Coffeeshops in Noord

Noord is the far side of the IJ, and getting there is free. Ferries leave from directly behind Centraal around the clock — four minutes to Buiksloterweg, a little longer to NDSM — which makes it the cheapest and fastest way out of central Amsterdam that exists.

People come for the day rather than for the shops. Eye Filmmuseum and the A'DAM Toren sit at the Buiksloterweg landing; NDSM is a decommissioned shipyard turned into studios, street art and the Straat museum, with festivals through the summer; and behind both of them are the old dyke villages of Nieuwendam and Buiksloot, which look like the countryside and are twenty minutes from Dam Square.

The coffeeshops fit around that. There are only a handful, they're spread across a district larger than the entire canal ring, and most sit near the Van der Pekstraat or up by Buikslotermeerplein rather than at the ferry landings. Check the map before you cross — this is not somewhere to wander and find one. If you're heading to NDSM specifically, buy before you get on the ferry.