Amsterdam tourist rules

These are the offences tourists are fined for most. The amounts are for anyone aged 16 or over; for the City's own fines, 12 to 15 year olds pay half.

Sources: the City of Amsterdam fine table (in Dutch) for peeing, litter, noise, alcohol in the street, beer bikes and fat bikes; I amsterdam for cannabis; the Dutch government for ID; and the UK travel advice for the Netherlands for swimming in the canals.

Photo: "Cannabis Smoking prohibited around school playground" by Jay Galvin (CC BY 2.0).

The dark area is the old centre around the Red Light District, Dam Square and Nieuwmarkt, where smoking cannabis in the street is banned and shops may not sell alcohol from 16:00, Thursday to Sunday. The orange areas are the zones where you may not drink alcohol in the street: most of the old centre from Centraal Station to the Waterlooplein, Leidseplein and smaller squares and parks around the city. The bright orange streets are where guided tours past the windows are banned, the grey area is the Vondelpark, closed to fat bikes, and the dashed line marks the beer bike ban.

The zones come from the open data of the City of Amsterdam (in Dutch). Open the full-size map >

Cannabis is still illegal in the Netherlands but tolerated: coffeeshops may sell it to adults, and you will not be prosecuted for carrying up to 5 grams. A coffeeshop will not sell you more than 5 grams in one go and checks that you are 18 or over, so take your passport or ID card. The national rule that keeps non-residents out of coffeeshops is left to each city, and Amsterdam lets tourists buy (Dutch government rules on coffeeshops).

Since 25 May 2023 smoking cannabis in the street is banned (in Dutch) in the old centre: the Red Light District, Dam Square, Nieuwmarkt and the streets around them, marked with signs saying "No smoking cannabis in public". Coffeeshops inside the zone are exempt, so you can still smoke indoors there, but not on the pavement outside.

• Tobacco: smoking tobacco indoors in bars, restaurants and coffeeshops is banned across the country, so a joint with tobacco cannot be lit inside either.
• Laughing gas: nitrous oxide has been an illegal drug in the Netherlands since 1 January 2023 (in Dutch), and Amsterdam bans using it in any public place.
• Mushrooms and truffles: magic mushrooms are illegal, while truffles are sold legally in smartshops. The UK travel advice warns that mixing them with alcohol or cannabis can be fatal.
• Hard drugs are illegal, and so is buying anything from street dealers, who often sell fake or dangerous drugs.

You must be 18 to buy alcohol in the Netherlands, in shops, bars and restaurants alike, and bar staff will ask for ID.

There is no national open-container law, but Amsterdam bans drinking alcohol, or carrying an opened bottle or can, in marked zones. The biggest covers most of the old centre, from Centraal Station and the Haarlemmerbuurt to the Koningsplein, the Vijzelstraat and the Waterlooplein; others cover Leidseplein, the Westermarkt, the Frederiksplein and squares and parks around the city. They were renewed until 1 March 2029 (in Dutch). Terraces are exempt, so a drink at a café table is fine.

In the Red Light District and the streets around it, shops may not sell alcohol to take away from 16:00 to 03:00 on Thursdays and Sundays, and from 16:00 to 04:00 on Fridays and Saturdays (in Dutch), a rule that runs until 1 April 2027.

De Wallen is open to everyone and is busy until late, but it is a neighbourhood where people live and work. The rules there are the strictest in the city:

• No photos or videos of the sex workers. The City asks visitors not to film or photograph the windows, and workers will tell you to stop.
• No guided tours past the windows. Group tours along the windows have been banned since 1 April 2020 (in Dutch). Other guided groups in the centre may have no more than 15 people and must finish by 22:00.
• No smoking cannabis in the street, and no drinking alcohol in the street either: both bans cover the whole district.
• Earlier closing on weekends. On Friday and Saturday nights, bars and restaurants in the heart of the district close at 02:00 (in Dutch), and their terraces at 01:00 from March to October.
• Keep the noise down and do not block the narrow streets and bridges. Peeing in the canals or the street costs €160.

