After several years in the Netherlands, I confess I don't get over to our beautiful and plentiful museums as often as I should. However, there is one night every year that I never miss and always involves me, good friends, and 5 or 6 great museums late at night.

Typically a newbie to museum night will do the obvious, head to the Van Gogh, the Rijksmuseum, The Anne Frank House... essentially the most popular museums in the city. Fair enough, all three will have fun parties and interesting content for your enjoyment. Myself I use museum night to head to the offbeat museums and I've always got my eyes peeled for some new and obscure option.

So I'm going to share some of the destinations this year, for those seeking something beyond the usual:

1 - The Press Museum. I'm a journalist, so this was an easy pick. Plus they've got a tour that focuses on the newsroom from 20 years ago. Who doesn't love 1989?

2 - The Pianola Museum. Late night piano sounds, should be a delicious musical buffet.

3 - ARCAM. The Amsterdam Architectural Center is a museum night tradition amongst my friends. Cool designs, a nice DJ, and fun drinks.

4 - Hermitage. Its not a small museum, but its the first year since renovation that the Russian museum of art is back on the museum night agenda. Plus they're doing a masquerade ball which sounds interesting.

5 - The City Archive, also the former bank building, is doing a social networking night. No idea how it will work but Im assuming it will involve blogs, flickr and maybe some facebook. Plus you can walk into the old bank vault which is beautiful.

Get tickets before Saturday night and study the program. Museum night is one of those DO NOT MISS nights in Amsterdam.