135 min
20 min
50 · 53 · 54
0.6 / km²
1
10
149
−34% vs city
Counted from OpenStreetMap and Inside Airbnb (CC BY 4.0)
Mixed after dark
Wikivoyage names Zuidoost alongside Nieuw-West as still having a bruised image over violence and harassment, improved by urban renewal but not gone. The metro viaduct areas and shopping centres are best avoided late at night.
Staying in Zuidoost
Zuidoost is not attached to the rest of Amsterdam. It sits southeast of the ring road, separated from the city by the municipalities of Duivendrecht and Diemen, and it was built in the 1960s and 70s as a modernist experiment: high-rise slabs in parkland, connected by a raised metro viaduct. It has a strong Surinamese and Ghanaian community, a genuine architectural history and the Bijlmermonument to the 1992 air disaster, and none of that is why people book here.
People book here because the Johan Cruijff ArenA, the Ziggo Dome and AFAS Live are all on one boulevard, and because the chain hotels around them are the cheapest three-star rooms with an Amsterdam address. The transport is genuinely good: metro 50, 53 and 54 reach Centraal in 15 to 20 minutes, and Bijlmer ArenA is an Intercity station about 15 minutes from Schiphol.
The problem is what happens outside those 20 minutes. Dam Square is over two hours on foot, so the metro is not a convenience, it is the only option. Arena Boulevard is shopping malls, car parks and venues, dead on nights when nothing is on and packed on nights when something is. Wikivoyage still describes Zuidoost as carrying a bruised image over violence and harassment. Book it for a concert at the Ziggo Dome. Do not book it for a city break.
What works
- Metro 50, 53 and 54 reach Centraal Station in 15 to 20 minutes
- Bijlmer ArenA is an Intercity station, about 15 minutes from Schiphol by train
- The cheapest three-star chain rooms with an Amsterdam address
- The Johan Cruijff ArenA, Ziggo Dome and AFAS Live are all within one boulevard
- Free parking is realistic here, which it is not anywhere inside the ring
What does not
- It is an exclave: two separate municipalities sit between it and Amsterdam
- Over two hours on foot to the centre, so the metro is the only way in and out
- Arena Boulevard is malls, car parks and venues, and dead when nothing is on
- Bijlmer ArenA station is a crush on Ajax match days and after concerts
- The borough still carries a reputation for violence and harassment after dark
It is an exclave, separated from the mainland by Duivendrecht and Diemen.Nieuw-West (especially Osdorp) and Zuidoost still have a bruised image regarding violence and harassment. Urban renewal projects have improved conditions, but you should still be aware of the situation.The latter, Bijlmer ArenA may be particularly crowded during matches of local football club Ajax or the Dutch national team.