Amsterdam Noord escorts, through the tunnel to your door

Most rooms here come with water in the window. Hotels cluster along the IJ around the tower and the film museum, many of them high-rise with the harbour traffic gliding past below, and the NDSM end adds aparthotels and studios carved out of former industry. Deeper into the district you find holiday flats on quiet residential streets and the odd bed and breakfast on a dike. Whichever it is, send the exact address and entrance details in your message; new-build blocks here love a numbered lift and an anonymous door.

Evenings in Noord have a big-sky feel the old town cannot offer: sunset over the cranes from a rooftop bar, dinner in a converted hall, the city glittering across the water like a promise you already kept. Lucy, our resident stargazer with an artist's eye, suits a late walk where the harbour dark actually lets a few constellations through. Stacy shoots street photography and fits the wharf's raw edges perfectly, while Thea, cheerful and outdoorsy, is happy cycling distance from the dike lanes and just as happy staying in.

The old centre is one tunnel away on the Amsterdam Centrum page, and the eastern quays around the water are covered under Amsterdam Oost. The whole line-up makes the northern crossing.