Scooby96

Personal recommendations / warnings only please?

Looking for a wicked 'coffee' shop

Good strip clubs (already going to the Banana Club)

Good but not too expensive restuarants?

Leaving Thursday morning!

Luke

*** Uncalled for comment removed***

[Edited by Redkop - 1/5/2004 1:55:18 PM]

Scooby96

Not going to **** anything other than my bird

Luke

Now thats Class for you...............

ProperCharlie

went to a couple of strip bars but i was too drunk to remember what they were called. seemed fairly tame, but i suppose i was comparing to bangkok standards...

davyboy

The banana bar is not a place I would take my GF, however I would take her to the slightly less harcore Moulin Rouge. Stay away from the sex club with the Pink Elephant on - they will promise you 4 free drinks....you will be lucky to get 1!

Coffee shops are plentiful, however being able to drink beer in them is rarer. I always end up at the pool place on Rembrantsplein.........drinking beer, smoking and trying to play pool can be interesting.

My fave place is Leidisplein - buy gear in the bulldog and then go to the rock bar with the big tounge on the facade (like the rolling stones) and get stoned and drink beer watching out over the big square.

The tiger bar in the red light distric is cool.

There are some fantastic steak houses in Amsterdam, you can't miss them.

Scooby96

Thanks - we both cant wait

She suggested the banana bar but if you think its pure and utter filth then we're definitely going!

class_A

Don't take photographs of the "window girls" as they will chase you down the street!

Avoid walking into closed plate glass doors when the adjacent one is open.

A bit old but...
Guardian Travel review of Amsterdam Coffeeshops, April 2002

ProperCharlie

yeah, that was one of them. they kept on telling us we had to leave, in spite of only having been there about 10 minutes. in the end they gave up on us, and we stayed until we got bored. everyone lese was rushing in and out as though they were at piccadilliy circus.

iDLe*

Looking for a wicked 'coffee' shop

Must buy some weed from the Grey Area on Singel, its a tiny shop but well worth finding as the Double Bubble Gum is the bomb. Get some herbs here and chill elsewhere. My fav chill spot would be one of the Greenhouse Coffee shops. They have a few but the one near the centre right on the canal is cool, the buds are good too but the beers are awesome. Try some Duvell/Leffe or a West Malley, all pretty cheap too! Anything you want to try especially smoke wise? Good weed? Bubble Hash/Isolator, powder or crystals, good hash?

Forget about the Grasshopper and Bulldog type larger coffee shops, full of tourists paying thru the nose for ****e bud!

Check out the Red Light, hang out there for a while and roll a joint in one of the smaller local looking bars that you'll come accross, you can spend hours just people watching.

I know the Supper Club is a the must see restuarant, looks pretty cool so be sure to check out their site to see if you can get a table.

Banana bar is cool too - I found it was more fun than sexual tho, kind of place you'll have a proper laugh. Be sure to get your postcard signed







[Edited by iDLe* - 1/5/2004 10:58:38 AM]

NACRO

Grey Area is one of the best but very hard to find a place to relax as it is so small.

Other good coffee shops include the Damprkring, Homegrown Fantasy and if you can be bothered to make the trip ***** Wortels in Haarlem (20min train ride away from Centraal Station)

The banana bar is good but seedy- if your nearest and dearest is squeemish then don't go as there are very few women customers in there.

Any other info you want then ask away- I lived there for a while.

Mickle

Don't get drunk/stoned at night and walk down any side streets without lots of other people on, my mate got mugged down one.

Scooby96

"squeemish"

???

We're staying at the Crown Plaza (The American) which I'm led to believe is pretty central?

MartinM

Leidisplein - Boom Chicago

http://www.boomchicago.nl/

Good pre-show food, really funny (and clean!) show (sketches/improv etc) and about €45 each all in IIRC

We had a fantastic night - on our experience, can't recommend it enough

Andy Tang

iTrader: (3)

Personal Favourite Coffeeshops:

Dutch Flowers
Abraxis
Grasshopper
Barney's Breakfast Bar (The full Irish breakfast is good!)

