Amsterdam Two Nights

Your weekend, day by day

1. 1

   Day 1

   

   Guided bar crawl

   From about 20:30 · 3 hours

   Arrival day. Make your own way to the hostel and check in, then the guided bar crawl: a run of bars with the guide handling the doors, finishing at a club. Dress for the last venue: no sportswear.

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   Amsterdam crawls start promptly at 8pm and run three to four hours. The public crawls are centred on either the red light district or Leidseplein, take in up to five bars, finish with club entry and open with half an hour of free shots, so pace the start. Private crawls for your group visit three or four bars, with a shot in the first. Dress codes are strict: no fancy dress, shorts, joggers, beachwear, flip-flops or backpacks, so the stag outfit stays at the hotel. Bring ID, as crawls are 18-plus, and be at the meeting point on time.

   You meet the guide at a fixed point and move through a run of bars across the evening, usually four or five, finishing at a club. The guide knows the doors, so you skip the queue and the group is not turned away for being too large.

   Most crawls include a welcome drink or a shot at each stop, and entry to the final venue. The rest is on you. Groups from several bookings are often merged, which some stags like and some do not, so ask whether yours is private.

   Dress code is the club's, not the guide's. No trainers and no sportswear at the last venue, and matching shirts get refused at some doors.

2. 2

   Day 2

   

   Add-on

   Treasure hunt & city quest

   From about 13:00 · 2 hours

   If the group picks the treasure hunt, teams work round the centre with clues and photo challenges, scored against the clock and finishing in a pub. Comfortable shoes, a charged phone and a jacket: it goes ahead in the rain.

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   Amsterdam has a version you will not find in most cities: the pedalo treasure hunt, where teams of up to four take a pedal boat round the canals, solving clues that lead to set points along the water. It runs 90 minutes to two hours after a safety briefing, with a bottle of bubbly for the winning boat, and it depends on the weather. On land there is a guided two-hour hunt on foot with a beer each, or a self-run smartphone game you start whenever suits. Book the pedalo version for a spring or summer afternoon and keep the smartphone hunt for wet days.

   Each team gets a route, a set of clues and a list of photo or video challenges, either on paper or through an app. You work your way round the city centre, collecting points, and everyone meets at a pub at the end where the scores are read out.

   It runs two to three hours on foot and it covers a fair distance, though at your own pace. Most of the scoring comes from the challenges rather than the clues, so the daft teams tend to win.

   Comfortable shoes, a charged phone and a jacket. It goes ahead in the rain.

3. 3

   Day 3

   

   Bowling, darts & pool

   From about 12:00 · 1 hour

   Departure day. If the group picks bowling and darts, lanes or oches are reserved for a block of time, with automatic scoring and a bar alongside: a low-effort way to finish before the journey home.

   More about this+

   In Amsterdam bowling is usually sold as a combination with laser tag: one 15-minute laser game, then an hour on the lanes, about 90 minutes in all at a central venue. The package normally includes shoe hire, two drinks each and a plate of Dutch bar snacks to share, so it doubles as a light early-evening warm-up. Digital darts with automatic scoring is the other option, and it suits a group that wants to stay near the bar. Both are 18-plus and ID may be asked for. It is an easy fallback on a wet winter afternoon.

   You book a set number of lanes or oches for an hour or two and play through a scored league or a knockout. Scoring is automatic, shoes are handed over at the desk and the staff will set up a group format if you ask.

   It is low effort, indoors and cheap to add drinks to, which is why it survives on almost every weekend. Nobody needs to be good at it and nobody gets hurt.

   Socks are needed for bowling. Beyond that, wear what you like.