I must admit I’m not the best in bargain hunting. Every once in a while I try to do my best at flea markets or vintage stores but most of the time I have to face the facts: I’m incapable of finding the nice clothes in the midst of all the junk. Still I keep on trying because I do know people that do succeed and I can’t stand the idea that I might miss out on a great bargain just because I didn’t give it a try…

So I gave it a try at the IJhallen in the North of Amsterdam. Every month there is a huge flea market here where people sell mostly clothes but also other things. For an entrance fee of 4.00 you are free to spend as long as you want to rummage around the piles and piles of stuff that are on offer.

The market is usually partly inside and partly outside. Make sure you dress up warm cause both places are cold in wintertime!! The stuff people sell is really very cheap so if you do have an eye for a bargain you rally can’t miss this.

Also the trip over to the market is worth while. You take the free ferry from Central Station over to the NDSM part of North, I always enjoy this!

(Check the website for the upcoming markets)

Friday Next is a lifestyle store, exposition room and café all in one, a concept which is not that common (yet) in Amsterdam. But this concept store has a great inspirational collection of design furniture, jewelry, great leather bags and more wannahaves.

The bright store feels like a very nice decorated apartment, where you will find the café in the midst of the store. Here you can enjoy a coffee or a lunch, prepared with the fresh products of Marqt next door (see the Marqt article). Given the amount of laptops I saw during the week, this spot lends itself perfectly to get some work done.

Every two to three months a designer or famous international brand is asked to expose their work here. Furthermore this store is an inspiration for everyone who likes to pimp their home with an unique item! Definitely worth a visit when you’re near the Overtoom.

Laura Dols is the most famous vintage store in Amsterdam, situated in the trendy Negen Straatjes (Nine Streets). Here you will find all kind of unique pieces, most of them originating from the 50s, like dresses, hats, clutches and pumps.

I like to go here for a special outfit for an event like Christmas or a ball/gala. In the basement they have a tremendous amount of the most beautiful glamour, ball and cocktail dresses, all nicely arranged by colour. The prices are very affordable and the staff is always willing to advise you or lend a hand to zip up your dress.

The staff is always busy ironing the new incoming clothes, since the collection is refreshed daily. Every piece is checked and cleaned, so no dirty or smelly clothes! Laura Dols only sells quality pieces, so it’s worth a visit to score your unique item to stand out of the crowd!

Beadies is a shop that makes me very happy every time I visit, due to the big collection of beautiful beads and romantic accessories. Everything is nicely arranged in wooden cabinets in this tiny store in the famous Nine Streets. They sell a large amount of beads of which you can design your own perfect piece of jewelry, like earrings, bracelets and necklaces.

From Monday to Friday you can make your own jewelry at the big wooden table in the back of the store. When you don’t feel like being creative don’t worry, they also sell the handmade pieces made by Beadies or you can tell the employees what you like and they will make it for you that same day, custom-made!

It can be a bit pricey, but most of the pieces are real eye catchers! I think the style you will find here can best be described by romantic Ibiza meets Sex and the City glamorous, most of the accessories are very feminine, classy and fashionable. It is worth a visit to find the perfect gift or just something beautiful to cheer yourself up!

Their webshop is already a favourite of many fashion lovers, but last year I Love Vintage opened up a boutique along one of the canals in the city centre. This cute, but bright and organized store is really a must if you are looking for some nice vintage leather boots or pumps.

Next to the big collection of vintage shoes and bags from the 50′s till the 90′s, they also have a nice mix of dresses and cardigans. But not everything is vintage, you will find new stuff as well like the cool collection of accessories.

The back of the boutique is also used as studio where they have photo shoots for the website and as storage for all the items on the site. So before you come to ILV you can write down the items you will like to try on or you can search through the whole collection on a touch screen in the store. Just give the details to one of the friendly employees and she will get the item for you.

I like to visit the store once in a while for some new inspiration and to score a unique item!

