Amsterdam

Rijksmuseum - allow half a day at minimum

Amsterdam is the most liveable city I have visited: compact, accessible, beautifully scaled, organised around canals and bicycles rather than cars. Every street looks like a postcard and somehow this never becomes oppressive.

The Rijksmuseum is one of the world's great collections, and the building itself is extraordinary. Anne Frank's house is sombre and important. The Jordaan neighbourhood on a Sunday morning is the city at its most itself.