Jordaan

Amsterdam’s most liveable neighbourhood, and its most charming

The Jordaan has been many things: a 17th-century working-class district built for artisans and immigrants just outside the original city walls, a slum that reformers in the 19th century tried unsuccessfully to demolish, a hotbed of countercultural protest in the 1960s and 1970s, and since the 1990s one of the most expensive addresses in the Netherlands. What it has never become, despite all of that transformation, is bland. The Jordaan is still a place where you can live on a street of canal houses, buy your vegetables from a Saturday market, and drink jenever in a brown café that has barely changed since 1900.

Walking the Jordaan is the best way to understand why Amsterdam regularly tops European city-break rankings. The scale is human — the streets are narrow, the canals are short and intimate, the bridges are decorated with flower boxes — and the neighbourhood rewards slow exploration. Bring a morning, bring comfortable shoes, and resist the temptation to photograph everything before you’ve actually looked at it.

The grid of side canals

The Jordaan’s main canals — the Bloemgracht, Egelantiersgracht and Looiersgracht — are smaller and more intimate than the main canal ring that borders the neighbourhood to the east. The Bloemgracht, just north of the Rozengracht, is sometimes called the “canal within a canal ring” for the quality of its 17th-century warehouses and the width of its reflection pools. It was here that the film director Joep Bertrams chose to shoot scenes of his Amsterdam-set films, and on a still morning with no boats passing, you can understand why.

The Egelantiersgracht is the Jordaan’s most photographed side canal. The stretch between the Prinsengracht and the Lijnbaansgracht is lined with original 17th-century façades and has three particularly beautiful bridges in the space of four hundred metres. Café ‘t Smalle at Egelantiersgracht 12 — a brown café in a 1786 jenever distillery with its original wooden bar intact — opens its canal-side terrace steps on warm afternoons and is one of the finest places in Amsterdam to sit with a beer and watch the world pass by. A half pint of draft beer (vaasje) runs €3.50-4.

The Noordermarkt and Saturday culture

The Noordermarkt square, north of the neighbourhood around the Noorderkerk church, hosts two separate markets. On Mondays there is an antique and flea market (Boerenmarkt); on Saturdays the square becomes simultaneously an organic farmers’ market (Boerenmarkt, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.) and a second-hand clothing and books bazaar. The Saturday market is a genuine local institution — Amsterdam residents actually shop here rather than just photographing it. Expect seasonal vegetables, artisan cheeses, Dutch stroopwafels made to order, sourdough from small bakeries, and good coffee from mobile espresso carts.

The Westerkerk bell tower (the Westertoren) is visible from most of the Jordaan and serves as a useful navigation point. The church itself is free to enter on weekdays and has a modest interior. The tower can be climbed (guided tours, around €10-12) for one of the best views over the canal ring and Jordaan, though the Anne Frank House queue runs along the Prinsengracht directly below and gives you an honest sense of how long waits can get in summer.

Food and drink in the Jordaan

The Jordaan has more good independent restaurants per square metre than almost anywhere else in Amsterdam. A few anchors:

Café de Reiger on the Nieuwe Leliestraat is the definitive Jordaan brown café with food — a traditional Dutch stamkroeg that still serves a daily lunch menu of stamppot, bitterballen and Indonesian-influenced dishes. Popular enough to fill up by 12:30 p.m. on weekdays.

Toscanini on the Lindengracht has been Amsterdam’s best Italian restaurant for over thirty years. Genuinely Italian-staffed, with handmade pasta and a wine list that takes Sardinia and Sicily seriously. Book ahead; mains around €22-30.

Moeders (“Mothers”) on the Rozengracht is deliberately kitschy — the walls are covered with donated photos of local women’s mothers — but the Dutch home cooking is excellent and the portions generous. A plate of stamppot with rookworst runs around €18.

For the Jordaan food tour with a local guide covering the market, brown cafés and traditional Dutch snacks, see the relevant guide. A Jordaan food tour covering 10+ local classic tastings is a compact and delicious way to eat your way through the neighbourhood without advance restaurant research.

The Jordaan’s gallery scene and independent shops

Elandsgracht and Hazenstraat are two streets that intersect the Jordaan from the south and east and have become a corridor of independent galleries and design shops over the past fifteen years. The galleries tend to show Dutch painters and printmakers with a mid-career profile — not the €50,000-minimum galleries of Spiegelstraat, but reachable original art by working artists.

The Nine Streets (De Negen Straatjes), technically overlapping between the Jordaan and the canal ring, offer the best shopping in the city for vintage clothing, specialist records, Dutch design objects and craft. The Jordaan end of the Nine Streets (roughly the Wolvenstraat and Berenstraat area) has marginally less foot traffic than the Spiegelstraat end and slightly better prices.

