15 min
35 min
52
0.3 / km²
4
2
969
−6% vs city
Counted from OpenStreetMap and Inside Airbnb (CC BY 4.0)
Mixed after dark
The waterfront and NDSM are fine. The post-war estates further inland have a rougher reputation, and the rural east is empty rather than dangerous. Check where the address actually is before booking a cheap room.
Staying in Noord
Noord is the far side of the IJ, and the crossing is the whole point. The ferries leave from a jetty behind Centraal Station, they are free, the busiest runs every seven minutes around the clock, and the ride is about four minutes. Metro 52 does the same trip underground with two stops in the borough. In practice you are ten to fifteen minutes from Dam Square door to door for a fraction of the room rate.
The waterfront strip has enough to fill an evening: the EYE Film Institute, the A'DAM tower, Tolhuistuin and a run of restaurants in converted industrial buildings. Fifteen minutes further west by ferry, NDSM is the old shipyard turned street-art quarter, with the STRAAT museum and a skate park. East of that, the borough turns into 1960s housing and then into open farmland with actual villages in it.
Wikivoyage is blunt that Noord has stayed off the tourist map and that its amenities are not well developed, and that is the honest case against it. There are very few hotels, the restaurant coverage thins out fast once you leave the water, the NDSM ferry only runs every half hour, and you cannot walk home - there is no footpath through the IJ tunnel. It suits a longer stay, a tight budget, or a second visit. It does not suit two nights and a list of museums.
What works
- Free ferries from behind Centraal Station, every seven minutes, running all night
- Metro 52 reaches Centraal in about four minutes, with two stops in the borough
- Rooms cost far less than anything on the south side of the IJ
- The EYE Film Institute, Tolhuistuin and the A'DAM tower are on the ferry landing
- NDSM has the STRAAT street-art museum, a skate park and the old shipyard cranes
What does not
- Amenities are thin: few hotels, and restaurants cluster on the waterfront only
- The NDSM ferry takes 15 minutes and only leaves every half hour
- You cannot walk to the centre at all - there is no pedestrian route under the IJ
- The eastern half is farmland and villages, 30 minutes from the ferry by bus
- The post-war housing estates inland are a long way from anything a visitor wants
This district has remained well off the radar among tourists visiting Amsterdam, so amenities are not well-developed. It looks strikingly different from the city centre, so get in with an open mind.The north lies fairly isolated from the rest of Amsterdam, but there is a free GVB ferry from Centraal Station in the Binnenstad.Noord also has some rougher neighbourhoods, but the rural parts are safe. Oost is largely safe, but there are some neighbourhoods east of Oosterpark where some travelers might not feel comfortable.