Since this place is a little tucked away in a neighborhood in Oost, you could easily miss it. But you should not miss it, since this is a really cute and good brunch and lunch spot! Their motto is: stop eating shit, eat good food!

The products they use are mostly organic or honest, which you can taste. They have an extensive menu, with sandwiches served on slices of bread, fresh smoothies, soups, homemade carrot cake and my favorite chai tea’s.

Beter en Leuk means Better and Pleasant, and the atmosphere in this place is very relaxed with little benches in- and outside with comfortable pillows. Next to being a lunch spot it is also a small boutique, where you could find organic beauty essentials, clothes and gadgets. The high tea I can also recommend! And for the ladies; once in a while they offer workshops or special shopping evenings. So if you want to try something new, and you are in Oost give it a try!

This spot comes closest to what Americans consider a deli… and a fine one it is. It has a good selection of different delicacies, varying from salads to ready-made fine foods. It also has a nice choice of cheeses and sausages.

One of the things I really yearn for from time to time is their lasagna. For € 1.50 per 100 gram you can choose between salmon-spinach, bolognese or pumpkin-goat cheese (the first one is my absolute favorite) and they also have a mousaka (same price). Furthermore they have many different salads (€ 3.95 per 250 gram), homemade vegetable soups and two or three different types of quiches (€ 1.50 per 100 gram). Too bad they don’t sell my beloved wraps anymore.

You’ll also find (biological) fruit juices, soups, vegetables etc. Whatever you’ll find at your deli back home. So whenever you’re (a) lazy (cook) and have some extra bucks to spend, you can find your supper here.

Pied à Terre is a geographical bookstore on de Overtoom. They’re not only one of the biggest travel book stores in the world but absolutely unique in that they sell almost anything of interest to the avid traveler. It’s a real treasure trove. There’s 400 sq meters (!!) full of travel-related print  – bizarre novels, the latest city guides, dictionaries, endless cycling- and trekking routes, aeronautical charts, maps of the Andes, you name it. They also sell notebooks, postcards (not just of Amsterdam), a selection of world music, photography books, books on flora and fauna, DVDs with wildlife series and about sixty globes in varying shapes and sizes.

Whether you’re planning a coming-of-age trip to the far end of Patagonia or just wanting to know which enormous hill in the Dutch countryside is best to climb, the amazingly knowledgeable staff will help you plan all your future itineraries.

The store serves coffee, sandwiches and cake in their on-site cafe, and you might not even have to leave Pied à Terre at all to feel like you’ve traveled the earth. Good parts of my day have been spent here getting lost in the Sumatran jungle or memorizing which berries in the Swedish forests should definitely be avoided. I always walk out completely inspired and terrified at the same time, because there’s far too much ‘out there’ still to explore.

Some streets make you want to strut down them like you’re Travolta in Saturday Night Fever. De Haarlemmerdijk might not match 1970′s Brooklyn, but with its plethora of detail stores and beautiful old buildings, no wonder a lot of places here have been noticed by my fellow spotters! It’s amazing how many great hangouts can be found along such a small stretch of pavement. Some personal favorites:

Start with a croissant at Mediterannee, and go by 2 For Joy for fresh roasted coffee. Shop at Restored, with products from young designers; at Mary Ann, run by wonderful ladies who really know how to rock old-school brassieres; at sneaker store Seventyfive, or photography specialists Nivo Schweitzer. As a film freak, I love browsing through the cult DVDs and posters at the wonderfully geeky Silver Screen, or catch a screening in one of Amsterdam’s nicest cinemas, The Movies.

You’re also in the right place for a makeover. During the phase where I had something pierced every time a relationship ended, the lovely Sharon at Dare2Ware - Amsterdam’s most comfortable piercing studio – made it so much fun. The artists at House of Tattoos around the corner are also extremely talented. And if you want to top off your new look with a bright magenta fringe, visit Kinki hairdressers down the street.

