Amsterdam

Going to the Anne Frank House is always worthwhile. Timed tickets can be purchased in advance so you don't have to spend time waiting in line.

Four hours is not enough time for the Rijksmuseum because it's so extremely crowded right now after having recently re-opened following a 10-year renovation closure, but it might be possible to have a reasonably good visit at the Van Gogh Museum. It's also recently re-opened and would be crowded as well, but it's much smaller and more focused. I think planning a museum visit for your 4 hours is a good idea, since you will be on the canal and city tour the following day.

Rene, The time you have to sightsee depends on where you are coming from and where you have to be afterward. Tram transportation is efficient but you should give yourself a half hour to get somewhere on a tram and half an hour to get back. Walking, of course, would take all of your four hours. If you are leaving from Central Station you might as well walk out of the station, up the street and enjoy the sights. We have walked to the Dutch Resistance Museum from near the station and that was a good half day. It has a display about Anne Frank. Also, from Central Station you could walk up to the flower market and back in four hours. As I say, four hours sightseeing depends on where you are coming from and where you need to be. I wouldn't limit myself to a particular site in a four hour period.

Thanks, you have all been very helpful. We arrive via plane at 9:00 am and need to board our river cruise at approx 3pm

Rene, assumimg your flight arrives on time, remember that you will have to go through Passport Control (if Amsterdam is your first wheels down from the U.S. into the Schengen Zone), maybe need to pick up checked baggage, and make your way from the airport into central Amsterdam. It seems that might put you there at 11:00 at the earliest. Then you need to allow time to stow your bags (presumably at Amsterdam Centraal station). So now it's getting toward lunchtime and you will be hungry. Then you need to allow time to collect your bags and get to the cruise boarding point before 3:00. That doesn't leave much time for trying to get to a museum or other site. Having just been at the Anne Frank House and seen the crowd and long line, I'd say it's not enough time to do that, or attempt the Van Gogh Museum. Probably best to take a walk, find a place for lunch, people watch, and enjoy the interesting Amsterdam ambiance. And mind the bikes and the trams!

That's very real and very good advice. We need to do more research before August! Thanks!

With that amount of time, I would skip all major museums so you don't spend time waiting in line. Even timed tickets you can buy online ahead of your trip don't necessarily mean you can just breeze past the line for security. When I went last month, I did not have to wait in any line for Anne Frank's House, but that was only because I had already purchased a Museumkaart at a smaller museum earlier in the day (not worth your money with only 4 hours of free time before you meet up with your tour group) and I also went at 6:30PM - but every time I walked by there during the daytime over the next few weeks I was in Amsterdam, there was a long line of people waiting to get in. Both the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh were a similar experience. No problem if you showed up a few hours before closing, but the rest of the time the lines were quite long for people without a Museumkaart or other type of pass. I would focus on some of the very small museums with no lines that can easily be completed in under 90 minutes (in some cases, you can even breeze through in under an hour). Museum Van Loon, Museum Geelvinck Hinlopen Huis, Museum Willet Holt-Huysen, FOAM (the Photography museum), the Tassen Museum Hendrikje and the Kattenkabinet are all very close together on Keizersgracht or Herengracht. You can easily squeeze in visits to some of these (a few have very nice cafes right onsite if you are hungry). There are also small, offbeat museums like the Brilmuseum (spectacles), the Pipe Museum or Electric Ladyland. You can see 1 or 2 of these, have a nice walk along the canals, window shop and get something to eat before you have to get back to your cruise.

Thanks Ceidlah, I like those ideas.

The Amsterdam Library is a short walk from Centraal Station. The top floor has good food and a great view of Amsterdamn. The building is beautiful too. Then walk around the area and visit a coffeeshop and walk about some more.

Or go to the Eye on the Ij, the film museum a short ferry ride from Centraal.