Great Shopping Areas

Put on your most comfortable shoes and walk. You can window-shop all the way from the Dam to the Concertgebouw if you have the stamina, and as long as you remember a few key jogs in the path, you won't even need to consult a map. A few shopping streets are pedestrians-only, some are busy thoroughfares, and others are peaceful canal-side esplanades or fashionable promenades. Yet others are in suburban malls, or opening up in new waterfront development zones. Each segment in this ever-growing network of commercial enterprise has developed its own identity or predominant selection of goods as a specialty. To get you on your way, here are three suggested shopping walks:

If you're looking for jewelry, trendy clothing, or athletic gear, begin at the Dam's department stores. Follow Kalverstraat to turn right at Heiligeweg; and continue shopping until you reach Leidseplein. Heiligeweg becomes Leidsestraat after it crosses Koningsplein, but it's really one long street, so you can't possibly get lost.

If you're feeling rich or simply want to feast your eyes on lovely things (fashion, antiques, and art), begin at the Concertgebouw and walk along van Baerlestraat toward Vondelpark. Turn right onto elegant Pieter Cornelisz Hooftstraat. At the end of the street, by the canal, turn right again and walk to the Rijksmuseum, then turn left across the canal. Straight ahead is Spiegelgracht, a small and quiet bit of canal that's the gateway to the best antiques-shop street in Amsterdam, Nieuwe Spiegelstraat.

Finally, if your idea of a good shopping day includes fashion boutiques, funky specialty stores, and a good browse through a flea market or secondhand store, cut a west-to-east path through the old city by beginning at Westermarkt and crisscrossing the canals. Reestraat, Hartenstraat, Wolvenstraat, and Runstraat -- these are among the Negen Straatjes (Nine Little Streets) that connect the big canals in this part of town -- are particularly good choices with lots of fun shops. At the Dam, take Damstraat and its continuations (Oude Doelenstraat, Hoogstraat, and Nieuwe Hoogstraat) to Sint-Antoniesbreestraat, and its continuation, Jodenbreestraat, to Nieuwe Uilenburgerstraat, to Waterlooplein and the flea market. Alternatively, at the Dam, follow Rokin to Muntplein and walk from there, or take tram no. 9 or 14 to Waterlooplein.

To plan your own shopping route through Amsterdam, here are brief descriptions of the major shopping streets and what you can expect to find along each of them:

Kalverstraat -- This is the city's busiest stretch of pedestrian shopping. At one end is the Dam with its department stores; at the other end is the Muntplein traffic hub, also with a department store. In between, Kalverstraat is a hodgepodge of shopping possibilities. Punky boutiques for the young and athletic-shoe emporiums stand side by side, as do stores selling dowdy raincoats and conservative business suits, bookstores, fur salons, maternity and baby stores, and record stores. Interspersed is everything in the way of fast food, from frites to poffertjes. On Kalverstraat is the Kalvertoren Shopping Center, a big, brash mall with 45 stores, plus cafes, restaurants, and the cheap 'n' cheerful department store Hema. The large and busy Vroom & Dreesman department store has its main entrance on Kalverstraat, as does the elegant Maison de Bonneterie.

Rokin -- Parallel to Kalverstraat and also running from the Dam to Muntplein is Rokin, one of Amsterdam's busiest tram routes. Along here, you'll find art galleries, antiques stores, and elegant fashion boutiques.

Heiligeweg & Leidsestraat -- The fashion parade that begins on Kalverstraat continues around the corner on Heiligeweg, across Koningsplein and along Leidsestraat, all the way to Leidseplein. But the mood changes: Stores here are noticeably more elegant.

Pieter Cornelisz Hoofstraat & Van Baerlestraat -- Known locally as "P. C. Hooftstraat," or just "the P. C. Hooft" (pronounced pay-say-hoaft), this is the diminutive Madison Avenue of Amsterdam -- it's not as wonderful, really, but it's about the closest Amsterdam gets. Here, well-dressed, well-coiffed Amsterdammers buy everything from lingerie to light bulbs. Along its 3 short blocks, stores sell furniture, antiques, toys, shoes, chocolates, Persian rugs, designer clothes, fresh-baked bread, fresh-caught fish, china, books, furs, perfume, leather goods, office supplies, flowers, and jewelry.

Around the corner on van Baerlestraat are more boutiques, shoe stores, and enough branches of major banks to guarantee that you can continue to buy as long as your plastic holds out.

Nieuwe Spiegelstraat & Spiegelgracht -- This is the antiques esplanade of Amsterdam, and though it covers only a short 4-block stretch, it's one of Europe's finest antiques-hunting grounds. At one end of this shopping street is the Rijksmuseum; at the other is Herengracht's Golden Bend, where Amsterdam's wealthiest burghers once lived. Now that these gabled homes have been turned over to banks and embassies, it seems that all the treasures they once contained have simply found their way around the corner to the antiques stores. Among the items you might see are dolls with china heads, rare editions of early children's books, Indonesian puppets, Persian tapestries, landscape paintings, art prints and reproductions, brass Bible stands, candlesticks, copper kettles, music boxes, old Dutch clocks, and, of course, the little spiegels, or mirrors, that give this street its name. The Dutch use these from upper-story windows to see who's knocking at their door.

Amstelveen -- Amstelveen is a new town built around an old village in the polderland ("polder" is the Dutch word for land reclaimed from water) south of Amsterdam. Think of modern, clean, efficient living in a garden city. The shopping center here has many of the nonspecialist types of outlets -- department stores, boutiques, toy stores, and the like -- that you find in Amsterdam. Here, however, they're in an enclosed mall and you can visit them all a lot quicker. So if you don't like shopping but can just about tolerate it if you get through it quickly, this may be the place for you. Take the no. 5 tram from Centraal Station to the terminus, which is right beside the Amstelveen mall; the ride takes about 25 minutes.

From Ships to Shops -- KNSM-Eiland (KNSM Island), in the redeveloping Eastern Harbor area, has a streetload of interior design stores. The island is named after the Dutch initials of the old Royal Dutch Steamship Line that was based there -- the Koninklijke Nederlandse Stoomboot Maatschappij. Shops here include Pol's Potten, KNSM-laan 39 (tel. 020/419-3541; www.polspotten.nl), for furnishings, accessories, kitchen stuff, and knicknacks by hip young designers; World of Wonders, KNSM-laan 293-295 (tel. 020/463-4067), for fabrics, furnishings, and accessories; and Keet in Huis, KNSM-laan 297 (tel. 020/419-5958; www.keetinhuis.nl), for children's lifestyles. Tram: 10.

Other Shopping Areas -- For more antiques stores, look along Prinsengracht between Leidsestraat and Westermarkt. For Amsterdam's up-and-coming funky boutiques, look along the canals east and west of the Dam, or in the nest of streets beyond Westermarkt known as the Jordaan.