Amsterdam West: the gasworks, the market and the lake
West is the part of Amsterdam that residents recommend and guidebooks forget. It begins where the Jordaan stops and runs out past a gasworks, a covered market, an old tram depot full of restaurants and, eventually, a lake big enough to swim across. Nothing here was built to be photographed, which is exactly why it is pleasant.
It is also the district with the simplest access from outside the city. The western ring, the Sloterdijk interchange and the airport line all pass through it, which makes a room here one of the shortest runs to a morning flight you can book.
Sec 02
One district, several moods
Oud-West is the polished end: the Kinkerstraat and the Ten Katemarkt, an old tram depot now full of food stalls and a cinema, and the western edge of Vondelpark a few streets south. The Westerpark is the other magnet, a long green strip with the old gasworks at the heart of it, now a culture park of halls, bars and concerts in brick sheds.
Further out, De Baarsjes and Bos en Lommer are residential and cheerfully mixed, with the Mercatorplein in the middle and small kitchens along the Jan Evertsenstraat. Beyond them lies the Sloterplas, a lake with a park wrapped around it that almost no visitor ever finds.
Sec 03
Where the rooms are
Sloterdijk holds the large business houses, glass and concrete beside the station, with trains to the airport every few minutes. Oud-West has the boutique conversions, old school buildings and houses of fifteen rooms each. Around the Westerpark and the Houthavens sit newer waterfront properties, and the Haarlemmerweg carries a run of practical places for anyone driving.
The business houses make for the simplest arrivals in the city: wide lobbies, constant movement, nobody with the slightest interest in who is meeting whom. The Oud-West conversions are smaller and a little more visible, which is worth one line in your message so the arrival can be planned properly.
Sec 04
Travel and notice
About an hour from confirmation. Trams 7, 13 and 17 run out through the district, the ring touches it at three points, and Sloterdijk is two stops from Centraal and a handful of minutes from Schiphol by train, which makes West the natural base for an early departure.
The Kinkerstraat and the Jan Evertsenstraat clog in the late afternoon and empty after nine. An evening starting at six is worth asking about a few hours in advance. One starting at eleven needs no more than the usual hour.
Sec 05
How an evening in West runs
Informal, and usually longer than planned. Something at the covered market where nobody takes reservations, a bar in the gasworks with a concert going on next door, and a walk home through a park that stays lit. Nancy was made for this district, sunny, energetic and entirely happy with a plan that changes twice.
Rosa is warm, unhurried company who can spend a whole evening in a covered market and a second hand shop without ever checking the hour, and Lea has the instinct for interiors and theatre that the old depot and the gasworks halls reward. Every companion on the companions board comes out here, for the figure set out on the fare card.
Destinations
Other Stops
// Anything past the ring asks for a little more notice, and the desk gives you the arrival window in writing.
Wheels down soon.
Amsterdam West tonight, confirmed in minutes.
Open 24/7 · Replies in minutes · WhatsApp or Telegram · From €180 per hour