A night out in De Pijp

De Pijp doesn't hand you a set piece the way the centre does: no Dam Square, no Red Light District circuit. What it has instead is density. A few streets around Albert Cuypstraat and Ferdinand Bolstraat are packed with bars and brown cafes within a ten-minute walk of each other, which makes it one of the easier neighbourhoods in the city to wander rather than plan.

Start after the market stalls come down around five and the street empties out, then fills back up again after dark with a different, mostly local crowd. Locals treat De Pijp as their own living room more than tourists do, so the bars here run less polished and more lived-in than the canal belt equivalents, which is most of the appeal.

Where to drink

• Café Gollem, in Amsterdam-Zuid on the edge of De Pijp. A proper beer bar with a long, serious craft selection, the kind of place people come back to rather than just visit once.
• Bar Bukowski, named for the writer. Cocktails with a literary streak and a lively, mixed crowd that leans younger.
• Café Gijs, right by the market. De Pijp's oldest cafe, 42 beers on tap, and the kind of neighbourhood spot where a stranger becomes a regular within one visit.
• GlouGlou, a natural wine bar. Chic, locals-heavy, and a good midpoint stop if the night starts with wine before it turns into something louder.
• The Butcher, hidden behind a burger joint. A speakeasy-style cocktail bar entered through a fake meat fridge, one of the better hidden-bar tricks in the city.
• De Duvel, in the heart of the Pijp for over thirty years. Unpretentious, easy to slide into for a beer or a late dinner without much ceremony.

Later in the night, look for a nacht café, the after-hours bars that pick up once the regular cafes close, open until 3am on weeknights and 4am on weekends.

What to keep an eye out for

De Pijp doesn't run on a fixed nightlife calendar the way the centre does with its big clubs. It is a neighbourhood of small, recurring nights rather than headline events. Keep an eye on individual bars' own listings, since several run regular DJ nights or live music at weekends, and check a citywide source like I amsterdam's culture guide for anything larger happening nearby that week: De Pijp sits close enough to the Concertgebouw and the Melkweg that a big show elsewhere often spills back into the neighbourhood's bars afterwards.

How to get there

This one needs no directions worth the name. Everything above is inside a ten-minute walk of the front door: Gijs and the market are north across Sarphatipark, Ferdinand Bolstraat is five minutes west, and Van Woustraat five minutes east. Coming home late, tram 4 on Van Woustraat and metro 52 from De Pijp both run until around half past midnight, and the night buses take over after that.

The honest version of a night out in De Pijp: no route, just a beer at Gijs, a stop wherever looks interesting, and letting the neighbourhood's own pace decide when the night is over.