Explore Amsterdam by neighborhood
Bursting with enough nightlife options to keep most partiers out until dawn, Leidseplein is a vast square that draws a crowd practically twenty-four hours a day. In warm weather, the animated plaza hosts numerous street performers cheered on by travelers gathered on the square’s giant terrace, while at dusk the area begins to fill up with a massive young crowd gearing up for a night at the hot clubs and spectacular music venues. The smaller streets off the
Bursting with enough nightlife options to keep most partiers out until dawn, Leidseplein is a vast square that draws a crowd practically twenty-four hours a day. In warm weather, the animated plaza hosts numerous street performers cheered on by travelers gathered on the square’s giant terrace, while at dusk the area begins to fill up with a massive young crowd gearing up for a night at the hot clubs and spectacular music venues. The smaller streets off the
A historic area popular with many visitors to the city, the Nieuwe Zijds neighborhood is also home to some of Amsterdam’s most well-known coffeeshops and a booming nightlife centered along Spuistraat and Haarlemmerstraat. Known as the “squatter ’hood” due to its population of young liberal types who participate in everyday society but often choose to live in abandoned buildings, Spuistraat is full of alternative bars and urban nightclubs that define
Narrow streets, peaceful canals, and quaint 16th-century quarters make the Jordaan district one of the most scenic areas in Amsterdam. Daytime attractions include novelty boutiques, art studios, and the Anne Frank Huis Museum, while a mix of less touristy bars and nightspots draw a continuous flow of local patrons who prefer the brown bars with their house party scene to the louder clubs in the city center. On most nights, the taverns, upscale cafés, wine
After Leidseplein, Rembrandtplein (Rembrandt Square) is the city’s second center of nightlife, itself a celebrated locale for clubbers looking for a more mainstream – and often pricey – experience. The area’s plentiful bars and clubs attract a large number of upscale visitors and tourists who flock to the variety of venues, which include no-cover clubs with huge dance floors and underground techno scenes, upscale lounges where DJs pump out beats until
Most famous for its sex shops, adult entertainment theaters, and the women who stand in the red-lighted windows hoping to attract customers, the Red Light District is the heart of Amsterdam’s tourism industry and has been the destination for booze, brothels, and debauchery for five hundred years. Occasional street scuffles between junkies or outbursts from prostitutes being photographed without permission keep passersby on their toes, but surveillance
The favored district for young and affluent creative artists, architects, and musicians, De Pijp is an appealing melting pot of cultures, apparent in its vast selection of ethnic restaurants and colorful shops. By night, the De Pijp area attracts stylish urban trendsetters from all over Amsterdam who gather to socialize at the lively corner wine and cocktail bars just off Albert Cuypstraat and at the buzzing beer joints that line Ferdinand Bolstraat.
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