All About Me:
Hi, I’m Simon. I’ve been guiding for a couple of years now, after losing my previous job during the pandemic. A friend encouraged me to give guiding another try, and once I found a company that let me talk naturally, without scripts, I realised how much I enjoyed sharing real stories about Amsterdam. Guiding has turned out to be a brilliant way to combine my love of history, cycling, and good conversation.
Before guiding, I spent 13 years running coffee shops and a bar in the Red Light District, worked for an English-language newspaper here in Amsterdam, and, before moving to the Netherlands, I had a career in advertising back in the UK. These days, I mostly lead bike tours, especially out in the countryside. I love showing people the quieter side of the Netherlands, villages, wide open flatlands, old fishing towns, places most visitors never get to see. It gives people a completely different picture of Dutch life.
I’m fascinated by the Dutch Golden Age, but I’m equally interested in modern Dutch society. How it works, why it’s so open, and what it’s like to live here as someone who wasn’t born Dutch. After nearly twenty years, I know the city inside out, and living on the edge of the Red Light District has given me a unique insight into a neighbourhood that most people misunderstand. Behind the neon and the noise, it’s a real community with local families, shared gardens, and centuries of history woven into every alleyway.
You can take the following tours with me:
Amsterdam City Highlights – walking & by bike
Around the Red Lights Tour
My favourite place is the Brouwersgracht. I’ve walked that canal thousands of times, and it still feels special every single day. The warehouses, the bridges, the curve of the water: there’s a quiet, effortless beauty to it. It’s one of the few spots in the centre that still feels truly local, a place where you can slow down and just admire the city being itself. Whenever I’m there, I’m reminded why I fell in love with Amsterdam in the first place.
