Amsterdam is leaning into its 750th year with more intention than indulgence. The city’s recalibration – prioritizing residents while welcoming respectful visitors – has only sharpened its edge, resulting in an impressive #11 in our overall Livability index. The headline opening of 2025 is Rosewood Amsterdam, which debuted in May in the 200-year-old Palace of Justice on Prinsengracht with 134 rooms, three restaurants and a pool – another vote of confidence in the historic canal belt’s high-end hospitality.
The city’s Zuidasdok district – already branded the “Financial Mile” – is undergoing a transformation with the ambitious (and expensive) initiative to bury a stretch of the A10 South ring road and expand the Zuid station into the city’s second-largest rail hub by the early 2030s. Its reinvention into a dense, mixed-use South Axis where corporate towers will share blocks with residential high-rises, cultural venues and green public squares has multinationals like ABN AMRO, Boston Consulting Group and AkzoNobel interested.Amsterdam’s highly educated workforce (#39) is the lure. Out of town, the city’s #14-ranked Schiphol airport is increasingly a destination, with the recent renovation of the Corendon Amsterdam Schiphol Airport Hotel featuring a retired Boeing 747 in the hotel garden that is open for tours.