Getting around with a guide

A Jordaan neighbourhood walking tour with a local guide covers the side canals, the Noordermarkt, the brown café history and the neighbourhood’s transformation from working class to wealthy in a single two-hour walk. Guides typically include stops at Café ‘t Smalle and a tasting of traditional Dutch jenever. This kind of context — the why behind the architecture — makes the difference between walking past beautiful facades and actually understanding what you’re looking at.

For those who prefer combining food with sightseeing, the Amsterdam food tour by Spui, canals and Jordaan combines the canal ring and the Jordaan into a single tasting-driven walk. Read the food tours guide for a comparison of operators and routes.

Connecting to other parts of Amsterdam

The Jordaan’s eastern edge runs along the Prinsengracht, which is the outermost canal of the Canal Ring. The two neighbourhoods blend naturally, and a walking circuit that starts at the Westerkerk, loops through the Jordaan, and returns along the Prinsengracht takes about three hours at a leisurely pace.

To the south, the Jordaan runs into the Elandsgracht and then the Leidseplein, gateway to the Museum Quarter and the Vondelpark. To the north, the Brouwersgracht marks the Jordaan’s upper boundary and connects to the western docks area (Haarlemmerbuurt) and eventually to Amsterdam Noord via the IJ ferries.

For a full Amsterdam itinerary incorporating the Jordaan alongside the canal ring and the museums, see the Amsterdam 2-day itinerary.

Practical notes

The Jordaan has no large supermarkets within it — the nearest are on the Marnixstraat (Albert Heijn) and on the Rozengracht. Most shops in the neighbourhood open Tuesday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; many are closed Sunday and Monday. Brown cafés typically open at noon, some at 11 a.m. at weekends.

Cycling through the Jordaan is pleasant but the streets are narrow and have mixed pedestrian/cycle use on some stretches. If you’re renting a bike, the cycling in Amsterdam guide covers the specific etiquette and priority rules.

Frequently asked questions about the Jordaan

What is the best time to visit the Jordaan?

Saturday morning is the most vibrant time — the Noordermarkt is in full swing, the cafés are open early, and the neighbourhood is busy but not overwhelmed. However, the Jordaan is pleasant at almost any hour. Weekday mornings in September and October are especially good: fewer tourists, golden autumn light on the canal facades, and cafés that are quiet enough to actually sit and read.

Is the Jordaan expensive to eat and drink in?

It is Amsterdam, so expect Amsterdam prices. However, the Jordaan has more affordable options than the centre or the Leidseplein area. A brown café beer runs €3.50-4.50. Lunch at a traditional café (broodje, soup, daily special) is around €10-14. Dinner at a mid-range Jordaan restaurant runs €18-28 per main. The Noordermarkt Saturday market has cheap and good food stalls (stroopwafels €2-3, Dutch cheese tastings from €4).

What is jenever and where can I try it in the Jordaan?

Jenever (Dutch gin) is the predecessor of London gin and the national spirit of the Netherlands. There are two types: jonge jenever (lighter, grain-forward) and oude jenever (richer, with more malt wine and botanicals). Traditional brown cafés — particularly Café ‘t Smalle and the Proeflokaal Wynand Fockink near the Dam — serve jenever in a traditional filled-to-the-brim shot glass (tulip glass). Sip rather than shoot; the traditional way is to lean forward and sip the first taste without lifting the glass. A glass of jonge jenever runs €3.50-5.

How does the Jordaan differ from other Amsterdam neighbourhoods?

The Jordaan is specifically a residential neighbourhood with an unusually strong local identity — it was working class for most of its history and has a tradition of neighbourhood music (Jordaan schlager), local heroes and political solidarity that other Amsterdam districts lack. It differs from the canal ring in being west of it and more intimate; from De Pijp in being older, quieter and more expensive; and from Amsterdam Noord in being central and deeply historical rather than a post-industrial arts district. The best neighbourhoods guide gives a full neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood comparison.

Can you see the Anne Frank House from the Jordaan?

The Anne Frank House at Prinsengracht 263 is on the eastern edge of the Jordaan neighbourhood, right where the Prinsengracht canal runs. It is technically within the Jordaan’s boundaries. The Westerkerk, whose carillon Anne Frank could hear from her hiding place, is directly across the canal. Entry to the Anne Frank House requires advance booking months in advance in peak season — walk-up tickets are not available. See the Anne Frank House guide for the current booking process.