they give you the opportunity to observe stone graders, cutters and polishers at work. In 1852, theKoh-i-Noor (mountain of light) diamond was re-polished here for the British Crown Jewels, and a replica of the crown that contains it – incorporating a copy of the fabulous blue-white stone – is displayed in the entrance hall. If your budget will allow it, there are also diamonds and jewellery for sale over the counter.

Magnificent and quite unexpected, concealed behind an unexceptional façade, A L van Gendt’s Hollandsche Manege is a vast Neo-Classical indoor riding school, built in 1881. (It was commissioned to replace the original Dutch Riding School building, which was situated on Leidsegracht.) Based on the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, it sports elegant plasterwork, sculpted horses’ heads, and a stunning open ironwork roof rising high above the sand arena. The school was threatened with demolition in the 1980s, but public outcry saved it. If there is a lesson in progress, you can stay and watch. There is also a café.

The city’s largest square was first landscaped in 1872, but it was ruined in 1953 when a hair-raising stretch of road – which locals nicknamed “the shortest motorway in Europe” – was built across it. Completely redesigned between 1990 and 1996, it is now a great swathe of green, still more functional than beautiful, but giving an uninterrupted view from the Rijksmuseum to the Concertgebouw. It has children’s play areas and a pond that is frozen over to form an ice-rink in winter. Various events are staged here – from circuses to political demonstrations – and it is the setting forHel van Vuur (Hell of Fire), a monument to all gypsies persecuted by the Nazis, as well as the Ravensbrück Memorial. The district is one of the wealthiest in Amsterdam, with broad streets lined by grand houses.

This elegant shopping street is to Amsterdam what Bond Street is to London. All the names in international fashion are here – Tommy Hilfiger, Hugo Boss, DKNY, Gucci, Mulberry, Emporio Armani – although wellheeled locals tend to favour friendlier Cornelis Schuystraat nearby.

Devoted to modern art from the mid-19th century to the present day, this invigorating museum is undergoing a total renovation. Until it reopens in 2008, works will be on display at the old TPG Post building (Ooster- dokskade 3, ).

The uncompromisingly modern building by De Stijl architect Gerrit Rietveld was specially designed to display the nation’s collection of this disturbed yet brilliant artist’s work.

Founded in 1864 by a group of philanthropic citizens, this congenial park was later named after the 17th-century poet Joost van den Vondel. Landscaped on informal English lines in 1865 – and enlarged in 1877 – by father and son J D and L P Zocher, with wide green vistas, a profusion of trees and lakes, a rose garden and a bandstand, it became a mecca for hippies in the late 1960s and 1970s. It is still a lively place on summer Sundays, when people flock to hear concerts and plays in the open-air theatre, glimpse the occasional juggler or fire-eater, jog, rollerblade or play football. There are many different species of plants, trees and wildlife. A distinctive landmark, looking a little like a neat boater turned upside-down, is the round Blauwe Theehuis (teahouse), built by H A J Baanders in 1936 in the New Functionalist style.