Amsterdam Travel Answers

I think it just depends on your needs and your motivation. Amsterdam is and will continue to be a wonderful city, with or without the Sex & Drugs product.

Thats Outrageous! I'm never going there now.

Yes, obviously it's a major attraction, but no, it wouldn't make Amsterdam less attractive to me since for me it was a bit of a 'seen it once and that's enough' kind of place. There's nothing particularly pleasant about it. Living there, it was mainly a place to avoid if you needed to get anywhere. On the other hand, I think it would be regrettable to clean it up too much. There are too many upmarket shops, galleries and restaurants already, and they're just not interesting. Sometimes it feels like everything interesting in the world is being swallowed up by businesses catering to rich young people with no taste.

exactly!

Most interesting replies and I hope there will be more. Would the many questions here on VT about the RDL, how to get there, is it safe, etc. etc. not add to our idea that it is 'in our face'? As well as the attraction of coffeeshops. Is it really?

I worried a lot about the shady character of amsterdam before I went there for the first time but after actually going there I wouldn't change a thing. Its not threatening, just different, as most travel is. I wouldn't say it is an attraction, although they do now sell tours of the rld with some pretty large companies which has got attention, but it is a part of amsterdam. I understand that the crime it draws to the area is a negative, but amsterdam has less crime problems than the uk where that sort of thing is not legal. It would be sad if they change it too much. I think its just a part of amsterdam, same as the canals and the wonderful laid back attitude of most people there, but I don't live there so I can't really comment with a though knowledge really (its often that visitors would like things one way but locals have a different opinion, and for good reason more often than not) One of my most funny memories of Holland was a guy asking my fiance and I if we wanted to see the sex show.....and when we said no he said 'its ok if you are brother and sister' hmmm, questionable lol

As to the question of how 'in your face' it is---well, nobody is forced to go there. It's easy enough not to. Just walk around it. And people who choose to go there go mainly to be titillated by that very 'in your face' quality. I say leave it alone.

So let's consolidate them into one tiny part of the city that everybody can avoid by choice, rather than dispersing them throughout the rest of the city to make the rest of us miserable.

I have a story about a couple of friends that went there...got stoned. Its very funny.

speaking as a british person that is not a perverted sex maniac or a pot head or magic mushroom eater, or any other kind of drug head! and does not go to amsterdam to get wasted and cause trouble I don't see anything wrong with the red light district. Its really not all that bad! Ive never felt unsafe there. The only time I have ever felt uneasy in Amsterdam was outside an actual tourist attraction where someone threatened to knife us if we didn't give him change, so it can happen anywhere folks, just coz it looks safe and touristy doesn't make it so.

I really would like to ask a citizen of Amsterdam how he or she feels about their city being identified with an activity, that (although disguised as funny, fashionable, progressist, healty, cool, so on..) has to do basicly with human exploitation. By the way, I visited the area several times while I lived in Amsterdam, and I could not see so many Dutch women involved in the business.

As I said in my pervious post its totally down to the people that live there what they do with a place, but it is a bit sad that everything is seeming like its becoming homogenised now a days. its nice to have some differences. I will even be sad when they bring in the smoking ban to the netherlands, even though I have never smoked. Again it just feels part of the place (well Amsterdam more so)

Starbucks at the Ouwezijds: Over my dead body! PJ

I hope they build sex cabins at the same tome in the basement of the Stopera, haha. PJ

lol it could happen (I mean the starbucks....probably not the sex cabins lol)

My paper says the following (in short): Coming 10-20 years the town council, developers, banks, investors and entrepreneurs will invest hundreds of millions in the area (postcode 1012). Within 10 years window prostitution must be gone from certain streets. The criminal infrastructure must be demolished. There must be no condoning the abuse of women in the heart of Amsterdam. The attraction to addicts and homeless must diminish. Until 2010 there will be no new care centers, the existing ones must decrease. Monumental buildings on Damrak and Rokin must be restaured. The chic Victoria and Krasnapolsky hotels want to expand. The elderman of economics in Amsterdam says that a certain group of tourists will stop coming. But these "male vertical drinkers" are not who you want to attract anway, he says.

