Shopping in Amsterdam

Shopping in Amsterdam is not always what you would expect from a city with the international allure as Amsterdam has.
Shops within the center generally open around 9:30 and close at 18:00 already. There is only one day a week that shops actually are open after 18:00, and that is Thursday evenings, then they are open until 21:00.
Every Sunday however, the shops in the center, around Kalverstraat, Dam and Nieuwendijk are all open. Since Amsterdam is one of the few cities that is open 7 days a week, this usually does imply that on Sundays it is fairly busy in the general shopping area's.

The opening hours in the whole of Netherlands have a similar pattern, shops are not, like in Moscow, New York, London or Paris, open all day and most evenings. This is quite likely due to the calvinistic history of the Netherlands. Up until recent history, shops were not allowed to be open on Sundays at all, most of the country still only has a "shopping Sunday" a few times a year or one specific Sunday per month.

Throughout Amsterdam there are a lot of areas with nice shops, however there are several designated streets fully decidated to a full shopping experience, listing them starting at Central Station:

• Damrak
• Nieuwendijk
• Kalverstraat
• Heiligenweg
• Koningsplein
• Flowermarket (Singel)
• Leidsestraat
• Leidseplein
• Max Euweplein
• Pieter Cornelisz Hooftstraat