The windows themselves keep their usual hours: a 2023 rule that made them close earlier at weekends was withdrawn in February 2024.

• Stay off the bike lanes when walking. They are the red paths beside the pavement, and bikes on them move fast.
• No phone in your hand while cycling. Holding a phone or any device on a bike has been banned since 1 July 2019 (in Dutch) and is fined on the spot.
• Lights after dark, front and back, are compulsory on a bike.
• 30 km/h is the speed limit on most streets in the city since 8 December 2023 (in Dutch), which matters if you rent a car or a scooter.
• No fat bikes in the Vondelpark since 11 May 2026 (in Dutch); riding one there costs €115.
• Park your bike in a rack. Bikes left in the wrong place, especially around Centraal Station, are removed by the City.

If you rent a boat to sail yourself, I amsterdam lists the rules on the water: no more than 12 passengers plus the skipper on a pleasure boat since 23 May 2019, a speed limit of 6 km/h, no alcohol for whoever is steering and no amplified music. Bigger groups need a licensed passenger boat with its own skipper.

Beer bikes, the pedal-powered bars, have been banned from the centre since 2017 (in Dutch) and from Oost since 1 July 2019 (in Dutch). Pub crawls are not banned as such, but they count as guided tours: groups of 5 to 15 need a guide with a City permit, and no tours run before 08:00 or after 22:00.

Hotels, holiday lets and campsites add a tourist tax of 12.5% of the room price before VAT, and passengers on cruise ships calling at Amsterdam pay a day tax of €15 each. The Amsterdam tourist tax page explains who pays and how it is worked out.

If you book a flat or a room in a private home, the host may rent it out to tourists for no more than 30 nights a year, so a listing that seems to be booked all year round is a warning sign. Since 1 April 2026 the cap is 15 nights in the Canal Ring, the Jordaan, the Haarlemmerbuurt, parts of the old centre and the Oude Pijp (in Dutch).

The city also limits hotels: no new hotel may open unless another one closes (in Dutch), a policy in force since July 2024.

Anyone aged 14 or over must be able to show a valid ID when the police ask for it. For visitors that means a passport, or a national ID card for citizens of the EU and the EEA. Not showing one costs €100, or €50 at 14 and 15 (Dutch government).

Since 2023 the City has run online campaigns aimed at visitors who come for a party weekend, starting with "Stay away", shown to young men in the UK searching for stag parties and pub crawls. The message is the one on this page: Amsterdam is welcoming, but the old centre is a place where people live, and noise, drunkenness and drugs in the street are fined.

The rules for visitors have tightened year by year. The latest changes:

• Do book the big museums online before you go: the Anne Frank House sells its tickets online only, and the Van Gogh Museum works with timed tickets.
• Do carry a bank card. Cards are taken almost everywhere and some places no longer take cash.
• Do wear what you like. Jeans are fine everywhere, from museums to restaurants; comfortable shoes matter more on the cobbles.
• Do tip if you want to. Service is included, and rounding up the bill for good service is welcome but never expected.
• Don't stand in the bike lanes or stop on them to take photos, especially on bridges.
• Don't shout or sing in the street at night. Many people in the centre live above the bars.
• Don't step onto houseboats or sit on their decks: they are people's homes.
• Don't buy anything from street dealers and don't photograph the windows in the Red Light District.

The map on this page is © 2026 World Tourist Office and free to copy, share, print and adapt, also commercially, under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International. The only condition is a credit to World Tourist Office with a link to this page.

Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), tiles © OpenFreeMap, and the zones come from the open data of the City of Amsterdam (CC BY): keep those credits too. The photo is © its owner and used under its own licence, shown in its credit line. The World Tourist Office name and logo are trademarks and are not licensed.

Plain text: Amsterdam Tourist Rules Map by World Tourist Office, touristoffice.org/amsterdam-tourist-rules/, CC BY 4.0. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Zones: City of Amsterdam open data (CC BY).