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With or without some herbal influence, Amterdam is a nightmare to navigate around at the best of times.

If you haven’t been to Amsterdam before then I guarantee that even with a good map in front of you you’ll still be staring blankly around, scratching your head and wondering whether you’re even in the same city anymore.

There are so many streets where you’re suddenly right in front of another canal and can’t get across. By the end of the day you’ll be building a raft and sailing back to your hotel. Holland is a pretty flat country overall so don’t expect there to be any high points of reference such as hills or mountain in the distance for you to get your bearings.

The alleys are all small and windy and have names so long you’ll be buying a magnifying glass to read them on the map or else needing a genius IQ to work out the abbreviations. Taxi drivers in the city make a living out of taking tourist for rides – both in the actual and the metaphorical sense of the word. Many a group of weekenders up to mischief in a coffee shop have been taken the scenic route back to their hotel whilst under the influence, unaware they were only one street away from their destination.

Find a good map of Amsterdam

What you need to do is to first and foremost find a really good map. In my experience the best ones come from the tourist office or the train station or the hotel. They might look cheap and cheerful and full of too much colour but they are often designed by people used to asking where places are so are well thought through.

Amsterdam Central Station

Once you have your map in front of you, find Centraal Station and hang out there for a few minutes, unless you have otherwise. It’s probably the most useful point of reference the whole city. It’s your northern pin in the map.

Amsterdam’s main canals

Then there are the main canals to learn off by heart. These are Herengracht, Keizersgracht, Prinsengracht. They roughly work their way around the city in a semi circle and resemble a seating plan in a theatre, broken up now and again like aisles do. Watch out though because sometimes the names of streets change when they get to this broken section. Once you’ve got the hang of these canals and where you are and are going to in relation to them, then you should be well on your way.

Amsterdam’s main squares

Finally the main squares are worth learning and finding beforehand. These are Dam, Nieuwmarkt, Leidseplein and Rembrandtplein. Dam is the big one with the grand hotels and the street performers and the famous Bulldog café, which will have hordes of people looking rather sheepish outside.

Amsterdam Hotels near Dam Square

• Hotel Tulip Inn Dam Square -3-Star Hotel – Room Price: €175
• Hotel Golden Tulip Amsterdam – 4-Star Hotel – Room Price: €105
• Hotel Rho – 3-Star Hotel – Room Price: €124
• Hotel Tulip Inn Amsterdam Center – 3-Star Hotel – Room Price: €95
• Hotel Die Port Van Cleve – 4-Star Hotel – Room Price: €104

Map of Amsterdam picture by Mark Andrew Webber