About the guide
We started writing this in a heatwave.
July 2023. Thirty-six degrees in the shade. The trams were running slow, the canals smelled like an old kitchen, and three different friends asked the same question by lunchtime: where do we actually go right now.
Half the answers in this city are pasted from the same five blog posts. Vondelpark. Strandzuid. Boat. We wanted the other half. The grass behind the gasholder. The northern shore of the Sloterplas before noon. The basement of the Hortus that nobody mentions. The terrace on the Amstel that catches an upstream breeze every August.
So we started writing them down. Then we started sending them to friends in the morning, before the heat. Then friends asked if their friends could be on the list. Hete Zomer is what that list grew into.
What this is not
- Not a tourism site. We do not write about the Anne Frank House.
- Not an event listing. We are not chasing pop-ups or club openings.
- Not affiliated with any of the places we recommend. Nobody pays to be in the guide.
The desk
A small editorial team in Amsterdam Oost. Two writers, one cartographer, a botanist on retainer for the green pages, and one bike that has seen every neighbourhood between Diemen and Halfweg. We update the map continuously between June and September and slowly between September and June.
Want the brief tomorrow morning?
Members get the forecast plus our three picks the night before any thirty-degree day.