Category Archives: Hip Guide to Amsterdam

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Amsterdam is famous for its canals, the Red Light District, its liberal attitude and trendy nightlife. Whether you visit for a few days or a few months you’re sure to fall in love with this city, it’s historic architecture and it’s people.
This site is for those who wish to discover what makes Amsterdam unique. We believe Amsterdam is one of the coolest places on the planet and deserves more than a casual visit.
This site contains hundreds of photos and articles about Amsterdam, Holland and the Dutch people. We also have reviews of hundreds of popular Hotels, restaurants, coffeeshops and other retail establishments so you can find what you’re looking for easily. We are constantly adding more Reviews and revisiting those already listed to provide the latest info.
Our City Maps can help you find your way to the more interesting sites.
If you can’t find what you’re looking for, try our powerful Search Engine to locate it, or post your question on our Amsterdam Forum. So browse around our site and let us know what you think!

Bulldog Coffeeshops

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The Bulldog has been around since 1976, and the location at Oudezijds Voorburgwal 90 is the considered to be the first cannabis coffeeshop in Amsterdam. The beautiful psychedelic paintings on the outside were painted over six years by an Australian artist, Harold Thorton. Now they have five coffeeshops in town, including one on the Leidseplein that was once a police station and still has some of the original jail cells where you can toke up, legally!

The Bulldog has become very commercialized as it’s grown with souvenier shops, bike rentals and a low budget hotel. No longer does it offer the homey feel of other coffeeshops, with one exception.

The newest one, now called “The Lounge”, on Spuistraat 7, is the class act of coffeeshops in Amsterdam, in a league of its own. Mahogany, brass, and leather dominate, lending an elegance and comfort never before seen in a coffeeshop. Add to this the mellow “lounge” music, a nice change from the pounding house music that most coffeeshops favor. The Lounge offers free internet access (with required drink purchase) on two machines and doesn’t start charging for it when it gets busy as other cafes do. A most inviting space to surf the net.

Johnny

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I usually stop by Johnny’s whenever I visit the Jordaan to rest my legs and my mind. The outside wicker chair seating is comfortable and enticing on warm days. The staff is very friendly. Inside it’s a bit cramped, yet cozy. The music is usually good, never at odds with the mood of the place.

Located right on the small Johnny Jordaanplein, it’s a rather pleasant location.

The shop seems popular with the locals, as they can be seen popping in on their way home after work to pick up a little “pick-me-up”. I gather they also do a decent morning business as they have early hours for a coffeeshop.

I once had an extraordinary experience here. I met god. Or so he claimed. He looked more like a genetic cross between Aqualung and Charles Manson. We had a very intense conversation, and he got too excited, and started screaming. The staff had to ask him to leave, and a few minutes later we heard him over in the urinoir on the corner yelling at the top of his lungs “fuck god” over and over…

Fortunately, that god isn’t a regular at this otherwise pleasant coffeeshop.

Café Stof

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An internet search for an affordable hotel took us to the hip and trendy ‘De Pijp” area. On our previous trips to Amsterdam we never left the (very touristy) city centre. We were pleasantly suppriced by de Pijp. It turns out to be the ‘quartier latin’ area of Amsterdam. All young and hip locals go here for a bite to eat or a few beers. Our hotel recommended café Stof for dinner. A quaint little pub with restaurant quality food. The place was buzzing! Very friendly staff and very tasty food. No tourist trapps in ‘de Pijp’!

Amsterdam, Holland

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THE hippy center of Europe. Marijuana sold legally in more than 400 coffeeshops, a long history of tolerance, beautiful old city, great vibes everywhere, and yes the friendly Dutch speak English. Hippie Heaven! Lots of headshops, smartshops, rave venues, hip fashions, museums and concerts. The Vondelpark has been a gathering place for hippies since the 60s.

Please see our Hip Guide to Amsterdam for lots more info, our coffeeshop guide, an event calendar, to book hotels, and much more!

Wakeboard School Vinkeveen

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Join our friends Gerard and Petra at Vinkeveen, a short drive outside of Amsterdam, to learn the ins and outs of wakeboarding, wakeskating, wakesurfing, waterskiing and monoskiing. Flyboarding is also possible but starting with a minimum of 4 persons.

Although their website has lots of action photos of the fun to be had, it’s all in Dutch. But don’t worry, email Gerard with your questions, in English, and he’ll be glad to help you out if needed.

Having been out on the lake at Vinkeveen myself with Gerard at the helm, I can say with certainty that this is going to be one of the best times you have on the water near Amsterdam. The location is very easy to reach. You just drive down the A2 direction Utrecht and take exit 4 Vinkeveen. You will find Wakeboardschool Vinkeveen at Wilgenhoek Harbor. Parking is free.


