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Coffeeshops Amsterdam openmsterdam open

As the Dutch government is relaxing more measures, Amsterdam is opening up for the summer and, moreover, coffeeshops will be allowed to stay open until 22:00.

Food and beverage outlets are allowed to open again between 06:00 and 22:00. A maximum of 4 people can sit at a table, which also applies to outdoor seating areas. In restaurants and eateries, a reservation, health check, and fixed seating are required. Self-service is not allowed. Entertainment such as live performances or video screens for sports matches is still also not allowed.

Buying alcohol is not allowed between 22:00 and 06:00. Previously, this ban went into effect two hours earlier at 20:00.

You can collect weed and hash from coffeeshops until 22:00. (Before June 5 coffeeshops were open until 20:00.)

Stores, museums, concert halls and more

All stores will reopen according to their regular opening hours. This means that late-night shopping is also allowed again.

Theaters, concert halls, cinemas, and museums can also open again from Saturday, June 5. For a museum, theater, or cinema visit, a reservation must be made, for a maximum of four people. There is an exception for children up to the age of twelve and persons of the same household. Here seats are also fixed, and a health check is done. At museums, a time slot will have to be chosen.

Indoor spaces in amusement, nature, and animal parks will also open again. A maximum of one person per 10 square meters or a maximum of fifty people per space at a distance of 1.5 meters applies.

(photo: Hempshopper)

Amsterdam is slowly opening

After a nationwide lockdown, Amsterdam is slowly opening up again. The government intends to open up society over a period of 3 months so that nearly everything will be open and allowed again this summer, albeit sometimes subject to certain conditions.

Coffeeshops, restaurants, bars, and cafés are open for takeaway. Outdoor seating areas at coffeeshops, restaurants, and cafés are open from 12:00 till 18:00. Shops and stores keep regular hours again and can be visited without an appointment. Hotels are open however hotel restaurants and room service are still closed.

If the numbers allow it, the government intends to take the second step of the reopening plan on 19 May. The terraces will be open longer and there will be more scope for activities indoors and outdoors.

Until this time, the basic rules remain the same. Wear a face mask indoors in public places. Keep a distance of at least 1.5 meters from people you don’t live with. Travel by bicycle or on foot for short journeys if possible. Wash your hands often, including when you arrive somewhere and before eating. Also, wash your hands before rolling a joint or touching weed or hash.

We're Just Waiting For The Lockdown To End

To be clear, there is no ban on tourists. In Amsterdam, anyone over 18 can legally buy weed and hash at the coffeeshop. And everyone will be welcome to hang out in the coffeeshops again once the measures against coronavirus are lifted.

The coffeeshops are open, but currently only for takeaway and only until 20:00.

The mayor of Amsterdam did propose to ban foreign visitors from the shops, and who knows how far she will get with her plans, but for now, we are just waiting for the lockdown to end and normal life to resume.

Update January 20: Today, the Dutch government announced that it is imposing a national curfew in the Netherlands. The prime minister also announced several other new measures, including a travel ban for 17 countries. The curfew will be in effect between 21:00 and 4.30. Anyone caught outside without a valid reason within this time frame will be fined. Coffeeshops will remain open for takeaway.

Amsterdam is still in lockdown until at least Tuesday February 9.

Venues such as museums, theatres, amusement parks, zoos, casinos, saunas, indoor sporting venues, and establishments serving food and drink (including in hotels) are closed throughout this period. Shops such as clothing stores, shoe shops, jewelry shops, and shops selling craft supplies are also closed.

The government’s aim in this regard is to limit contact between people as much as possible. Supermarkets, bakeries, butchers, and other shops where food is sold remain open, as are establishments such as pharmacies, chemists, and petrol stations.

Coffeeshops are allowed to stay open for takeaway until 8 PM.

Basic Rules

The basic rules remain the same. Everyone must stay 1.5 meters apart from people they don’t live with. Wash your hands often, including when you arrive somewhere and before eating. Also, wash your hands before rolling a joint or touching weed or hash.

Most measures against covid-19 were relaxed during the summer but now the Netherlands introduced a new range of restrictions to control a second coronavirus wave.

As part of these new restrictions, the sale of alcohol is prohibited after 8 p.m. After that time it is also not allowed to carry or drink alcohol or smoke weed in public places.

Coffeeshops are allowed to stay open for takeaway until 8 p.m.

The new measures also make the wearing of cloth masks mandatory for people 13 years and older in indoor spaces. Some earlier measures, such as keeping 1.5 meters distance from others, still apply as well.

Good news! Coffeeshops in Amsterdam and the rest of the Netherlands will fully open again from July 1st.

Coffeeshops were still open for take-away, but from next week they’ll be allowed to offer seats and full-service again. Bars and restaurants in Amsterdam have been open since the 1st of June and, although earlier the government decided coffeeshops had to wait until September before they could reopen,  it looks like there is no reason to keep coffeeshops closed any longer.  Standard measures against coronavirus (such as the direction to keep 1.5 metres distance from each other) still apply.

