Amsterdam is a city built for drinking outdoors. Half the good terraces have water on at least one side, there is a bar on most corners, and nobody will hurry you along if you spend three hours over one beer. The list below is not a ranking of the biggest or the busiest places. These are the bars we actually send our guests to, picked for a view, a terrace, a bit of history, or simply a room that could not be anywhere else in Europe.
We rechecked every address, website and opening day in August 2026, and a few things had changed since the last time we looked. Two of these bars have new names, and one of them closed for three months and came back.
One thing to get straight first: a coffeeshop is not a place to get a coffee. In Amsterdam a coffeeshop sells cannabis. Most will pour you something to drink, but nobody goes there for the espresso, and ordering a flat white will mark you out immediately. If you want proper coffee, look for a café, a koffiehuis or a bruin café. If you want a beer, everything below is the real thing.
It sits underneath a multi-storey car park, which sounds unpromising until you get there. Waterkant is a long wooden deck straight on the water of the Singelgracht, with Surinamese food, a young crowd and one of the best sunset spots anywhere near the centre. You can moor a boat alongside and step off onto the terrace. It fills up within minutes of the first warm evening of the year, so come early or come on a weekday.
Marnixstraat 246, 1016 TL Amsterdam
waterkantamsterdam.nl · View on Google Maps
A gloriously ramshackle wooden bar and restaurant on the water behind Centraal Station, and probably the address we hand out most often. In summer there are swings hanging from the trees on the terrace and a rooftop deck that runs until the end of September. In winter everyone crowds inside around the fireplace. The nachos are still the best in town, and that is not a low bar in a city this fond of sharing plates.
Hannekes Boom by APK, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Dijksgracht 4, 1019 BS Amsterdam
hannekesboom.nl · View on Google Maps
The rooftop bar on the eleventh floor of the DoubleTree by Hilton, which almost everyone in Amsterdam still calls SkyLounge. It was rebranded as LuminAir in 2023, but the reason to go up has not changed: a nearly 360 degree view over the city, from the IJ behind you to the airport in the distance on a clear day. The drinks are not cheap and the terrace is busy. The view earns it. Doors open at midday from Thursday to Sunday, and at 17:00 earlier in the week.
Oosterdoksstraat 4, 1011 DK Amsterdam
luminairamsterdam.com · View on Google Maps
A former greenhouse on the old NDSM shipyard, and one of the lightest, scruffiest and friendliest rooms in Amsterdam Noord. It has had a hard couple of years: the café went bankrupt in December 2025 and stayed shut for nearly three months, before restarting independently in March 2026 as Noorderlicht NDSM with most of the old team back and a fuller programme of live music, spoken word and theatre. Worth knowing before you take the ferry across the IJ, because it is now closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.
Noorderlicht Cafe Interior, NDSM Wharf by Stephen Kelly Photography, licensed under CC BY 2.0, via Flickr
NDSM-Plein 102, 1033 WB Amsterdam
noorderlichtndsm.nl · View on Google Maps
A few minutes further along the same waterfront, built out of stacked shipping containers with a man-made beach in front of it. You can sit barefoot in the sand and look straight across the water at the city skyline, which is a better view of Amsterdam than most people ever get. Sunday afternoons here are a local institution. Pllek operates on a temporary permit while the wharf around it is redeveloped, so its long term future is not settled, but there is no sign of it going anywhere soon.
Stadsstrand Pllek by Marion Golsteijn, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
T.T. Neveritaweg 59, 1033 WB Amsterdam
pllek.nl · View on Google Maps
A crooked seventeenth century corner café where the Prinsengracht meets the Brouwersgracht, and about as close to the platonic Amsterdam brown bar as you will find. The story goes that during the Reformation, Catholics used a tunnel from the cellar to reach a clandestine church on the other side of the water. Whether or not you believe it, the leaded windows, the sagging floor and the tiled bar are all genuine. Order the apple pie alongside your beer. Nobody here will think that is odd.
Prinsengracht 2, 1015 DV Amsterdam
papeneiland.nl · View on Google Maps
One of only two wooden houses left standing in Amsterdam, built around 1550, and a sailors’ bar for most of the centuries since. The name means “in the monkeys”, after the story of sailors who came home from the East Indies without wages and settled their bar bills with monkeys they had brought back. Ask about it, because the version you get depends on who is pouring. Low ceilings, red lamps, no website and no need for one.
Zeedijk 1, 1012 AN Amsterdam
View on Google Maps
A big, light grand café on the Amstel with a two-tier waterside terrace, and one of very few genuinely pleasant places to sit in this stretch of the centre. Service can be brisk to the point of indifference, but the room is handsome, the reading table still carries international newspapers, and it comfortably beats anything within five minutes’ walk towards the old town.
