Things you should know about Amsterdam

You've probably heard plenty of stories about Amsterdam, and a lot of them are true. Some of them are also ten years out of date. The coffeeshop rules, the Red Light District and even the famous bike flat outside the station have all changed, so here's what you should know before you go, with links to the longer pages on each topic.

Bikes are everywhere, but renting one for your whole stay may not be a great idea

Bicycles run this city the way cars run Los Angeles. Most of them are omafiets (granny bikes), upright black clunkers that look like they came off the same assembly line sixty years ago, and the locals ride them fast and without much patience for anyone in the way.

The multi-storey bike flat that used to stand outside Centraal Station is gone. It closed in January 2023 and was torn down over the winter of 2025-26. Its replacements are underground: a garage beneath Stationsplein for about 7,000 bikes and a second one built under the water of the IJ behind the station for about 4,000, both opened in early 2023. The underwater one is worth a look even if you never park a bike in it.

Renting a bike is easy and not too expensive, but it's not as much fun as you'd think in the center. The bike lanes are packed with commuters moving at commuting speed, so a group of tourists wobbling along at vacation speed clogs things up and annoys people. Finding a legal spot to lock up is harder than you'd expect too. Rent a bike for a day and ride out along the Amstel or to a windmill, then walk and use trams the rest of the time. If you're staying for months, buying a used bike makes more sense.

The center is almost free of cars

When you walk out of Centraal Station you'll see taxis and a busy road, so this is easy to miss at first. Get past that one area and away from Damrak, the main street down to Dam Square, and you'll barely see a car. Parking is expensive and hard to find, so few people bother driving.

What you get instead is a calm that only Venice really matches, broken up by bike bells and the loud digital chime of trams telling you you're about to get flattened. You learn fast. Trams do most of the work, with buses, a metro and free ferries across the IJ filling in. Paying is simple now: you tap in and tap out with a contactless bank card or an OV-chipkaart, and you don't need to buy a separate ticket. Our Amsterdam public transportation guide has the details.

The old center has almost no office towers

The canal ring is 17th-century houses, shops, hotels and bars, and it might not occur to you that a major European capital should also be full of glass towers. Amsterdam put those elsewhere, mostly in business districts on the edge of town like the Zuidas, next to Station Zuid.

The result is a center that still feels like a place where people live, and a lot of the bikes you see in the morning belong to residents riding to a station and taking the train one stop out to work.

Coffeeshops are tolerated, not legal, and the smoking rules are stricter than you think

Amsterdam has roughly 165 coffeeshops, down from about 350 in 1999, according to city figures reported by The Border. Selling cannabis is still technically an offense in the Netherlands. The government simply doesn't prosecute coffeeshops that stick to the rules: no sales to anyone under 18, no more than 5 grams per transaction, no hard drugs and no advertising.

A national rule from 2013 says only residents of the Netherlands may buy, but Amsterdam has never applied it. The city spent years threatening to start, and in June 2026 the new city government dropped the tourist ban again. For now, visitors can still walk in with ID and buy.

Where you smoke matters more than it used to. Tobacco can't be smoked indoors in any bar or coffeeshop, and designated smoking rooms have been banned in all sectors since 1 January 2022. So the odd situation from the 2008 smoking ban is now even odder: inside a coffeeshop you can smoke a pure cannabis joint, but mix in tobacco and the shop gets in trouble. Outdoors, smoking cannabis in the Red Light District, on Dam Square, Damrak and Nieuwmarkt has carried a 100 euro fine since 25 May 2023. Our coffeeshops FAQ goes deeper.

Walk through the Red Light District once, and leave the windows alone

Prostitution is legal and regulated in the Netherlands, and De Wallen, the Red Light District, is also the oldest and one of the prettiest parts of the city. During the day it's mostly canal houses, the Oude Kerk, locals going about their business and a fair number of sex shops. Go and look.

The city has spent the last few years trying to calm the area down, so the rules are different from what older guides describe:

• Guided tours past the windows have been banned since 1 April 2020, and walking tour groups elsewhere in the center are capped at 15 people.
• Photographing the women in the windows is a fast way to get shouted at, or worse. Don't.
• On Friday and Saturday nights, bars in the core of the district close at 2am and stop letting people in at 1am, a rule now extended to April 2027. The earlier 3am closing for the windows was reversed in February 2024.
• In 2023 the city ran a "Stay Away" ad campaign aimed at young British men searching for stag parties. The message was clear: drunk and disorderly behavior gets fined.

The locals drink beer in small glasses

Not a big deal, but you'll notice it. Order a biertje in a local bar and you'll usually get a small glass of lager, often a 25cl vaasje or an even skinnier fluitje, topped with a thick head of foam. The Dutch logic is that a small beer stays cold and fresh, and you just order another.