UpdateNew Corona Measures: Coffeeshops Open Till 8 pm For Take-Away

As more measures against coronavirus are being lifted in the Netherlands, the Hash Marihuana & Hemp Museum in Amsterdam announced that it will reopen its hemp and marijuana exhibition after the weekend.

The museum, which manages and exhibits one of the world’s oldest and most elaborate collections dedicated to cannabis, says on its website that it is set to welcome visitors again from June 8th.

Museum director Ben Dronkers: “It is important that we can open the museum to the public again. In these uncertain times, cannabis is a friend, not an enemy. It gives you an open heart, an open mind.”

The museum states it has taken the necessary steps to ensure ”visits are as safe and enjoyable as possible”. For the time being, visitors will only be admitted into the museum with pre-booked tickets.

Amsterdam mayor, Femke Halsema says she wants to “combat fun tourism” by reducing the demand for cannabis.

According to the mayor, a large proportion of what she calls “fun tourists” is attracted to prostitution in the city center and the “enormous amount of coffeeshops”. That is why she wants to see whether it is possible to make these markets “smaller and more manageable”.

This is what mayor Halsema told local news channel AT5 when asked about the municipality’s aims to keep tourists out of the city center.

After the corona crisis, the municipality doesn’t want ‘fun tourism’ to return to the city. The intention is that establishments and shops will again focus more on the residents of Amsterdam. The municipality wants to achieve this by, among other things, introducing new rules and purchasing buildings.

Halsema says that she is now focusing on the coffeeshops. She sees that there are no fewer than 120 shops in the city center, a large part of which live on tourism. “It doesn’t mean that we just close coffeeshops. But we do try to steer the demand.”

Earlier this year the mayor told the same news channel that she had plans for a large erotic center or a prostitution hotel as an alternative to the city’s Red Light District: A five-story building as the new erotic center of Amsterdam. Here patrons and tourists could not only visit sex workers but also make use of catering facilities, a hairdresser, a beauty salon, and a tanning salon. It would have space enough for about a hundred sex workers.

Although it’s well known by officials that most disturbances in the city center are the result of alcohol abuse, mayor Halsema did not mention the ‘Heineken Experience’, the beer funhouse (with ‘tasting facility’) on the edge of the city center, where tours of the brewery grew to become one of Amsterdam’s most popular international tourist attractions.

These are the obligated measures taken by the Amsterdam coffeeshops against coronavirus:

– Coffeeshops are open and permitted to sell weed and hashish at a take-away counter.
– They must be able to arrange this logistically and also observe all hygiene measures prescribed (such as maintaining a 1.5 metres distance between people).
– Customers are now only allowed to pick up weed and can not stay in the coffeeshops or use the shop’s facilities.
– Delivery is not permitted.

Update: Bars and restaurants in Amsterdam will open again on June 1st. Coffeeshops will be allowed to offer full service again on July 1st. Until then they will remain open for take-away.

Stay safe everyone.

A slight panic struck Amsterdam’s 420 community when, in the late afternoon of March 15th, the Dutch government announced measures to curb the spread of coronavirus. All establishments in the Netherlands, such as restaurants, bars and coffeeshops, were to be closed by 6 o’clock that evening, and were to remain closed for at least three weeks.

In a last-minute effort to secure some weed or hash in order to have something left to smoke during the impending ‘drought’, people formed long lines outside the city’s cannabis shops. In those queues, which sometimes stretched for tens of metres along the sidewalk and around corners, patrons were not keeping distance from each other. To make matters worse, at some coffeeshops the people waiting outside were being targeted by pushy street dealers who were handing out business cards and promoting their merchandise as the soon-to-be only available alternative. However, the local government took notice of that and quickly recognised the potentially harmful side-effects of a complete coffeeshop lockdown. After some deliberation, it was decided that in the course of following day the shops would be allowed to open again – be it with restrictions:

Takeaway only (no seats, no service, no toilet), everyone is to keep 1.5 metres distance from others and there is a limit on the number of customers that are allowed in the coffeeshop at one time for pickup.
On top of this, most reopened coffeeshops have added their own measures such as the placement of transparent screens on the dealer’s counter and distance markers on the floor.

Relaxing Measures

Prime Minister Mark Rutte recently announced the long awaited relaxation of most restrictions. In public buildings from June 1, a maximum of thirty people will be allowed per room. This means, for example, that movie theatres and concert halls can open again.

In addition, most establishments may also open on June 1st. There is no maximum number of people on the terraces but everyone should sit at a table and keep 1.5 meters apart.

Coffeeshops have to wait two months longer to fully open. They will be allowed to provide public access without capacity restrictions again from September 1st.