Anne Frank Museum

This 17th-Century canal house, where Anne Frank, her family and four others hid from the Nazis for two years, is now a museum and educational centre. There’s a permanent exhibition on the life and times of Anne, and you can of course visit the cramped ‘secret annex’ they called home.

Why go? One of the best-known and most important historical sites in the world, it’s a chilling and sombre reminder of the horrors of the Second World War, but also a moving testament to humankind’s indefatigable optimism.