Budget Guide
Amsterdam
Budget Bar Night
in Amsterdam
By Sofia Reeves
·
March 19, 2026
·
7 min read
Amsterdam is the most naturally democratic drinking city in Northern Europe. The brown cafe format, which accounts for perhaps 600 of the city's bars, was built around the premise that a good pint should cost the same as a cup of coffee and taste better. That principle still mostly holds. A Heineken draft in a Jordaan brown cafe runs €3.80 to €4.50. The same beer at an Airbnb-adjacent cocktail bar on the tourist strip runs €8.50.
This guide covers 5 bars across the Jordaan, De Pijp, and the Oost neighbourhood, designed around a budget of €25 for one drink per stop. Our editor Sofia Reeves ran the route on a Tuesday and a Friday evening in March and confirmed every price point. The route is entirely walkable, or connects on the 3-minute tram hops that Amsterdam does better than any city its size.
"Amsterdam invented the brown cafe so that ordinary people could have somewhere extraordinary to sit. The best ones are still extraordinary. And they still cost almost nothing."
The Budget: €25 for 5 Bars
Bar 1: Cafe Pieper (Jordaan)€4.00 — €5.50
Bar 2: In de Wildeman (Centrum)€4.50 — €6.50
Bar 3: Cafe de Pels (Jordaan)€4.00 — €5.00
Bar 4: Brouwerij Troost (De Pijp)€4.50 — €6.00
Bar 5: Bar Noord (Amsterdam Noord)€4.50 — €5.50
Total (1 drink per bar)€21 — €28
Bar 1: Cafe Pieper — The Jordaan Classic
Cafe Pieper
Prinsengracht, Jordaan
$
Opens 1pm
Built in 1665 and serving Amsterdammers since 1879, Cafe Pieper is the most beautiful brown cafe in the Jordaan. The interior is entirely original: dark timber, sand floors, and a bar that was installed before electricity reached this part of the city. Draft Heineken is €4. Jenever is €3.50. The canal view through the front window is the same view as 140 years ago. Arrive on a weekday afternoon when the regulars have their corner seats and the tourists have not yet arrived.
Bar 2: In de Wildeman — The Craft Beer Institution
In de Wildeman
Centrum, near Nieuwezijds
$
Opens 12pm
Amsterdam's oldest dedicated craft beer bar, opened in 1986 in a former distillery warehouse. The ceiling is vaulted and the room is darker than it appears on the building's original plans, in the best possible way. 18 taps of rotating Belgian and Dutch craft beers, plus a bottle list of 250 options. A 25cl glass of something interesting runs €4 to €5. The bartenders have been here long enough to have opinions. Ask them what is new and good on the tap list. One of the undisputed
best craft beer bars in Amsterdam.
Bar 3: Cafe de Pels — The Neighbourhood Anchor
Cafe de Pels
Huidenstraat, Jordaan
$
Opens 3pm
A small brown cafe on one of the Jordaan's quieter cross-streets, serving the students and artists who can still afford to live in this neighbourhood (barely) and the older Amsterdammers who have been coming since before it became expensive. The beer is draft Amstel and Grolsch at €4.20. The jenever is €3. The conversation is audible. The regulars do not perform for visitors. One of the
best hidden gem bars in Amsterdam for the people who prefer atmosphere to Instagram value.
Bar 4: Brouwerij Troost — De Pijp
Brouwerij Troost
Cornelis Troostplein, De Pijp
$
Opens 12pm daily
A brewery and taproom occupying a former church in De Pijp, serving its own beers at brewery prices. The high-ceilinged main hall has 200 seats and rarely feels full. The Saison is the best thing on the menu. The Stout is the second-best. Both are €4.50 for a 33cl glass. The food menu runs to proper Dutch snacks (bitterballen, ossenworst) at €3 to €6. One of the most interesting spaces in the neighbourhood and one of the most affordable evenings in De Pijp.
Bar 5: Bar Noord — Cross the IJ
Bar Noord
Amsterdam Noord (free ferry)
$
Opens 4pm weekdays, 12pm weekends
Taking the free ferry across the IJ to Amsterdam Noord adds 8 minutes to the journey and roughly 30% off the price of every drink. Bar Noord is a large industrial bar that prices for the neighbourhood it is in, which is still working-class and proud of it. Draft beers run €4 to €5. The DJ nights on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday cost nothing to attend before midnight. The creative industries have arrived in Noord, but the prices have not followed them yet.
The Route: Connecting the 5 Bars
Start at Cafe Pieper on the Prinsengracht in the early evening. In de Wildeman is a 15-minute walk east toward Centrum. Cafe de Pels is back in the Jordaan, an 18-minute walk from In de Wildeman, or take tram 2 or 12 back west. Brouwerij Troost is in De Pijp, 25 minutes south on foot from the Jordaan or 12 minutes on tram 3. Bar Noord requires the free ferry from Amsterdam Centraal, which runs every 5 to 8 minutes and is free.
For the full Amsterdam bar scene overview, including neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood recommendations at all price points, our city guide covers 7 distinct bar areas. The best cheap bars in Amsterdam guide covers 20 options across all neighbourhoods. The Jordaan bar-hopping guide covers the same geography in more depth. If this budget approach works for you, the same formula translates well to other European cities — our guides to a budget bar night in Berlin and a budget bar night in Prague follow the same route-planning method.
Sofia Reeves
Senior European Editor
Sofia covers Europe's bar scene from a base in London, with quarterly reporting trips to Amsterdam, Berlin, Paris, and the Iberian Peninsula. She has been writing about bars for 11 years and insists that the best bar in any city is never the one that won an award last year.
