Two teenagers with cancer, a love story, and a trip to Amsterdam to meet the author of one very special book. That's the heart of The Fault in Our Stars, John Green's 2012 novel, and the 2014 film directed by Josh Boone, with Shailene Woodley as Hazel and Ansel Elgort as Gus. The book is Hazel's favorite novel, and its reclusive author, Peter Van Houten, lives in Amsterdam. This walk follows their Amsterdam: the author's street, the film's hotel, an evening passage, the canal house that played a restaurant, the famous bench, the canals and, last, the Anne Frank House. The city's map doesn't match the film's order, so we start with the reason they came, then rewind, and you'll hear clearly when the story jumps. Spoilers throughout. This is an unofficial walk, not made with or endorsed by John Green, his publisher or the film studio. It's one of our self-guided walking tours, about 4 kilometers from Vondelstraat to the Anne Frank House.

Before you set off

The walking takes about 55 minutes for 4 kilometers, so with the stories allow an hour and a half. It's flat all the way, along streets and canal banks, with a few gentle hump bridges. Watch the bike lanes: they're red, busy and fast, and they're not for walking.

To reach the start, the nearest tram stops are on Overtoom, a few minutes north of Vondelstraat; tram 1 is the likely option, but check with GVB, the city's transport company, before you travel. You finish at Westermarkt, where trams 13 and 17 have stopped, but check with GVB too.

Two stops are private homes, so stay on the pavement, keep your voice low and don't photograph the residents. If you want to go inside the Anne Frank House at the end, tickets are sold online only, for a set time slot, and they go fast. Check the museum's official site well before your visit.

Van Houten's House

You're on Vondelstraat, a quiet street of brick houses near the west end of the Vondelpark. Look for number 162. Location guides say this house played Peter Van Houten's home in the film, though one puts it next door, at 164. Either way, it's somebody's real home today, so please just look from the pavement.

We begin with the very reason for the trip. Van Houten wrote An Imperial Affliction, the novel Hazel loves more than any other, and he lives as a recluse. Coming to Amsterdam means Hazel and Gus can finally sit in front of the man himself.

It doesn't go the way they hoped. The meeting with Van Houten goes badly, and it's the moment their dream trip turns sour. Afterwards, his assistant, Lidewij, takes them to the Anne Frank House, and that's where this walk ends.

Here's a detail for book fans. In the novel, John Green puts Hazel and Gus in a real hotel, the Hotel de Filosoof, just round the corner from here at Anna van den Vondelstraat 6. The hotel has since changed its name. The film didn't use it, though. For the screen, the travelers' hotel became a much grander building on Leidseplein.

So let's rewind, to the day they arrived. Head east along Vondelstraat toward the center, with the Vondelpark on your right. At the end of the street, follow the main road toward Leidseplein. The American Hotel stands on the square, by the water. Use your map for the last stretch. About eleven minutes.

American Hotel

You're at Leidseplein, one of the busiest squares in Amsterdam, in front of the American Hotel. Look up at the building and its Art Nouveau lines. Today it's the Clayton Hotel Amsterdam American, run by the Dalata Hotel Group since September 2023, and before that it was a Hard Rock hotel. On the ground floor is the famous Café Américain.

The building went up around 1900, designed by the architects W. Kromhout and H.G. Jansen, and it was extended in 1927 and 1928. It's had well over a century of travelers.

In the film, this is where Hazel and Gus arrive. It appears in an establishing shot as the pair's hotel, and on screen it's called the Hotel Filosoof, borrowing the name of the real hotel from the book. So the film borrowed the name from one building and the face from another.

This is a good place to hear how little of Amsterdam the film shot. The crew spent only three days here, from the 14th to the 16th of October, 2013. The rest was made in Pittsburgh, in the United States, and Pittsburgh played a surprising amount of Amsterdam, as you'll hear at the next stops.

Now step forward to their first evening out. Leave the square and follow Stadhouderskade east along the canal, with the water on your left, until you reach the Rijksmuseum. The passage runs right through the middle of the building. About nine minutes.

Rijksmuseum Passage

The cycle passage under the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

You're in the passage that runs under the Rijksmuseum, the great national museum. Bikes and people share this tunnel, so keep to the walking side. Listen for music. Street musicians often play here.

In the film, Hazel and Gus walk through this passage on their Amsterdam evening and stop to listen to street musicians. It's a quiet, happy moment between them, the two of them just being in a beautiful city. This scene isn't in the book. It was made for the film. And on screen, it comes after their dinner, so think of this stop as a small step ahead before we go back to the meal itself.

It's easy to see why the filmmakers chose it. With only three days in the city, they needed places that say Amsterdam at a glance. A passage under a palace of a museum, with bikes rattling past and music in the air, does exactly that.

Now for the dinner. Leave the passage at the north end, toward the city center, and cross the canal. Walk up Nieuwe Spiegelstraat, the street of antique shops, until you reach the Keizersgracht. Turn left along the canal and look for number 498. About twelve minutes.