Bars that see lots of tourists will pour you a pint if you ask. Bars that don't may only have the small glasses, which is a decent sign you've found a local place. If blending in matters to you, the glass is the giveaway. If it doesn't, order the big one.

You can start in English without asking

In much of Europe it's polite to ask whether someone speaks English before you launch in. In Amsterdam you needn't bother. Staff in bars, shops, hotels and coffeeshops will switch to English the moment they hear an accent, and asking "Do you speak English?" can come across as faintly insulting, as if you doubted it.

That makes the city about as easy as Europe gets for English speakers. A few words of Dutch still go down well, so learn a handful from our Dutch phrases page, and check our note on tipping and service before your first dinner.

Try the fries with mayonnaise at least once

Amsterdam's most famous street food is a paper cone of thick-cut fries, Vlaamse frites, with a big dollop of mayonnaise on top. Places that serve almost nothing else sell them all over the center, and our best fries in Amsterdam page names names. Skip the chains and skip FEBO for this one, though the FEBO wall of hot snacks is its own experience at 2am.

The good places fry twice: once at a lower temperature to cook the inside, then again right before serving to crisp the outside. Dutch fry mayo is richer and sweeter than what you're used to. Ketchup, curry sauce, peanut sauce and patatje oorlog ("war fries," mayo plus peanut sauce plus raw onion) are the alternatives. Try the mayo first. More on the fries-and-mayo habit here.

Make your splurge dinner an Indonesian rijsttafel

Amsterdam's food scene is far better than its reputation from twenty years ago, but the one meal that still feels specific to this city is rijsttafel, Dutch for "rice table." It's a legacy of the Dutch colonial era in Indonesia: a bowl of rice with anywhere from 8 to 20 small dishes of meat, vegetables, sambals and sauces, all arriving at once on warmers that cover the table.

It isn't cheap and it's a lot of food, so go hungry and book ahead at a proper Indonesian restaurant. Some places do a smaller version for light eaters. For the rest of your meals, our what to eat in Amsterdam page is a good start.

Some of the best sights are just outside the city

You can walk across the center in about 40 minutes, and it's packed with museums, bars and shops, so a week goes quickly. If you have more than two or three days, look at a few day trips.

The Muiderslot, a compact 13th-century castle at the mouth of the Vecht in Muiden, is the easy one if you've never been inside a real European castle. The Aalsmeer flower auction at Royal FloraHolland is the early-morning one: the visitor gallery above the trading floor is open weekday mornings from 7am (Thursdays only until 9am), and bus 357 from Amsterdam stops at the main entrance in about 45 minutes. Get there between 7 and 8 to see the most action.

The free walking tour is still worth it, minus the windows

The tip-based "free" walking tour started in Berlin and spread all over Europe. In Amsterdam, SANDEMANs tours leave from the National Monument on Dam Square and run about two hours, covering the canals, the Jewish Quarter and the Dutch East India Company story. It's a good way to spend your first morning.

The one big change: since 2020 no guided tour may take you past the red-lit windows, so the old route that walked big groups through the heart of the Red Light District is history. You'll hear the stories from the edges. Guides work for tips, so pay what the tour was worth to you. More on free walking tours in Amsterdam.

Take a one-hour canal cruise on your first day

It sounds corny, but a basic canal cruise is the best orientation you can get. Several companies run near-identical loops from Centraal Station, Damrak, the Rijksmuseum and Leidseplein, most with recorded commentary. Skip the dinner and theme cruises the first time and do the plain hour.

Don't expect the 7 euro fares of years past. A standard cruise now costs in the mid-20s: Blue Boat, for example, lists its 75-minute City Canal Cruise at €26 for adults (as of 2026). Open boats with a live guide cost more and are worth it on a sunny day. More in our canal cruise guide.

If you're planning a busy few days, the full version of the I amsterdam City Card bundles a canal cruise, GVB public transport and free entry to dozens of museums, including the Rijksmuseum. Resellers list the 24-hour card at €65 (as of 2026). Run the numbers against what you'll really visit before you buy.

FAQ

Is weed legal in Amsterdam?

No. It's tolerated. Coffeeshops can sell up to 5 grams per transaction to adults 18 and over without being prosecuted, and tourists can still buy in Amsterdam as of 2026. Smoking it in the street in the Red Light District and around Dam Square can get you a 100 euro fine.

Can I still visit the Red Light District?

Yes, on your own. Guided tours past the windows are banned, photos of the sex workers are off-limits, and bars there close early on weekend nights. Daytime is the best time to see the architecture.

How much is the tourist tax?

Amsterdam adds 12.5% of the room price (excluding VAT) to hotel, hostel, rental and campsite bills in 2026. The city plans to raise it to 16% in 2027, so check whether the price you're quoted includes it.

Photo credits: Small glasses by Studenna on Flickr