Shopping in Amsterdam: De Negen Straatjes Vs. Rokin
It’s nearly Christmas season, and with the arrival of the holly season, is also the arrival of gift season. The season for giving, and receiving, and with the giving and receiving comes the buying.
During our trip to Amsterdam, we visited numerous amounts of shopping districts and stores and we broke it down into a one on one among Amsterdam’s most renowned and famous streets. Our choice fell upon two contenders. The first contender is a street called Rokin located not very far from Dam Square, Muntenplein, and Spui. The second contender is a street or a number of streets called De Negen Straatjes.
Below is the chart describing what to expect from each street, in order to know how to better do your Christmas shopping, if you plan on spending the holidays in Amsterdam.
Rokin:
Roking consists of all the main commercial fashion brands; you can find absolutely anything from Zara, to Mango, to River Island, or any other store that comes to mind.
Expect to find normal corporate price tags on the products in this street. The prices are standardized as these brands all hold a similar budget parameter.
Rokin is one of the most crowded streets in Amsterdam. Given that it is near Dam Square, tourists find the street to be practical, and within walking distance from the center of Amsterdam.
One of the downsides of Rokin is that it is constantly oversaturated with tourists, the main attractions are very close, and so the street is in an ongoing state of chaos and noise.
Rokin has another downside, and it is that the street is quite oversaturated with corporate food chains, I don’t know about you, but I cannot remember the last time I had a delicious meal at Mc Donals.
De Negen Straatjes:
Negen Straatjes in a street that is also near Central Amsterdam but that is much less commercial than other streets in Amsterdam.
The stores at Negen Straattjes are almost all local stores, you barely ever find a chain or a corporate brand on Negen Straaten.
Negen Straatjes is saturated with designer stores and niche stores, for instance you could find a small store specializing in cardboard, and however you could find every possible cardboard texture, design, or color inside.
When shopping fashion on Negen Straatjes and unlike Rokin, you can find some unique pieces, which cannot be replicated, many designers on Negen Straatjes have make custom designs for their stores. Hence when you buy a piece from Negen Straaten expect to be the only person wearing it!
