Escorts in the Jordaan
The Jordaan is the quietest part of central Amsterdam that still has everything in it. Narrow streets on a grid of small canals, brown cafes with the same regulars for decades, courtyards behind unmarked doors, and hotels that are old houses rather than buildings. Seven companions work from these streets, and the rest of the board reaches them in minutes.
Notice here matches the centre, sixty minutes, and the first hour starts from €180 as listed on the rates page.
Nearest to Jordaan
These 8 start their journey closest to Jordaan, so they are usually the quickest to your door. Every one of the 28 on the board travels here, at the same fare from €180 per hour.
The district in plain terms
West of the Prinsengracht, bounded by the Brouwersgracht at the top and the Leidsegracht at the bottom. The Westerkerk tower is the landmark you navigate by, with the Anne Frank House at its foot and a permanent queue outside it until late afternoon. Noordermarkt holds a market on Saturday morning that is worth setting an alarm for, the Lindengracht has another. Haarlemmerstraat and Haarlemmerdijk run along the northern edge and carry most of the district's shopping and a good share of its eating.
Where the hotels are
There are few large hotels in the Jordaan and that is the point of staying here. What you get instead are converted canal houses along the Prinsengracht and the Keizersgracht, twenty rooms at most, stairs that were built for people carrying nothing, and a reception that closes its desk at a civilised hour. A second cluster sits near the Haarlemmerdijk and the Westerpark edge, slightly newer, slightly more room to move.
Small houses mean short corridors and no anonymity of scale, which is exactly why we send companions who understand how to enter a quiet lobby without rearranging the air in it. She arrives dressed for the address, gives your name if she is asked for one, and goes up.
Arrival times you can plan around
One hour is comfortable. The complication in the Jordaan is never distance, it is the last two hundred metres: several streets are one way, many are barely wide enough for a car, and a delivery van parked on the Elandsgracht can hold up a taxi for longer than the rest of the journey took. Give the desk the street name as well as the hotel name and she will approach it from the side that works.
On a Saturday, with the markets running and the pavements full, add fifteen minutes. The desk will already have done this for you in the window it quotes.
How an evening here tends to run
The Jordaan rewards a slow start. A drink in a brown cafe where nobody hurries you, dinner at a small table, then a walk along the Brouwersgracht, which is the prettiest stretch of water in the city and almost always empty after ten. It is a district for conversation rather than spectacle, and the companions who live here tend to be built the same way.
Karolina is the one for architecture and for anyone who actually listens to music rather than hearing it, Bianka knows the wine lists and where the cooking is honest, Patricia is at home in the second hand bookshops and the old cinema programmes, and Sonya brings the kind of calm that makes a long dinner feel short.
From the arrivals hall to a Jordaan doorstep
The Jordaan has no station of its own, and that shapes the arrival more than distance does. From Schiphol, the quickest route for most guests is the train to Centraal and then fifteen minutes on foot along the Haarlemmerstraat or the Singel, or trams 13 and 17, which run out along the Raadhuisstraat and the Rozengracht and drop you at the Westermarkt. A taxi from the airport usually takes thirty to forty minutes, most of it spent inside the city on the final approach.
For your companion the district is short work. Several of the Jordaan group live within a few bridges of the Westerkerk and simply walk or cycle, which is why the sixty minute figure here is one of the steadiest on the board. The only thing that stretches it is a narrow street blocked by a delivery, and she will already know which side streets to avoid.
Small canals, small rooms, a slow evening
The public landmarks are modest and close together. The Noorderkerk faces the Saturday market square. The Homomonument lies on the water beside the Westerkerk. The Egelantiersgracht and the Bloemgracht are the two narrowest and prettiest canals in the quarter, best walked slowly after dinner, when the windows along them are lit and the boats are tied up for the night.
Hotels here are small, so plan the evening around their habits. Many front desks close late in the evening and hand over to a night bell, and some rooms are three steep flights up. Mention that to the desk when you book: your companion will arrive dressed for stairs, and she will ring rather than wait in a lobby that may not exist.
Next stops on the map
Amsterdam Centrum begins on the other side of the Prinsengracht, ten minutes on foot. Oud-Zuid is fifteen minutes by tram through the Leidseplein. De Pijp is a little further south and east. If you are flying out in the morning, Schiphol has its own page and its own notice period.
Jordaan, questions at the gate
Is there a train or metro station in the Jordaan?
No. The nearest station is Centraal, about fifteen minutes away on foot, and trams 13 and 17 stop at the Westermarkt on the district's edge. That is why the desk asks for your street as well as your hotel.
My hotel has no night reception. Does that change anything?
Only the arrival itself. Tell the desk how the door works, a code, a bell or a key you bring down, and she follows those instructions quietly. Nothing about the booking or the fare changes.
Can we start with a drink at a brown cafe?
Of course. Name the cafe or the corner, and at the hour you set she is already at the bar. Brown cafes in the Jordaan are small and fill up early at weekends, so an early start keeps the choice of table open.
How long from the Jordaan to Schiphol for a morning flight?
Allow about forty minutes by taxi outside the morning peak, or roughly thirty five by tram or on foot to Centraal and then the train. The desk can time an overnight booking so the evening ends well before you need to leave.
Next gates from Jordaan
The destinations that border this one on the map. Same fare, same desk, a different travel time.
Two briefings for a stay in Jordaan
Picked from the guides shelf for this destination: routes, timings and the practical side of the evening.
Jordaan, on schedule.
Give us the hotel and the hour. We confirm who is free and when she will be at your door.