To not want to go to the red light district

[Filletsteak]

Going to Amsterdam next week with my partner. We've both said we have no interest in going to the red light district. Told friends this and they laughed and said we were being daft as it's a tourist attraction. Also they said it's pretty unavoidable, is this true?

I personally don't see prostitutes stood in windows as an attraction I need to tick off. Am I being silly? Surely there's plenty in Amsterdam to see and do that doesn't include that. Just don't understand why it's seen as socially acceptable to visit?

It's a bit different, isn't it? Decriminalised then, if you want to be pedantic

I would have no interest in this either and I think it’s gross to call it a tourist attraction.

I spend a long weekend in Amsterdam a few years ago and didn’t see anything of the red light district, it is largely avoidable.

Umm of course but if I had a moral objection to something, I wouldn't choose to visit somewhere famous for it. For example I won't set foot in UAE. The red light district is unlikely to be as seedy as OP imagines, it just looks like a row of pubs.

I'd still go to oude kerk, that's on the edge of the biggest area but you can approach it without going down the narrow alleys.

Me neither.

I’ve been to Amsterdam twice and managed not to see it. To be fair though, I am the least observant person ever so I might have walked right through it and not noticed 😂 I certainly didn’t want to see it so I’m glad I didn’t.

I don't know what kind of pubs you go to but... 😅

I went albeit it a number of years ago, I found it really sad to see the men go through the doors knowing that women would be selling themselves for sex.

my DH has never had a particularly high sex drive (that I know of anyway) and it made me wonder why men do it.

I’ve been to Amsterdam a few times and never looked for it but have walked through inadvertently. I believe there are a few areas so it’s possible you might stumble across one without realising as we did.

When we went a few years ago now we walked through the red light district (not on purpose) in the morning and it was pretty much all closed up. It was not at all obvious what it was, although I do recall some big (empty) windows.
The area was pretty much deserted, nothing to see. (Fine by me.)

I've been to Amsterdam twice. Went to the red light district the first time and we were very unnerved by the drug dealers. We got out of there as quickly as possible. Didn't go back the second time.

Love Amsterdam though.

I have been going to Amsterdam my whole life, me and my mum used to go for a cheap weekend all the time when I was younger. It has changed. I was last there just before lockdown and the red light district was particularly intense. Most of the girls looked very young and very spaced out. Tbh, they looked like they had just been dropped there with no idea what was going on. I would not walk my children around that area for any reason.
It is easy to avoid and there is plenty to do there OP, you will have a great time.

I agree you can avoid it easily. And be aware many places don't take cash and VISA cards are not widely accepted, so you need a MasterCard. You also need to pre-book museums as they sell out quickly. Have a great time.

Thank you ladies, much appreciated! X

It's been many years since I went - it was a school trip though obviously the red light district wasn't in the actual agenda - but you could definitely see women and girls in the widows years ago. It felt very uncomfortable.

Could you get the Pocket Rough Guide to Amsterdam to browse in the days before you go?

You could note things you would really like and choose one of those on the evening when people are heading off to the streets you don't want to see?

https://shop.roughguides.com/book/pocket-rough-guide-amsterdam/9781789195460

It’s easily avoided, and even if you didn’t, it’s probably not what you think. You can walk through it without realising.

I mean, why is it odd?

It's legal, but it's not compulsory!

We lived there for a few years. It’s seen as very normal / people go about their business . My beauticians was in the area and our favourite restaurant. The women are doing their jobs- I think it depends on how you see it.

Yeah absolutely you can see them in the windows- but no one stares and you don’t take photos. You respect them. Saying they my little boys used to wave and the girls were great with them! For people in Amsterdam it’s just normal life.

I only realised I was in the RLD when a man called asking if I wanted to see a live sex show. It was 10am on a beautiful spring morning and I was a woman on my own, so I cannot imagine why anyone would have thought I wanted to. I got some nice photos of the roof line reflected in the canal though.

I used to live there - it's absolutely avoidable. There are plenty of other places to go.

If you do end up there just don't go down the side streets. The main area is mainly clearly Dutch women who are hopefully there by choice. The side streets are full of African or Eastern European women that I don't believe chose to be there.

We went to Amsterdam and wandered down a street by mistake. It was really sad. Young girls, completely dead behind the eyes gyrating in windows, wearing very little. I've never found anything less sexy.

Definitely not amusing and I'm not a prude by a long way.

Wow. I think that’s what I do find disturbing, and that really puts me off the idea of visiting. The idea of sex as something you can buy being so normalised that no one has any problem with it being on display in the centre of day to day commerce and children waving etc. Obviously it’s equally prevalent here, and I don’t think our current approach works, but at least we haven’t made an official declaration as a society that there’s nothing wrong with it.

On my sils hen trip, sil and her family all wanted to go to the red light district. I did not. I was accused of being judgemental but I didn't judge anyone... I just didn't think it was safe for us to go. If you agree or don't agree that's fine but they all went nuts at me and when I ended up speaking to my hubby who told me not to go, then my bil went ape shit at them for wanting to go... we then all fell out over this but surprise surprise they never mentioned the reason.. they didn't have the courage to tell the pils that their precious dil wanted to go and hang in the red light district 🤣🤣🤣🤣 sil loves to bad mouth and start hurtful rumours about others but keeps her red light district story close to her!!! There's no right or wrong op. If you don't want to go, don't.. it's hardly going to keep you up at night as a missed opportunity of a life time 🤣

A friend who has lived there for a couple of decades said years ago, he was sitting in a cafe window drinking coffee - and watched a queue of men go in one by one, and about every 5 minutes, one would leave. He commented that whatever she was doing was clearly very efficient, but he'd not seen anything so seedy. (Although the main point of the story was that a colleague was in the line.)