Is this our famous VOC mentality? For one thing, none of the prostitutes has been involved in the making of these plans. I remember a year ago the same ideas appeared in the newspapers and the whole plan was frozen within a month. More hotels downtown; OK we Dutchies handover Amsterdam center to the tourist completely and have our parties elsewhere. PJ

speaking as one, I say leave'em alone! why mess with perfection. :)

I hope they have cleaned up the newspaper ads for Asian pedophile sex tours before they began to worry about the Red Light District. While it is demeaning to women, and it can attract crime, the RLD is also very profitable for some people, if not also the government. The RLD is currently rather compact, and can simply be avoided. Law enforcement can cover the area with relatively few personnel. If you close it down, it will just re-open someplace else, or even worse, in multiple locations. I wish the situation could be solved by just closing down such businesses, but it won't be. Gary

Hi, I never liked the RDL. I`ve been in Amsterdam a lot of time, but I gone into that district only in daylight, as the buildings are beautifull. I woudn`t miss it at all.

Most houses have a rich history; see this map: bmz.amsterdam.nl/adam/pics/m... PJ

In my previous post, I was not being critical of the Dutch. Those ads could be found anywhere in western Europe, though, hopefully, not currently. I also wasn't chastising the Dutch for being "above-board" about that aspect of sexuality. It actually is a much more realistic solution than trying to "outlaw" it, as they do in the US. Gary

AT, It's RLD (funny I see that now, haha). PJ

It's a classic case of politicians thinking up and then trying to execute laws they deem good for everyone and then later seeing the results worst than the thing which make their morals shiver. It's not only boring but it's never going to work. The sex industry will never go away. They'll just move to another neighborhood - maybe yours - or go underground like most of mankind's deep secrets. If instituted, I suppose that will put an end to the term 'dutch treat'?

Amsterdam without Red Light District (or coffeeshops) is like Amsterdam without tolerance. It's the tolerance that makes this city (and the country that it is the capitol of) different from any other historical city in the world. Sadly enough, tolerance is disappearing everywhere throughout the Netherlands as well as in Amsterdam. Freedom is restricted, to protect the weak people (those who do not know their own borders and those who do not respect others). Those people have won this battle by letting Amsterdam take a step back on the road of tolerance. I find that a sad event. Tourists that ONLY come to Amsterdam for trying out drugs or get laid, belong to this weak group, as they do not respect the city itself and what it stands for. They only USE the freedom that Amsterdam offers. People who come to Amsterdam and enjoy it's history, it's culture, it's very special (unique) atmosphere and personality, do feel what tolerance is about. When they meanwhile try a joint (to get high) or have a great sex experience (without disrespect), they know what Amsterdam is all about. The topic whether Amsterdam needs a Red Light District is very tricky. One should see it whether Amsterdam will be the same without it's unique freedom (tolerance). Besides this, I know what happens when a city council closed the Red Light District of a town. Prostitution will not stop, but it will hide away, spread throughout town and ... be invisible. By being invisible it becomes even more attractive to criminals. Exactly what's happened here and exactly what will happen in Amsterdam (except on larger scale). The only solution is to have better controle on what's happening in a red light district and keep that controle. Amsterdam let go of that controle in the recent decennia and now sees as solution of their mistake, the closier of (a part of) the Red Light District. A sad development ...

Sorry for the typo, guys! LOL

I didn't see any typos

I remember very well, years ago when I first joined VT, that I saw all these questions on the Amsterdam forum about the RLD. I asked: what is RLD? They said: Red Light District. LOL! I only knew it by its Dutch name: De Wallen Somehow I still muddle the letters RLD. My original post title was with RDL instead of RLD.

Maybe we should start talking about Rotterdam and Revamping of RDM, haha. PJ

Well actually, Rotterdam is far ahead of Amsterdam. Very recently the city council bought all buildings from one certain house broker, in whose properties a lot of prostitution, gamblind and such went on. Of course he denies this. This guy has received about 100 million euro for all of his properties. In his heyday he owned about 500 properties. Immediately after siging the contract, which also states he may never buy property in Rotterdam again, the city council started demolishing buildings in which these activities went on.