48 Hours of Drinking in Amsterdam

A Bar draws a steady local crowd in Centrum. Booking is recommended on weekends. Walk-ins are usually possible early in the evening. Drop bags. Find a hotel-adjacent bar within a five-minute walk. Order something simple to anchor yourself to the city.

Floor 17 draws a steady local crowd in Westpoort. Booking is recommended on weekends. Walk-ins are usually possible early in the evening. The polished room you'd take a first date to. Sit at the bar. Talk to the bartender. Stay one drink — you're scouting, not committing.

Coco's Outback draws a steady local crowd in Centrum. Booking is recommended on weekends. Walk-ins are usually possible early in the evening. Walk into the city's drinking quarter (the heart of the night, not the tourist version). Two drinks, two rooms. Pace yourself — Saturday is the long day.

Arendsnest draws a steady local crowd in Centrum. Booking is recommended on weekends. Walk-ins are usually possible early in the evening. Sunset. Find a rooftop. Order whatever the house specials around sundown. Take photos but don't lose 90 minutes to your phone.

You come here for a cold Heineken or a house jenever, not a cocktail with a story. The room fills up early on Fridays, but there is always space at the bar for Eat somewhere with serious bartending built in. The right room is one you order both your dinner and your nightcap from.

Bar Oldenhof is a small Jordaan cocktail and whisky bar that takes both seriously. The room is intentional — leather banquettes, dim lighting, around 30 seats — The bar that made you book the trip. The pre-research one. Reservation-only ideally. Stay until last call.

Bar Roti draws a steady local crowd in Oud-West. Booking is recommended on weekends. Walk-ins are usually possible early in the evening. Mary, Mimosa, or whatever low-ABV house play the room runs. Eat. Pay. Walk.

Bo Cinq draws a steady local crowd in De Pijp. Booking is recommended on weekends. Walk-ins are usually possible early in the evening. Find the hotel bar at your departure airport equivalent — somewhere quiet, low-volume, well-staffed. End the trip on a martini and a clean conversation.