For those who’ve been to the cutting-edge contemporary photo gallery Foam and considered taking the hit of a lengthy jail term to take something off the walls and home with them, &Foam is the ice-cool all-legal answer to your problem. The retail extension of the gallery proper, it stocks boutique photography magazines, limited editions of Foam’s exhibitions, photographic prints and the odd piece of up-and-coming designer clothing as well. Also a gallery in itself, &Foam’s carefully designed matte-grey warehouse space has become one of Amsterdam’s main creative hubs for the city’s lensheads; holding quarterly collaborations that explore photography’s interplay with other creative disciplines and throwing many an exhibition launch bash.

Originally making a name for itself in the late 90s by importing obscure records from abroad and exporting similarly unheard of Dutch sounds in the other direction, Rush Hour has since matured into a multifaceted electronic music monolith. Though they’ve jabbed fingers into multiple pies with aplomb—they run their own record label and are a respected distributor and broadcaster—it’s their vinyl store that remains the primary base of operations and the symbolic center of its other projects. Stocking a diverse array of 12s—predominantly electronic music from both their own artists (Carl Craig and Tom Trago amongst) and other international heavyweights—the sounds gracing these shelves all share a common groove that the folks at RH have coined the ‘Rush Hour Flavor’. Go on, give your ears a taste.

Chic doesn’t even begin to cover what this boutique stopover is all about. With its gothic-luxe interior and sumptuous spaces, it’s no wonder awards have been raining down on the hotel. Don’t be fooled by the room grading system, the rather underwhelming titled “good room” is a treasure trove of velveteen bedding and handpicked artworks. While the “best room” offers a postcard-picture canal view and a freestanding bath that could only be more decadent if it were filled with Dom Pérignon. The real clincher, however, is the oasis of green outback; a rare treat in central Amsterdam and one of the largest in the city to boot.

Where in Amsterdam can you find over 60,000,000 meters of celluloid? The answer is of course the EYE Film Institute Netherlands. With a collection of tens of thousands of films and a hundred thousand movie stills, the EYE Film Institute has built an internationally resounding reputation.

In 2012 EYE moved to a slick new building on the riverside, north of Centraal station, with a new bar and restaurant for some movie-based chatter over a beer and some grub. The institute is a great stop for film-junkies and more casual movie-lover alike. Take your pick from the varied program, which ranges from the classics to contemporary cinema.

The Dutch answer to Dan Barber’s Blue Hill at Stone Barns in New York or Alice Waters’s Chez Panisse in Berkeley, De Kas is the culinary love child of chef Gert-Jan Hageman, Ronald Kunis and Meindert Heijer. The three restaurateurs and chefs converted a mid-century, run down greenhouse into an elegantly styled, Piet Boon-designed restaurant and herb and vegetable farm.

Dependent on seasonal ingredients—and what is fresh from their nursery—the five-course prix fixe menu changes daily. Most every seat in the greenhouse, counting an eight meter high ceiling, is strikingly picturesque, but for those who prefer a bit of a show, reserve the chef’s table—available for two to four people.

This former church located near the Leidseplein was turned into a youth center in turbulent 1968 (partly through the intervention of local legend Willem de Ridder), becoming one of the headquarters of the hippie and provo movements, and one of the first places in town where the sale and consumption of “soft” drugs like hash and marijuana was tolerated, if not downright encouraged.

While the countercultural flag has been passed to other locations throughout the city, Paradiso remains one of the best places to catch a live show: all the big names have performed here, from The Rolling Stones and Nirvana to Pink Floyd, but this hasn’t gone to the venue’s head, any young upstart still gets a chance.

The Noodlanding (“emergency landing”) parties are more or less the after school parties of the nearby Barlaeus high school, but if you you don’t mind hormone-addled teenagers (or paying through the nose for a flat Heineken beer), you could be in for a wild night.