Amsterdam’s historic heart is a magnet for tourists. More than 20 million descend annually to admire Europe’s largest and best-preserved 17th-century center—an enchanting, open-air museum secured within a 400-year-old canal belt that was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2010.
Many are drawn by world-class museums—repositories of Golden Age masterpieces, iconic sunflowers and tormented starry nights.
Yet without some pre-planning, visiting popular sights like the Van Gogh Museum, Rijksmuseum and Anne Frank House can put you amidst hundreds of others intent on ticking off attractions on their bucket list—hardly a way to experience local culture.
With all its charms, the Dutch capital’s medieval center can be a victim of its own popularity.
You’ll do yourself a disservice if you don’t go beyond Centrum to discover Amsterdam neighborhoods with fewer tourists and far more local flavor.
The Newly Wild Oud-West
Since the opening of De Hallen in 2014, Amsterdam’s Oud-West—a neighborhood wedged between Vondelpark, De Clercqstraat and Nassaukade—has undergone a renaissance. The turn-of-the-century tram depot-turned-cultural hotspot brought new life to a district that developed as Amsterdam rapidly expanded in the late 19th century. Today it includes rental apartments, a buzzing food court, cozy café, high-end restaurant, nine-screen cinema, childcare facilities, and funky shops featuring creations by local makers.
Today the Oud-West is also called the Hallenkwartier, presumably to highlight De Hallen and its buzzing food court.
A century before De Hallen opened, vendors were selling fresh produce, flowers and plants at the Ten Katemarkt. A local vibe still infuses this small (compared to the Albert Cuypmarkt) street market, where snacks like Dutch stroopwafels, Vietnamese loempia and Indonesian soup reflect the Oud-West’s multicultural makeup. Nearby, shopping streets like Overtoom, Kinkerstraat, Bilderdijkstraat and De Clercqstraat feature an ever-evolving crop of ethnic restaurants, hip boutiques and concept stores.
On Overtoom, furniture shops and concept stores thrive alongside ethnic eateries like Abysinnia, specializing in East African street food.
A bohemian vibe is alive and well at Lab 111, where quirky films and insightful documentaries are screened in a former pathology lab. You can rub shoulders with locals at OT301, a film academy-turned-artists’ squat that’s now a center for live shows and movies. Architecture aficionados won’t want to miss the Oud-West’s Zevenlandenhuizen (Houses of Seven Countries), a collection of homes bordering Vondelpark, each representing a different country.
Designed by Dutch architect Tjeerd Kuipers, the Houses of Seven Countries appealed to the 19th-century fascination with faraway places.
At Hollandsche Manege, the Netherlands’ national riding school is housed in a neoclassical structure inspired by Vienna’s Spanish Riding School. Even non-equestrians can admire the ornate architecture and watch the regal trotting from the elegant café.
Diverse De Pijp
Of all the working-class neighborhoods that developed as Amsterdam expanded beyond its historic canal belt, De Pijp is among the most diverse. As the Jordaan overflowed with laborers in the 19th century, the district evolved to accommodate the surplus, becoming a multicultural melting pot.
Students, artists, yuppies and immigrants from some 150 nationalities discovered De Pijp in the 1960s, establishing the area as Amsterdam’s lively Latin Quarter. Along Albert Cuypstraat and Ferdinand Bolstraat, Syrian, Moroccan, Spanish, Indian and Surinamese eateries now coexist alongside Dutch pubs, Islamic butchers and Turkish delicatessens.
De Pijp’s demographics are abundantly clear at the Albert Cuypmart, where you can buy daily necessities as well as specialty items from foreign lands.
The neighborhood is renowned for its narrow townhouses, originally built to house low-income families. While no one really knows what De Pijp stands for, some surmise it owes its name to the district’s long narrow streets that resemble pipes, or to “the Pipe,” the gas company that once supplied energy to the area.
You can pay it forward at Dignita Hoftuin, an organic café in an urban garden, where former prostitutes get a second chance. The adjacent H’ART Museum is set in a grand 17th-century building overlooking the Amstel River.
De Pijp also encompasses Sarphatipark, an English landscape-style park developed by Jewish philanthropist Samuel Sarphati. After a long battle over a railway station originally conceived for the site, the park opened in 1885, 19 years after Sarphati’s death. Just north of Sarphatipark is what remains of the establishment that once permeated De Pijp with the fragrance of fermenting hops.
Now an overpriced brewery-turned-museum, the Heineken Experience pays homage to a beer now produced by a multinational firm. Even Amsterdam Marketing suggests you get drunk before visiting.
De Plantage
Green and serene, De Plantage belies the horrors that occurred during World War II around nearby Waterlooplein, where many Jews fleeing the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions, as well as German, Polish and Russian antisemitic regimes, settled. In contrast to the medieval cobblestones and canals of Amsterdam’s medieval canal belt, it’s lined with leafy boulevards and elegant squares that make it far greener and less touristy than Centrum.
In De Plantage, discover Hortus Botanicus, a garden that changed the world with plants that formed the basis for holistic medicine.
De Plantage is home to Artis Royal Zoo, Hortus Botanicus, and the Wereldmuseum, a museum about world culture. For additional culture, the Dutch National Opera & Ballet and Royal Theatre Carré offer world-class productions of everything from classical dance to pop music.
Amsterdam’s most recognizable bridge is in De Plantage. According to legend, kissing on the Magere Brug (Skinny Bridge) will insure everlasting love.
Allegedly built by two sisters living on opposite sides of the Amstel, the Skinny Bridge was once so narrow two pedestrians could barely pass each other.
The Old Jewish Quarter
De Plantage also encompasses Amsterdam’s Old Jewish Quarter, where Rembrandt lived at the height of his fame. Today his house on Jodenbreestraat is a museum replete with 17th-century objects and etchings. The square that bears his name is lined with restaurants and hip nightclubs like Escape. Rembrandtplein also is where you’ll find Rembrandt’s statue and the protagonists of The Night Watch.
At the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam’s Jewish Cultural Quarter, you can trace the history of the Jews in Holland.
The quarter also includes the Portuguese Synagogue, modeled after Jerusalem’s Temple of Solomon. It was one of Amsterdam’s largest structures when built in 1675.
Stumble Stones in the rear of the Portuguese Synagogue—each imprinted with a victim’s name, birth and arrest dates, camp deported to and fate—are part of a worldwide Holocaust project.
When the Nazis invaded Holland, 60,000+ Jews lived in Amsterdam—about 10% of the population. During World War II, the Jewish Quarter became a ghetto as German troops rationed food and arrested Jews in the streets. Most were taken to the Hollandsche Schouwburg, Amsterdam’s municipal theater building, which became an assembly point for mass deportation. Waterlooplein, once the central market for the Jewish community, is now better known for its flea market—a source for new and second-hand clothes, antiques, ’50s vinyls, and other curiosities, in 300+ stalls open daily except Sunday.
Unveiled in 2021, The Dutch Holocaust Names Memorial commemorates 102,000 Jews and 220 Sinti and Roma victims of the Holocaust, both individually and collectively.
There’s more Holocaust lore, as well as exhibits about the Netherlands’ role in World War II, at the Dutch Resistance Museum. Read about more cool neighborhoods in Amsterdam, and where to stay in them, in Where to Stay in Amsterdam: A Guide to the Best Neighborhoods.
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