Part of Amsterdam's appeal is that it's an easy place to visit, and get to know. With a population of just 750,000, it's not a big city: in fact, you can stroll from effectively one side to the other in half an hour. Everyone speaks English. And while the art on show in the major, must-see museums - namely the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum - is top drawer, unlike, say, at the Louvre, at the moment there's not a daunting amount of it to take in. 

I say at the moment, because most of the Rijksmuseum is shut for long-lasting renovations - currently, all you can view is its very digestible Masterpieces exhibition. The Hermitage Amsterdam, by the way, which opened with great fanfare last year, offers a comparable experience - it displays impressive exhibitions of treasures from the peerless collections of St Petersburg's State Hermitage Museum. 

But Amsterdam's pleasures are by no means all highbrow. I know of no city better supplied with inviting places to drink. Take your pick from candlelit "brown cafes" (like traditional English pubs, but cosier), to historic little tasting houses where you can sample Dutch gin and liqueurs, and easy-going "grand cafes", with their civilised, library-style communal reading tables. 

There's no getting away from the fact that for many visitors, the city's unusually liberal attitude to soft drugs is a, if not the, big draw. If you want spend the weekend stoned, there are a couple of hundred confusingly-named "coffeeshops" where you can buy, and smoke, cannabis with impunity. 

The number of coffeeshops in Amsterdam, and across the Netherlands for that matter, has been gradually dwindling, and there are also moves afoot to clean up the city's notorious Red Light District. But, for better or for worse, Amsterdam is still very much a sex 'n' drugs party town, if that's what you're looking for. At the same time, it's easy to avoid the city's sleazy aspects altogether: I have spent happy, wholesome days in Amsterdam pootling around with my young children on bikes. 

Have I persuaded you yet that Amsterdam is worth a couple days of your time? I could also bang on about the browsable markets and offbeat shops, the many excellent ethnic restaurants and resurgence of Dutch cuisine. I could draw your attention to the fact that you can stay in those lovely old canalside buildings, for not necessarily a lot of money. 

But rather than waffle on, I'm going to stop here. I hope now you'll click through to my carefully selected suggestions of places to stay, eat, drink and shop in the Dutch capital, and my money-saving and insider tips - see the links on the left-hand panel of this page. They should help you get the best out of this thoroughly likeable, laid-back and quirky little city.