Netherlands · Provincie Noord-Holland · Amsterdam
Amsterdam-West, Amsterdam — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Amsterdam-West is a borough on the far side of the Singelgracht from the Jordaan, just west of the old centre. It formed in 2010. Four older neighbourhoods, Oud-West, Westerpark, De Baarsjes and Bos en Lommer, were merged to create it, and together they cover a broad residential belt threaded with parks and market streets. The area is known for the Amsterdam School architecture of Museum Het Schip and for the green edge of Vondelpark to the south.
About Amsterdam-West
Where to stay in Amsterdam-West
Not every neighbourhood fits every trip — here's what each one is good for.
Here you sleep in a residential Amsterdam. Beds run more to guesthouses and short-stay flats than to the big chains, and prices ease the further west you go. Oud-West and the streets around Vondelpark suit visitors who want quiet nights and a quick tram into town, while De Baarsjes and the Kinkerstraat pull a younger crowd toward their cafés and food halls.
To walk to the Anne Frank House or the Westerkerk, base yourself near the Singelgracht, where the Jordaan starts just across the water. For a wider choice of rooms, the centre and Amsterdam-Zuid sit a short ride away.
About Amsterdam-West
What are the main landmarks in Amsterdam-West?
West's signature sight is Museum Het Schip, the Amsterdam School housing block in the Spaarndammerbuurt whose brick prow gives it the name. Around Vondelpark stand the neo-Gothic Vondelkerk and the Vondelparkpaviljoen, both from the park's late-nineteenth-century layout. The rest of the factpack's landmarks cluster just over the eastern border, in the Jordaan and the canal ring.
There the Anne Frank House, the Westerkerk and the Noorderkerk rise within a short walk of the Singelgracht. It is an easy crossing.
What is the history of Amsterdam-West?
The borough is a recent invention. It was assembled in 2010, when Amsterdam merged four older neighbourhoods, Oud-West, Westerpark, De Baarsjes and Bos en Lommer, into one western district. Those quarters had each grown outward from the old city across the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
That long expansion left its mark in buildings like Museum Het Schip, a monument of the Amsterdam School social-housing movement in the Spaarndammerbuurt, and in the Vondelkerk built along the edge of Vondelpark. Four names became one.
Where is Amsterdam-West?
The eastern boundary follows the Singelgracht. That canal divides the borough from the Jordaan and the western canal ring, and south of it West meets Amsterdam-Zuid along Vondelpark, while Nieuw-West lies out to the west. Its four parts fan out in a rough arc, Oud-West beside the park, De Baarsjes around Mercatorplein, and Westerpark and Bos en Lommer holding the north.
The Westerpark and the Rembrandtpark cut wide green openings through dense residential streets.
Good for
More areas in Amsterdam
Updated July 2026