For a stag do we went to:

Casa Rosso (big marble **** fountain outside) - a bit crap!
Banana Bar - Better than the Casa Rosso

Food:

Some of the steak places on the Damrack (sp?) is very expensive and the price on the menu is only for the steak alone.

Andy Tang

iTrader: (3)

Advice:

When you get ask in the street (normally in the Red Light District) if you are interested in "business?", just say "no thank you"

Be polite and they will leave you alone, if you are rude, you may risk being attacked. No worth the grief when it can be avoided with a simple no thank you!

Daz34

Why not!? I did & I even ended up on stage as well

My favourite coffee shops are Stones Cafe (the arabic type one) & the Greenhouse in the Red light District (fab inside & celebs use it). Both serve alcohol as well, but remember that lots do not.
When you buy your gear there, remember not to go mad as you can't bring it back with you

Darren

King RA

NACRO,

Glad to see somebody else did their homework. I can also recommend the Dampkring. When I went I printed out the hightimes guide to Amsterdams coffee shops and tried to do the top 10.

I can recommend:

DampKring
Greenhouse
Grasshopper

......plenty more but I cannot remember... :S:S

Scooby96

Gf doesnt want to get coerced (sp?) into going on stage - are there places that will 'drag' you up so to speak?

Scooby96

Taken from:

http://www.amsterdamhotspots.nl/redlights.html

De Bananenbar
Oudezijds Achterburgwal 37 (622 46 70).
The owners of the Casa Rosso bring you another famous institution, De Bananenbar. Active audience participation is encouraged as bananas are transformed into erotic devices by the hostesses. Popular with tourists and stag parties. There's a semi-negotiable cover charge, but once you're in the drinks are on the house.

Semi-negotiable - what they mean is they'll charge as much as they can get away with.

Anyone negotiated a price?

Daz34

No they won't drag you up.
I was a bit wasted, & totally out of character suggested to my mates that we go up as they were asking for volunteers.
They thought it was a great idea so I jumped on stage but all my mates had disappeared into the shadows
What happened next will remain between me, my mates, & my girlfriend & the rest of the audience!, and maybe one day I will tell my kids (if I have any) when they think I am a boring b@stard

Luke

Remember in HK some of the Aussie hookers used to open the beer bottles with their fannies........ I drank out of cans!!!

Geddon

You got to try Isolator @25 euros a gram. Blew mine and everyone elses head off I was with
I would avoid the big shiny tourist coffee shops and go and find the smaller ones away from the station.
Try and find the cannabis museum as well and have a go on their bong type thing- can't remember what its called.

rotty

AFAIK banana bar is a fixed price of 50 euro for an hour , not that I've ever been of course

NACRO

quote: "Try and find the cannabis museum as well and have a go on their bong type thing- can't remember what its called"

It's a vaporiser and the guy that works it is called Eagle Bill- why I don't know, perhaps it has something to do with the amount of THC he consumes daily.

Suresh

Amsterdam - places to avoid / must go to?


Avoid the whole bloody place! Total sh1thole full of dodgy North Africans, ****** and drug crazed foreign tourists.

astraboy

Another vote for Abraxis, I remember posting on here from the net connection they got in there. Dont matter if you aint a Stoner, just go and have a milkshake (NOT a spaceshake) and soak up the atmosphere.
Also tried Barney's Breakfast bar and it was well worth a visit. Little expensive, but well worth it for the food you got.
astraboy.

Kevin Groat

Crown Plaza is very handy for most areas - station, harbour, redlight, decent shops and chinatown. Stayed there in July last year in the Honeymoon suite - very plush. As for places to eat, there's a place across from the hotel called the 'Soup Kitchen', yep, it sells soup, but you'll not find any better anywhere. There was another place just down the road from the hotel called something like Humphreys - excellent food and good value. Done the banana bar before and like said before, pretty tame by Bangkok standards and expensive. We didn't bother paying the extra for the special show, we thought the entrance fee was steep enough albeit with free half pints for the 45mins before you're asked to leave.

Kevin.