The 31 Best Cocktail Bars in the Netherlands

A neon-lit cocktail bar inside a 17th-century Dutch canal house, which is a combination that shouldn't work as well as it does. The team behind Dandelyan and Lyaness runs this Amsterdam outpost, and the inventive drinks carry the same reputation. A second room next door runs quieter and looser, more living room than bar, if you need somewhere to land between rounds. Europe's 50 Best Bars has it at number 42.

You ring a doorbell on Reguliersdwarsstraat and hope someone answers, which is already a better start to a cocktail bar than most. Inside, Door 74 does the Prohibition speakeasy thing with dark wood and antique barware that stops just short of costume party. The menu leans into bold, complex flavors without abandoning approachable drinks, and the bartenders will steer you right if you let them.

Shelves lined with tequila and mezcal set the tone at Botanero, a Mexican-leaning cantina bar in central Rotterdam. The cocktail list leans on classics, and Dutch spirits sneak in alongside the Latin American lineup. Snacks pull from South American traditions with a Dutch edge, and there are tacos if you need something to anchor the mezcal. Bright, casual, and easy to drop into at almost any hour.

Two cocktail bars for the price of one grand hotel: a wood-panelled, nautical-themed room tucked below the lobby, and a sleeker, louder sibling upstairs with a sound system that makes the chandeliers nervous. Both open onto terraces over the Amstel River, which is the kind of view that makes a second round feel responsible. The bartenders take the classics seriously, and the whole operation carries the unhurried ease of somewhere that has been doing this for a very long time.

Bar Mokum is a De Pijp cocktail bar you reach by climbing a steep staircase that tends to jam up with out-of-towners hunting for a vibe, so reserving a seat is the polite move. The drinks are twists on classics with Dutch slang for names, and the back room is dressed up as the Red Light District, which is the closest you'll get to Amsterdam's most photographed street without the photographing. Food stops at olives and nuts.

A cocktail bar inside the Pulitzer hotel where the drinks were developed with a New York fragrance house, so the menu is as much about what you smell as what you taste. Forest-green walls, marble, glowing orbs, and hushed Art Deco calm make the whole thing feel like stepping into someone's very tasteful 1930s study. Order slowly; there's no reason to rush.

Every surface in this cocktail bar reflects back the drink in your hand, which is either poetic or a little overwhelming depending on how many Bols liqueurs you correctly identified in the tasting hall you walked through to get here. The House of Bols runs a tour before letting you in, which means entry comes with a cocktail and a genever shot built into the price. The mirror room is the payoff, and the liqueur selection behind the bar is genuinely hard to argue with.

A cocktail bar named for a South American and New Zealand fruit that shows up in some of the drinks, Feijoa sits at the busy corner of Vijzelstraat and Reguliersdwarsstraat. The short menu skews sweet, fruity, and creamy, but the bartenders are happiest going off-script, especially on classics. The tell: neighboring bar staff fill the stools before and after their own shifts, which is as reliable a signal as any that the team here knows how to pour.

A burger joint on Albert Cuypstraat that is also, for those who know to ask, a cocktail bar tucked behind it. The setup borrows a page from New York's speakeasy playbook: order a burger if you like, but the actual point is a well-made drink somewhere that most passersby will never find. The kind of place that rewards the mildly curious and inconveniences nobody else.

Two glowing Corian bars shaped like river stones face each other across the lobby divide of the Grand Sofitel, which sets the tone for what this cocktail bar is going for. Champagne flights, oysters from a raw bar, and well-made cocktails draw a dressed-up crowd. It skews designer and upmarket, so dress accordingly and order accordingly. If you want a brown bar, Amsterdam has better ones a short walk away.

Cactus plants crowd the bar top and provocative art covers the walls, which is about right for a cocktail lounge named after Charles Bukowski. Henry's is the sleeker half of a two-bar operation on Oosterpark, with the adjoining Bar Bukowski leaning more literary dive. At Henry's, the mood runs loud and loose, the crowd skews hip, and the drinks are the point. A good spot to start the night before you forget what you ordered.

A ceiling of hanging crystal glass catches the light on the tenth floor of the WestCord Fashion Hotel, which is either dramatic or a lot, depending on your mood. This cocktail bar sits near the A10 ring road, a tram ride from the center, though the more honest draw is that Schiphol is ten minutes away. Black club-style decor and panoramic city views give it a sleek, transit-lounge-with-ambition feel.

Copper chain curtains hang between the bar and the canal that runs directly beneath it, which tells you a lot about Hotel De l'Europe's priorities. Freddie's is a classic hotel bar: panelled walls, leather banquettes, and a warm pink-orange glow overhead. It's named for Alfred Heineken, who apparently used to hold court here among friends. Anyone can walk in, and people do, but the room very much dresses up.

A cocktail bar on Mauritskade where the menu is organized around themes like perfume and medicinal bitters, which sounds fussy until you're actually holding the drink. The room leans into a Golden Age mood, with jazz setting the pace and no apparent interest in hurrying you along. Difford's Guide has noted it. Come with the kind of curiosity that makes you read a menu twice before ordering.