Coffeeshops in Zuidoost

Zuidoost is fifteen minutes from Centraal on the metro and feels like a different city — wide green space, the Bijlmer's remaining honeycomb blocks alongside everything built to replace them, and the best Surinamese and Ghanaian food in the Netherlands around Amsterdamse Poort.

It's also the events district. The Johan Cruijff ArenA, the Ziggo Dome and AFAS Live sit within a few minutes of each other at Bijlmer ArenA station, which means that on any given night this corner of the map holds more people than the whole canal ring. The coffeeshops here are few and clustered near the metro stops and the shopping center rather than spread through the district, so check the map before you set off.

If you're heading to a show: buy before you arrive at the venue, and leave it there. All three do bag searches on the door and none of them will let you bring anything in. The shops nearest the station are the practical stop, and the metro back into town runs late on event nights.

Away from the venues, Gaasperplas and Nelson Mandelapark are proper open water and parkland — the greenest thing in this directory outside Noord — and the Kwaku festival takes over the Bijlmer Sportpark across summer weekends.