# Is Oost a Good Area to Stay in Amsterdam? Map & Verdict

Verdict: Mixed. Fine for some travellers, wrong for others.

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

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.

Facts: 30 min walk to Dam Square; 30 min to the airport; price €€; best for food, longer stays, budget, families; lines 51, 53, 54, 1, 12, 14, 19, 26.
Safety: Mixed after dark. The area around the Oosterpark and the streets east of it are ordinary working-class Amsterdam by day and can feel edgy late at night. The Docklands and IJburg are quiet but very empty after dark.

Oost runs from the Amstel all the way out to artificial islands in the IJ, and Wikivoyage's own article opens by warning that it is not one place. The part worth booking is the western end: the Oosterpark, the Dappermarkt, and the streets around Wibautstraat, which are 25 to 30 minutes on foot from Dam Square, served by metro 51, 53 and 54 and by trams 1, 12, 14 and 19, and cheaper than anything in Zuid.

The Eastern Docklands north of it are the other good option - 1990s architecture on the old harbour islands, quiet, with the 26 tram running straight to Centraal in about ten minutes. Beyond them, IJburg is 30 to 40 minutes from the centre and is a suburb with a beach, not a base for a city break.

So the district is a coin toss unless you check the address. It has almost no hotels of its own - most of the stock is apartments - very little to see, and Wikivoyage notes that some travellers are not comfortable in the neighbourhoods east of the Oosterpark. Book the strip between the Amstel and the Oosterpark, or the Docklands, and it is good value. Book by borough name and you may end up on an island.

What works:
- Metro 51, 53 and 54 plus trams 1, 12, 14 and 19 cover the western half
- About 25 to 30 minutes on foot to Dam Square from the Oosterpark
- The Dappermarkt and the Javastraat markets are the cheapest eating in the city
- The Eastern Docklands are quiet modern architecture, ten minutes from Centraal on tram 26
- Rooms and apartments cost less than the equivalent in Zuid or the centre

What does not:
- The borough is not one place: the address decides whether you are 25 minutes out or 40
- IJburg and Watergraafsmeer are suburbs, and every trip in is a train or tram ride
- Almost no hotel stock - most of what is listed here is short-let apartments
- Nothing to see beyond a park and a market, so sightseeing always means leaving
- The streets east of the Oosterpark can feel uncomfortable to some visitors at night

Hotels in Oost: https://www.stay22.com/allez/booking?aid=stayzones&link=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.html%3Fdest_id%3D151%26dest_type%3Ddistrict%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.
- [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.
- [Nieuw-West](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-amsterdam/nieuw-west): Avoid. 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.
- [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.