First trip to Amsterdam: Where to stay?

I have visited Amsterdam back in 1982 and loved it.
My wife and I are going there next month for a week. We are staying in the Hotel Nadia, well positioned and with reasonable rates and excellent reviews.
If you want something a bit higher in price and quality check out Canal House.

As for what to see, check out TripAdvisor.com for things to do.
The Anne Frank House, take a Canal cruise, tour outside the city to see windmills and scenic places.
Also, for art museums the Van Gogh and Rijksmuseum (Rembrandts) are great.

You may want to do the Heineken Brewery or take a bike ride around the city.
If you go in Spring, you could see some great floral exhibits.

My husband and I were there a couple of months ago, and felt like we were the 2 oldest people on the earth. Nothing but young people everywhere to the point where we were uncomfortable (I often felt that we were 'in the way'.) A museum worker told me that all the "old people" live in the suburbs. I believe it All this is on the way to saying if you want to see the Anne Frank House, be sure to book tickets asap. You also might want to look at advance sales for museum tickets, as the lines can be long. Don't miss the Rijksmuseum for the Dutch Masters, fabulous. It's worth doing a canal cruise, but million companies offer them. Do a little Trip Advisor research to find your style -- there are party boats as well as those which sedately drift along. The RS pocket Amsterdam book was more than adequate for our short visit. We stayed at the Doubletree Centraal Station. Don't stay there. They have a lovely roof top bar with great views, but even as a hotel guest, you will have to wait in an hour-long+ line to see it, which we found very annoying considering the price we paid to stay there. Also, the rooms were shabby, although the bar food was good, albeit only with a view of only the teenagers zipping by. On the up side, staff were very helpful and kind. One more thing: When on foot, look both ways and stay out of the bike lanes. Apparently they have the right of way.

if you want to see the Anne Frank House, be sure to book tickets asap.

For October when the OP is going the Anne Frank tickets will go on sale the first Tuesday in September (Friday Sept. 2nd).

For a very Dutch experience consider renting a bike for at least part of a day. There are cheap rentals available from a couple of shops near Central Station, from which you can peddle down to a free pedestrian/bicycle ferry about 100 yards away. Once on the other side of the river you'll have a myriad of dedicated bike trails thru the poulder countryside ... all the way to the fishing village of Marken if you're really ambitious.
Great fun - and you won't need to worry about vehicle (car) traffic - it's an extremely bike-friendly environment.

Take the night canal tour with https://www.thosedamboatguys.com. Irreverent guides, small groups, BYOB (and whatever else) encouraged. I know that sounds like a party boat, but it's not. I took my 12yoa son. It was delightful.

Anne Frank House and Van Gogh museum. Both require reservations, as I recall.

Amsterdam is one of those cities that is being crippled by the short-term rental industry, so I can't in good conscience recommend the AirBnB we stayed in, but it was across the canal from Westerpark, which looks far out on the map, but we were able to walk everywhere.

We liked staying at the Dikker & Thijs Fenice hotel in the Leidseplein area on the Prinsengracht Canal and reserved a room with a canal view. It was walkable to the Anne Frank House, the Van Gogh Museum, the Rijksmuseum, and the Flower market on the Singel Canal, as well as the Lovers Canal Boat Cruise. It is also near a tram stop so it is easy to get to from Centraal Station.

We enjoying staying in Canal Ring area oat Hotel L’Ambassade.