Neighborhood

Best of the Jordaan: A Walking Guide

8 stops, 2-3 hours, and the kind of afternoon that makes you check apartment prices

12 min readMarch 2026By DAIZ

Walking the Jordaan

Most people experience the Jordaan by accident. They're walking from the Anne Frank House to somewhere else, they take a wrong turn, and suddenly the canals are narrower, the houses lean more dramatically, and there's a brown cafe on the corner that's been there since before electricity. That accidental discovery is the best possible introduction, but this walking guide gives you the intentional version: 8 stops, 2-3 hours, and the kind of afternoon that makes you wonder if you could just live here.

The route starts at Westerkerk (which you can see from most of the neighbourhood anyway) and ends at Noordermarkt. Saturday mornings are ideal because both Lindengracht Market and the Noordermarkt farmers' market are running, but any day works. The brown cafes, galleries, and canal views don't need a schedule.

Getting There Right

Tram 13 or 17 to Westermarkt drops you right at the starting point. If you're cycling, lock up at the bike racks on Westermarkt. The Jordaan's narrow streets are better on foot, and you'll want to stop every 30 seconds anyway. From Centraal Station it's a 15-minute walk along Prinsengracht, which is a perfectly good warm-up for the neighbourhood.

Don't bring an umbrella. The Jordaan's streets are narrow enough that awnings cover most of your walk, and Amsterdammers will judge you. Bring a jacket with a hood and Dutch stubbornness.

The Walking Route

Westerkerk

Amsterdam's tallest church tower and the only one worth climbing. €9, April to October, guided tours only because the stairs are medieval and the views from the top are the best panorama of the canal ring. Rembrandt is buried somewhere in the church (nobody knows exactly where) and Anne Frank wrote about the Westertoren bells chiming in her diary. The interior is free, Protestant-austere, and peaceful in a way that resets your energy for the walk ahead.

Anne Frank House (exterior)

Prinsengracht 263, two doors from the church. If you got tickets (and if you followed the guide about setting an alarm two months ago, you did), this is where you'll spend the most emotionally significant hour of your trip. If you didn't get tickets, the exterior still matters. The house looks exactly as it did in the 1940s, and the chestnut tree in the courtyard garden is a descendant of the one Anne wrote about. Stand here for a moment before moving on.

Prinsengracht Canal Walk

Walk north along the outermost of the three main canals. This stretch has the densest concentration of houseboats in Amsterdam. Proper homes with flower boxes and cats on deck, not tourist novelties. Notice the hoist beams jutting from the top of every canal house. They're still used: the staircases inside are so narrow that furniture goes in through the windows, hauled up on ropes. This is why the houses lean forward. By design, not decay.

Nine Streets (De Negen Straatjes)

Turn west into any of the small streets connecting Prinsengracht to Singel. These nine streets are Amsterdam's best independent shopping. Vintage stores where the owner knows the history of every jacket, specialty cheese shops that'll let you taste until you're full, and cafes squeezed into spaces that would be broom cupboards in any other city. Screaming Beans does a €4 flat white that rivals anything in Melbourne. The vintage stores on Oude Spiegelstraat have the best finds.

Lindengracht Market (Saturdays)

If it's Saturday, detour north to Lindengracht for the neighbourhood street market. This is not the tourist Bloemenmarkt. This is where Jordaan residents buy cheese from people who made it that week, flowers from the grower, and stroopwafels pressed fresh for €3 while you watch. The market runs until 3 PM. On non-Saturdays, Lindengracht is a quiet residential street. Sit at one of the cafe terraces and appreciate the silence.

Cafe 't Smalle

Egelantiersgracht 12. Brown cafe since 1786, which means it's been serving beer longer than the United States has been a country. The canal-side terrace is the most photographed seat in the Jordaan, and on a sunny afternoon it earns it. Order bitterballen (€6, always with mustard) and a local beer (€5), and sit until you lose track of time. The interior is dark wood, low ceilings, and the kind of atmosphere that no amount of interior design could manufacture.

Egelantiersgracht

The prettiest canal in Amsterdam, and that's a serious claim in a city with 165 of them. Walk its full length. It takes 10 minutes. You'll pass leaning canal houses reflected in the water, tiny bridges with bicycles locked to every railing, and front doors where someone is invariably sitting on the stoop with a book. Quiet even on busy days. Photographers: morning light, eastern end.

Noordermarkt

End at Noordermarkt square, the Jordaan's northern anchor. Saturday mornings bring the organic farmers' market: the best bread in Amsterdam (from Bakers Uithoorn, the rye sourdough), aged Gouda that a cheese purist drove in from Woerden, and fresh juice pressed while you wait (€3.50). Monday mornings there's a vintage and antique market. Smaller, calmer, better finds. Any day, the cafes surrounding the square are good for a final coffee and the satisfaction of having done the Jordaan properly.

Where to Eat & Drink

Cafe 't Smalle

Brown Cafe · €

Jordaan

Already on the walking route. The bitterballen come with mustard that's been the same recipe for longer than your country has existed. The canal-side terrace is the best seat in Amsterdam when the sun's out.

Before 4 PM on sunny days for terrace seats. Winter evenings are better inside with the candlelight.

Cafe Papeneiland

Brown Cafe · €

Jordaan

Corner brown cafe on Prinsengracht dating to 1642. The apple pie is genuinely one of the best in Amsterdam. The debate between Papeneiland and Winkel 43 is the Jordaan's longest-running argument.

Apple pie with slagroom and a koffie verkeerd. That's the order.

Winkel 43

Cafe · €

Jordaan

On Noordermarkt square, the other contender in the apple pie war. Bigger, busier, and the pie is slightly less refined but served in larger slices. Saturday morning with the farmers' market outside is the ideal moment.

Saturday before 10 AM for a table. By 11 the queue extends past the church.

De Reiger

Dutch-French · €€

Jordaan

No reservations. Cash only. Daily changing menu on a chalkboard. The crowd is 80% neighbourhood regulars, which tells you everything.

Arrive at 5:45 for a 6 PM dinner seating. The fish is always the right choice.

Toscanini

Italian · €€

Jordaan

Italian restaurant where the pasta is made fresh and the portions suggest the chef doesn't know the concept of restraint. The pappardelle with wild boar ragu is €18 and enough food for a nap afterwards. The room is loud, warm, and full of people having a better evening than they planned.

Book for dinner. This place is popular with locals who've been coming for years. Lunch is easier. The tiramisu is made daily and runs out.

Insider Tips

Saturday morning is the best time to walk this route. Both markets running, the light on the canals is soft, and the brown cafes have just opened so you'll actually get a terrace seat.

The galleries on the small streets between Prinsengracht and Keizersgracht are free to enter and often better than what's on the walls of the tourist galleries on Spiegelstraat. Thursday and Friday afternoons are the best gallery days.

Bring cash for the markets. Most stalls take card now, but the cheese vendor with the best aged Gouda is a man in his 70s who accepts only euros and strong opinions about cheese.

If you're cycling, lock up at Westermarkt and walk. The Jordaan rewards slow movement. You'll miss the gallery you should have entered, the courtyard you should have peeked into, and the houseboat cat you should have photographed.

The walk works in reverse (Noordermarkt to Westerkerk) and is better if you're coming from breakfast at Winkel 43 or the Saturday farmers' market. Start with pie, end with a church tower. Solid life philosophy.