Dejaren-int-2019 by Paul2, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Nieuwe Doelenstraat 20-22, 1012 CP Amsterdam
cafedejaren.nl · View on Google Maps
Famous for exactly one thing, and rightly so. The apple pie arrives in a slab that defeats most people, under a tower of whipped cream, and it is served until one in the morning. Winkel opens at seven on Monday and Saturday mornings to catch the traders setting up the Noordermarkt, which makes it one of the few places in the Jordaan where you can have pie for breakfast without anyone raising an eyebrow. There is a proper bar attached, but you are not here for the beer.
Dutch appeltaart, the style Winkel 43 is famous for. Stuk appeltaart by VanuitVoorburg, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Noordermarkt 43, 1015 NA Amsterdam
winkel43.nl · View on Google Maps
Still our favourite place in Amsterdam for a drink, and we are not remotely alone in that. It began life in 1786 as a jenever distillery tasting room, and the interior has the worn brass and dark wood to prove it. Tables sit right at the edge of the Egelantiersgracht, which is roughly what people are imagining when they picture drinking in Amsterdam. One change worth noting: it now opens at 14:00 on weekdays and 13:00 at weekends, so it is no longer somewhere to start the morning.
Cafe ‘t Smalle by leighklotz, licensed under CC BY 2.0, via Flickr
Egelantiersgracht 12, 1015 RL Amsterdam
t-smalle.nl · View on Google Maps
Built from red shipping containers beside Sloterdijk station, fitted out in reclaimed wood, and supplied in part by its own kitchen garden across the road. It is a good stop if you are out in Amsterdam West and want something that is not another canal-side terrace. Check the calendar before you go, though: Bret is closed on Mondays, serves food and beer from midday Tuesday to Friday, and turns into a ticketed club at weekends rather than a place for a quiet pint.
Sloterdijk station omgeving 2019 by Smiley.toerist, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Orlyplein 76, 1043 DP Amsterdam
bret.bar · View on Google Maps
If you would rather have someone else do the navigating, our Brews and T’Ales private craft beer tour takes you inside some of the city’s best local breweries and tasting rooms, with expert-led tastings, the stories behind them, and a guide who knows exactly where to find the best pint in Amsterdam.
For a classic brown cafe, Cafe ‘t Smalle on the Egelantiersgracht and Cafe Papeneiland on the Prinsengracht are the two we recommend most. For drinking on the water, Waterkant on the Marnixstraat and Hanneke’s Boom near the Dijksgracht are hard to beat on a summer evening. For a view over the whole city, LuminAir on the eleventh floor of the DoubleTree by Hilton, which locals still call SkyLounge. And for something completely different, take the free ferry to the NDSM wharf for Pllek and Noorderlicht NDSM.
A bruine kroeg, or brown cafe, is a traditional Dutch pub named for its tobacco-stained walls and warm, intimate atmosphere. They typically serve Dutch beers, jenever (Dutch gin) and simple snacks. Brown cafes are a cornerstone of Amsterdam’s social culture, found throughout the Jordaan and the canal belt, and they are far more authentic than the tourist bars around Dam Square. Cafe Papeneiland, Cafe ‘t Smalle and In ‘t Aepjen are three of the best examples in this list.
Not really, and that is the point. In the Netherlands a coffeeshop is a licensed outlet for cannabis, not a cafe. Most will sell you a drink of some kind, but coffee is not what anyone is there for and the quality reflects that. For an actual coffee, look for a cafe, a koffiehuis or a bruin cafe. The word you want on the window is cafe, not coffeeshop.
The Jordaan has the best selection of authentic local bars and brown cafes, with an intimate neighbourhood feel; Cafe ‘t Smalle, Winkel 43 and Cafe Papeneiland are all within a few minutes of each other there. Leidseplein and Rembrandtplein are livelier and more international, mixing bars, clubs and entertainment venues. For waterside drinking, head for the Marnixstraat and Dijksgracht areas, or cross the IJ to the NDSM wharf in Amsterdam Noord.
Waterkant on the Marnixstraat is one of the best waterside bars in the city, with a large terrace where you can also moor a boat. Hanneke’s Boom near the Dijksgracht is surrounded by water and famous for its relaxed atmosphere. Across the IJ, Pllek on the NDSM wharf has a sandy beach facing the skyline. In the Jordaan, Cafe ‘t Smalle puts its tables right on the edge of the Egelantiersgracht.
Heineken is the famous name, though it stopped brewing in the city in 1988. The beer to look for now is Brouwerij ‘t IJ, brewed in Amsterdam Oost and poured in its taproom on the Funenkade, right next to the De Gooyer windmill. The taproom is the building beside the mill, not inside it, and the windmill itself is a private house. The brewery is being rebuilt through 2026, with some production moved temporarily to sister breweries, but the taproom is still pouring.
Amsterdam’s terrace season is at its best from late May through August. Waterkant on the Marnixstraat is one of the city’s most popular summer spots, a large waterside decking that fills quickly on sunny evenings, so arrive early or come on a weekday. Hanneke’s Boom near the Dijksgracht is another favourite, with a sprawling terrace surrounded by water and a rooftop deck that runs until the end of September. Both draw a mix of locals and visitors, and both are ideal for watching the sun go down over the water with a cold local beer.
