# Is Nieuw-West a Good Area to Stay in Amsterdam? Map & Verdict

Verdict: Avoid. Cheap for a reason. Read the cons first.

Interactive map: https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-amsterdam/nieuw-west
Every Amsterdam district: https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-amsterdam.md

The garden suburbs west of the ring road. Cheap rooms, a metro ride from the centre, and nothing whatsoever at your end of the journey.

Facts: 70 min walk to Dam Square; 25 min to the airport; price €; best for budget, longer stays; lines 50, 51, 1, 2, 7, 13, 17.
Safety: Mixed after dark. Wikivoyage singles out Osdorp for violence and harassment, while noting that urban renewal has improved conditions. Treat the area as fine by day and worth a metro or tram rather than a walk after dark.

Nieuw-West is the Westelijke Tuinsteden, the western garden cities: post-1950 housing estates laid out around the Sloterplas lake, built to relieve the overcrowded old city. It is a functioning residential district of ordinary Amsterdam life, and it has no reason at all to appear in a visitor's plan.

It appears anyway, because it is cheap and because booking sites file it as Amsterdam. Metro 50 and 51 and trams 1, 2, 7, 13 and 17 run in, so the centre is 20 to 30 minutes away door to door and Schiphol about 25. That is genuinely workable if you are here for a week, on a tight budget, and prepared to treat the room purely as a bed.

What it costs you is every evening. Dam Square is over an hour on foot, so there is no walking home and no changing your mind at 23:00. There are no sights, the restaurants are neighbourhood places that close early, and Wikivoyage still flags Osdorp specifically over violence and harassment, with the caveat that urban renewal has improved things. If the saving over West or Noord is not large, it is not worth it.

What works:
- The cheapest rooms anywhere inside the city boundary
- Metro 50 and 51 plus trams 1, 2, 7, 13 and 17 reach the centre in 20 to 30 minutes
- About 25 minutes to Schiphol, which beats most of the centre
- The Sloterplas lake and the Amsterdamse Bos give you real green space
- Ordinary supermarkets and everyday prices, which the centre does not have

What does not:
- Over an hour on foot to Dam Square: you are never walking home
- Nothing to see - it is a housing estate built after 1950, and it looks it
- Restaurants are local and close early, so evenings mean travelling back in
- Osdorp still carries a reputation for violence and harassment after dark
- The saving over West or Noord is often small enough not to be worth the commute

Hotels in Nieuw-West: https://www.stay22.com/allez/booking?aid=stayzones&link=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.html%3Fss%3DAmsterdam%2520Nieuw-West%252C%2520Amsterdam%26latitude%3D52.37123505641026%26longitude%3D4.812563114102565%26nflt%3Ddistance%253D3000%26group_adults%3D2%26no_rooms%3D1

## Other districts in Amsterdam

- [Centrum](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-amsterdam/centrum): Mixed. Everything you flew here for is inside a twenty-minute walk, and so is every stag group, every souvenir shop and the highest room rate in the country.
- [Zuid](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-amsterdam/zuid): Recommended. Three top museums, the Vondelpark and De Pijp, ten minutes from Schiphol and fifteen from Dam Square. The safest borough in the city, and it knows it.
- [West](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-amsterdam/west): Recommended. Oud-West and De Baarsjes are Amsterdam at resident prices: 25 minutes on foot to Dam Square, five tram stops back, and no souvenir shops at all.
- [Oost](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-amsterdam/oost): Mixed. Around the Oosterpark it is a cheap, well-connected 25 minutes from the centre. Out at IJburg it is a different city, and the name does not tell you which you booked.
- [Noord](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-amsterdam/noord): Mixed. A free ferry from behind Centraal Station, four minutes across the IJ, and rooms at half the centre's price. What you give up is everything else.
- [Zuidoost](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-amsterdam/zuidoost): Avoid. The Bijlmer: an exclave 11 km out, 1960s tower blocks, the Ajax stadium and the concert-night hotels people book without looking at a map.