Amsterdam may be a party city, but when the fun winds down, you might need a cosy café where you can catch up with emails, write a blog post or upload photos to social media.
If you’re a digital nomad, you’ll be in good company with local freelancers who are looking for a change of scenery with enough space to spread out with a laptop, sufficient outlets to charge electronics plus fast, free and stable Wi-Fi.
Reflecting its entrepreneurial spirit, Amsterdam is punctuated with laptop-friendly venues as atmospheric as the city itself. Unlike Amsterdam’s famous coffeeshops – places where anyone over the age of 18 can legally purchase soft drugs – these are smoke-free and family-friendly zones where you can happily nosh, sip and surf the internet for hours.
Frederix Roastery X Coffee Bar
Cafe, Coffee
Set on leafy Frederiksplein near the Amstel River in Amsterdam-Oost, this newly renovated café prides itself on freshly roasted coffee served in an international ambience. Numerous workspace options include individual tables, a long communal table, leather sofas, a bar and a snazzy Chesterfield chair at the entry. A small terrace provides shade, making it possible to work outside with your laptop in nice weather. Come for a breakfast tosti, or soup, sandwiches, bitterballen (Dutch croquettes) or nachos for lunch. Wash it all down with the shop’s creamy, milk-based coffee drinks, or opt for wine, beer or cocktails.
Named after a renowned Dutch writer who once lived in Amsterdam’s Oud-West, Café Belcampo lies inside the tram-depot-turned-cultural-hotspot De Hallen. The spacious reading café gets top marks as an office away from home. In a sunny ambience ideal for studying, meeting or working, wake up with a jolt of Lot Sixty One coffee and your choice of sweets, sandwiches and soups. Café Belcampo is open daily and offers a broad selection of newspapers and magazines, plus an agenda filled with salsa nights, brunch concerts, Sunday jazz, and other literary and cultural fun.
At the first speciality coffee café in Amsterdam’s multicultural Oost, you’ll see families catching up over coffee and pastries while their children play. You’ll also find creative types working on Macs and seniors browsing the daily Het Parool. Order a cup of expertly brewed coffee or speciality tea and a sandwich, and grab a seat at the bar by the window to watch the action on bustling Beukenplein. Alternatively, set up your laptop at one of the many tables in the bright back room where lush greenery spills from a wall. As a venue owned by a collective of coffee aficionados, the arty space models South African coffee bars, with the cool vibe of an extended living room.
The sister café of neighbouring Coffee Bru is a colourful, sunlit space known for sustainably produced, expertly brewed coffee and speciality tea. Rum Baba Cafe is open daily for breakfast, lunch or just a great cup of joe and a slice of carrot cake or banana bread. It offers multiple tables of different sizes and heights – perfect spots for spreading out and getting work done or for meeting with friends or colleagues. A few doors away, watch the team as they roast beans and bake artisanal sweets at the Rum Baba Roastery & Bakery.
Bocca Coffee is an inviting space with a lot of natural light | Courtesy of Bocca Coffee
Bocca was founded by a Dutchman who began his search for the perfect coffee bean in Ethiopia. Natural light fills the warehouse-like interior, which has high ceilings, white walls and a mix of bar seating and cosy sofa areas. A long table in the rear is perfect for working. However, a weekend laptop ban means sometimes settling for great coffee brewed by talented baristas and some killer red velvet cake or Dutch apple pie. Lauded as the first speciality coffee roaster in the Netherlands to manage the whole bean-to-cup process, Bocca now supplies many local restaurants with premium roasted beans.
Coffee connoisseurs and freelancers come together at this award-winning roastery in Amsterdam’s Oud-West. The inviting, multi-level space features area rugs on blond-wood floors, whimsical artwork on white walls and thriving plants, adding a homely touch. The real draw, however, is an ever-changing selection of coffees sourced from Ethiopia, Brazil and other coffee-growing regions around the world, as well as a bountiful spread of home-made baked goodies. There are ample spots to land your laptop in the funky café, which sells its products to venues throughout Europe.
Taking its name from a Japanese word meaning “family” or “tribe”, Zoku is a new-concept apartment hotel for travelling professionals that aspires to be Amsterdam’s international living room. For visitors, it offers colourful communal spaces in Amsterdam-Oost, including a café, bar and sunny lounge with nooks, comfy couches, fireplaces, table tennis and a library. Enjoy freshly ground coffee, tea, spirits and bar nibbles. Get down to business, or network with location-independent creatives from around the world in the shared workspaces. For a breath of fresh air, along with stunning views of Amsterdam from above, visit Zoku’s rooftop terrace, complete with an organic garden.