Write Gerard at: info@wakeboardschoolvinkeveen.nl or call him on his mobile at: +31 6 52001155.

Open from May thru September, or as weather permits in these times of global warming.

Info:

Address:

Jachthaven De Wilgenhoek

Groenlandsekade 9-13

3645BA Vinkeveen

Phone: 06-52001155

Randy Roy’s Red Light Walking Tour Amsterdam

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This tour was highly recommended in BOOM magazine. Randy is a pretty cool guy! This tour focused on the humorous and contemporary stories of the red light district. He kept us entertained by showing us where Quentin Tarantino wrote Pulp Fiction. Eminem and Mike Tyson’s favorite coffeshop. We even saw the club with the darkroom floor that Jean Paul Gaultier passed out on (and woke up stuck to)!
We saw a lot of window prostitutes and learned about X-rated bookshops, live sex shows, magic mushrooms and smart shops. Warning: there was also some Amsterdam history on the tour.We had a lot of laughs and came away with a better understanding of not only the red light district but also the Dutch culture. Highly recommended!

Info:
The meeting point is in front of the Victoria Hotel across from Central Station at 8pm, and 10pm on Fridays & Saturdays.(Damrak and Prins Hendrik-kade). It lasts 90 minutes.

Resevations are recommended!

Maurya Organic Indian Lounge

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I do not normally write restaurant reviews but was so appalled by Maurya; I feel the need to warn all. It wasn’t the food that appalled me (the food was rather lush) and it wasn’t the decor, which was to a certain extent authentic. It wasn’t even the service, which was slow, but hey if good company surrounds you, it tends to be less of a concern. NO, what I and my fellow diners we dismayed by was the bill. It was OUTRAGESOUS! If you deducted the alcohol and water off the bill and calculated the food only, we were charged 50 euros EACH for food alone. Tell me, how does one eat 50 Euros of Indian food? We are not talking a Michelin Star restaurant for goodness sake! On checking the bill, we discovered curious costs. I won’t go too much into detail but we were highly overcharged. There are extra costs such as spiced rice, 6 euros per person. (There were eight of us, which amounts to 48 euros for rice alone). There were a lot of other additional costs as well that are not stated on the menu or mentioned by the waiter.
Anyway at the end of it all we refused to pay the total amount because it was clear he was trying to rip us off. We asked him to deduct 50 euros, he refused and was extremely rude to us shouting and carrying on. (Very professional). We asked him to call the police because we were not paying the amount on the bill. He did, the police came (5 of them) and after hearing both sides of the story and reviewing the bill and the menu the police agreed with us and we paid the amount which we thought was fair. Be warned! At the Maurya, they are rip off merchants!

Hotel Monopole

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Myself and a friend recently rented two single rooms in the ‘hotel’ Monopole, Amstel 60, Amsterdam, to the tune of €60 per night for four nights (€250 + city tax) on October 11th -14th.

My heart sank when we got a look at the first room; a small, dank place with twin cots, dirty marks on one wall, a tatty thin carpet, old fixtures and fittings and a unpleasant view of what appeared to be an industrial building with a grimy roof.

The second room three floors up a break- neck stairs into the attic, was similar to the first but icy cold and dull in the day time, with more dirty marks and a fist-sized hole in one wall. The single sheets which covered the matresses seemed clean but the dank duvets on top looked like they hadn’t been washed in several weeks; there was a dark brown cigarette burn hole in one. Having viewed the warm and inviting looking rooms on their website, my friend and I were quite upset about the arrangement. When I asked to be moved from the attic to another room, I was told that we had gotten a special offer and that ‘rooms in this part of Amsterdam generally go for €90 or more’.

We had to lug our own bags to our rooms. That night we discovered that the club behind (ironically called ‘Escape’ – at this stage I wanted to) had little to no sound-proofing and that it went on until 4.30am (bar Mondays when it shut its doors at 2am). Strangely, the hotel Monopole makes no mention of this or the bar/club right next door to them on their website.

On the third evening when we arrived back at the hotel, we found our towels hadn’t been changed, or rooms/ toilets cleaned or toilet rolls replaced. In fact the only thing touched and removed was the cups we had requested (much to their astonishment) the night before.

Some kind of hammering and building was going on in one of the rooms for much of the time we were there (daytime only).

My view of Amsterdam was sullied by the very poor accommodation and lax approach offered at the hotel Monopole. However, aside from the hotel, I did get to see beautiful Dutch architecture, ground-breaking painting, creative theater, layers of history and the wonderful buzz of such a diverse European city.