Amsterdam is a tolerant and open minded city. The nightlife is vibrant with many gay bars, cruising clubs, and large dance parties.
Discover the best gay bars and clubs to visit at night. Which is the best area for dinner. Where to stay and which museums and sights to visit during your stay in Amsterdam. And when to visit for the best gay parties in 2024.
What is the gay scene like? Amsterdam is famous for its tolerant and open atmosphere. It was one of the first cities with an openly gay scene. It was also the first to have a gay monument and the first to allow same sex marriage.
The gay scene is very open. The main gay street Reguliersdwarsstraat is full with gay flags, and has a great mix of gay bars, str8 ones, and many restaurants. It's a pedestrian only area, with terraces everywhere.
The popular gay bars Taboo, Soho and Bar Blend are located here next to each other.
list of all gay barsAmsterdam has got some big gay parties and party weekends. If you are into those you have to plan ahead. On other weekend there are usually smaller dance parties.
Most famous are Rapido (in a former church) and Funhouse (at a former industrial zone). Others are Bear Necessity (1 Feb 2025) (real men dance parties) and Backdoor Amsterdam.
In recent years Amsterdam has become an all year round busy tourist destination. The best place to stay is the city centre, so you are able to walk everything day and night. But the city centre comes at a price. Because of new regulations, all new hotels have to be build outside the city centre.
See our hotel guide or our hotel map for advice and recommendations for hotels near the gay areas
Hotel map Amsterdam centre
loading hotelsAmsterdam has many world famous museums. The most famous ones are the Rijksmuseum, where you'll be able to see the world famous Nachtwacht by Rembrandt and the Van Gogh Museum, with the world's largest collection of works by the Dutch 19th century painter.
At the Amstel river you'll find the Hermitage Amsterdam, the Dutch branch of the famous Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia.
For more contemporary art you can visit the Stedelijk Museum with a spectacular new addition to the original building.
For photography, check out FOAM.
What is the best time to visit Amsterdam? Nowadays Amsterdam is popular with tourists all year long. Best time to visit is probably from spring (April) until end of autumn.
Kings Day Amsterdam (26 Apr 2025) is one of the highlights of the year. Everyone (almost) dresses up in orange. Everywhere there are small parties, free markets and much more. It's always tricky if weather cooperates. At night around kings day there are usually big gay parties planned.
The gay highlight of the year is Amsterdam Gay Pride. The Pride Canal Parade is one big local party.
Schiphol Amsterdam Airport (AMS) is one of the largest hubs in Europe, and very well connected with direct flights to many places around the world.
The train ride from Amsterdam airport to the city center is also only 15 minutes by train. If you have a flight with a stop over in Amsterdam, make sure to add a night here, and come back later a little longer.
Amsterdam is also connected by direct high speed trains to Paris (Thalys in 3h20m) and London (by Eurostar)
London is one of the gay capitals of Europe. It's great for its nightlife, theaters, and museums.
360 km from AmsterdamAmsterdam is our home town and it was the base for the Nighttours website.
Back then most of our friends stuck to the same places every weekend. They had "heard"of the other venues, but what to expect inside? If you have never been to any of the darker places, there might be a barrier to enter.
So we decided to create virtual tours of the bars, clubs and saunas in Amsterdam, with all info on what was going on inside and what to expect We even included blueprint floor plans of the cruise bars. So you could easily know which was the bathroom entrance, and which would be a darkroom.
