City focus

A Weekend Alone in Amsterdam

Amsterdam is small, direct and easy to do alone. The center can be crossed on foot in about an hour, and almost everything is walkable or two tram stops away. You can move through the city entirely in English.

Women of all ages walk alone here, eat dinner alone and spend afternoons in museums, cafés or beside the water. Service is more direct and less padded than North American or British visitors expect, so a plain answer from a waiter is information, not rudeness.

Where to base yourself

The Jordaan suits a weekend of walking. It has narrow streets, almshouse courtyards, brown cafés and a neighborhood that keeps its own hours. The hotel stock is small, mostly in old buildings, and it books out early.

The Museum Quarter is the calmer choice. It has wide, tree-lined streets, elevators and the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum and Vondelpark all on foot. Evenings are sedate, and dinner options lean closer to formal than fun.

Ask about stairs first. The seventeenth-century canal houses were built to haul goods up through the front window, and their staircases are steep, narrow and closer to a ladder than a flight. Many small hotels in them have no elevator. Ask for a back room on a lively street. It is an ordinary request, and canal-facing rooms bring boat noise, terrace noise and bicycle bells.

The shape of a good day

Book the Anne Frank House for its own early window and leave the next hour free. It stands on the Prinsengracht beside the Westerkerk, which is worth a quiet look if it is open.

Walk a few hundred meters north along the canal to 't Smalle, an eighteenth-century jenever distillery turned brown café. It has a small terrace right on the canal, and nobody bothers you there. Then walk west along Egelantiersgracht to find the Sint Andrieshofje, an almshouse courtyard behind an unmarked door. Enter quietly, keep your voice down and do not photograph the residents' windows.

For lunch, go to Winkel 43 on the Noordermarkt. It is famous for its appeltaart, and the line moves.

On the second day, take the earliest timed slot at the Rijksmuseum, go straight to the Gallery of Honour and allow two to three hours. Book ahead, and never arrive hoping to walk in. Afterward, spend an hour on a Vondelpark bench. If you want a different ending, take the free ferry from behind Centraal Station across the IJ and back at dusk.

Eating alone

The easiest way to eat alone without feeling examined is to sit where there is a counter. You are part of the room, not tucked into a corner. At Bistro de la Mer on Utrechtsestraat, the long bar is the dining room, and the dishes are finished in front of you. The Foodhallen in Oud-West has communal tables, and the herring stands are eaten standing anyway.

Go early, between six and half past seven, and restaurants are quieter and easier to walk into.

Brown cafés are built for you. Order a coffee or a beer and sit for an hour or three. Staff check on you without hurrying you along. Choose the corner table or window seat, where you can see the room without being the center of it. With a book, you are part of the scene. If someone wants to talk, they will.

The thing first-timers get wrong

They forget the bicycles. Bike lanes are separate from the car lanes and have their own traffic lights. Bikes move fast, and many riders will not slow for you. Never step into a bike lane without looking, even when it looks empty.

A few other notes:

Watch your bag in the busiest places. Pickpockets work at Centraal Station, Dam Square and Kalverstraat.

Mind the water. The canals have no guardrails, so take care near the edges after dark and in quiet parks late at night. Choose lit, populated routes. The Red Light District is heavily policed but full of drunk groups at night.

Know the tram. Tap your contactless card or phone when you board and again, with the same card, when you get off. Trams stop just after midnight, and hourly night buses take over.

Sit down in one good café, and Amsterdam comes to you.

Amsterdam Alone: the full guide

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