The narrow-street former workers' quarter on the western edge of the canal ring: small canals, brown cafes, almshouse gardens and Monday markets.
The Jordaan is the bit of central Amsterdam most people picture when they imagine the city at its most human-scaled. It was built in the early seventeenth century for workers and immigrants, on a cheaper grid that ignored the grand canal ring next door, and that tight, slightly crooked layout survives. It has long since gentrified into one of the more expensive places to live, but the streets, the small canals and the cafes still carry the older character.
Between the Prinsengracht and the Lijnbaansgracht, from the Brouwersgracht down to the Leidsegracht.
The Jordaan went up from about 1612 as part of the city's great expansion, but on the cheap side of the project. Where the merchants got the wide Grachtengordel canals to the east, the Jordaan got a denser grid of narrow streets and modest canals, following the lines of old ditches and paths rather than a grand plan. The houses are smaller and plainer than the canal-ring mansions, working buildings rather than statements.
Two things to look for. The small canals - the Bloemgracht, Egelantiersgracht and Lauriergracht - are the quietest and some of the prettiest in the city. And the hofjes, almshouse courtyards tucked behind street doors, where charitable foundations once housed the old and poor around a shared garden. Several can be visited quietly in the daytime; the Sint Andrieshof off the Egelantiersstraat is a well-known one.
The Jordaan is for walking with no fixed aim. The pleasure is the texture - a canal, a hofje, a brown cafe with sand on the floor, a corner shop - rather than any single sight. The Westerkerk, with the city's tallest church tower, stands on the eastern edge, and the Anne Frank House is just across the Prinsengracht from it.
Time it for a Monday or Saturday and head to the Noordermarkt: a flea and textile market on Monday mornings, a farmers' and organic market on Saturdays. The brown cafes are the other reason to come, small old wood-panelled bars that are the heart of local life here.
The Jordaan is a comfortable, well-off central neighbourhood with no particular safety issues. The thing to manage is crowds rather than risk: the streets right around the Anne Frank House and the photogenic canals get busy, and ordinary pickpocket caution applies in any tight tourist crowd. Walk a few streets further in and it empties out fast.
Its narrow streets and small canals, brown cafes, hidden almshouse courtyards (hofjes) and the Noordermarkt. Built as a workers' district in the 1600s, it is now a charming and sought-after part of central Amsterdam.
It sits right on the edge, on the Prinsengracht next to the Westerkerk, which is the boundary between the Jordaan and the main canal ring. Most people treat it as part of a Jordaan visit. Book tickets well ahead, as they are released online on a timed basis.
Stadsdeel Centrum, on the western side of the canal ring. It is fully walkable from Amsterdam Centraal in about fifteen minutes.