Finally, ‘de Dijk’ is a Mecca for foodies like myself – do-it-yourself with kitchen utensils from Deksels!, the amazing cookbooks at De Kookboekhandel (one of it’s kind!), cupcake supplies from De Tafel van 18, or the Tea Bar‘s teas. Or just feast on Jordino‘s Italian ice cream, Small World‘s huge sandwiches and restaurant Balraj‘s great Indian food.

Next to the well-known daily markets (Dapper, Albert Cuyp and Ten Kate) there are a couple of monthly markets in the Amsterdam area. These sometimes sell the more luxurious goods, but from time to time also just plain junk. The best market, if you ask me, is the one which has the best combination of these two.

My favorite one among the monthly markets is the Sunday Market at the Westerpark. Every first Sunday of the month you’ll find the stands partly inside and partly outside at the old buildings of the former gas plant. These stands offer a whole bunch of stuff, from jewelry, gemstones, lotions and scarfs till heads, wallets, pillows and t-shirts. But also handmade artifacts, children’s toys, second-hand furniture and things for your cat or dog.

It’s a perfect way to spend that boring (first) Sunday (of the month). And you don’t have to worry about getting hungry when strolling around. Every time there are several nice food stalls present, like a soup van called ‘Buskruid’ (a Dutch word joke, meaning gunpowder, but literally translated it says bus-spices). Enough to see to keep you busy for an hour or two.

The next Sunday Markets are on the 6th of May, 3rd of June and on Thursday the 17th of May (Ascension Day) as a part of the ‘Hemeltjelief Festival’ (in Dutch) at the NDSM shipyard!

Book stores are disappearing throughout Amsterdam, and magazine publishers are shutting down by the drones. In the age of e-readers, it’s a joy that a traditional book store such as Athenaeum – housed in one of the prettiest buildings right in the centre of Amsterdam – is still around. I love the feeling of leafing through freshly printed paper!

The great thing about Athenaeum is that they have a lot of choice without being totally overwhelming or overly commercial. The people that work there really know their way around and they can find you pretty much anything you need – from philosophy to poetry to recent fiction. They have a really decent English department, too.

Next door to the main book store there’s a separate section that focuses solely on magazines. It’s here that I mostly end up, as they sell almost every magazine under the sun, even independent ones like the awesome cinema mag Little White Lies, which is hard to get by elsewhere in the city.

Athenaeum works because it’s not trying too hard to be cutting edge – it sticks to what it’s been doing for ages, and does it well.

Ari’s vintage store didn’t even have an official name until a while back. People probably knew it as ‘that crazy junk store on the Overtoom’ or ‘the store with the living room outside’. On nice days, Ari and his crew tend to put a couple of their couches, chairs, lamps and brick-a-brack outside on the pavement, creating a relaxed hangout right in the hustle and bustle of the Overtoom traffic. The store’s welcoming feel lifts it from a lot of the other vintage stores in Amsterdam. Even if I don’t end up buying something, I end up sitting outside, chatting.

It’s packed to the brim inside, but what may seem like colorful chaos is in fact a meticulous collection of beautiful vintage furniture, clothing and weird paraphernalia, all hand-picked and continuously replenished by Ari himself, who has been in the second hand trade for years. Some of the things he sells are even personal family heirlooms!

Ari admits to having a weak spot for slightly ugly stuff. So do I! Some things are beautiful in their ugliness, and I love rummaging around the like a magpie sifting rhine stones through rubble. The store seems endless. It’s amazing how much well-priced stuff you can find, and the fact that you have to actively comb through it is what I love about vintage shopping, and why I love this place. You have to search the city to find it, and search some more once inside, but either search is well worth it!

I’m addicted to cheese. If I had to choose between cheese and pretty much every other thing that’s edible on earth, it would have to be cheese. Ah, the joy of cheese. Thankfully, Holland’s a cheese country so I get my fix, but for the best in French cheese – God knows I need the smelly samples too – I always go to Abraham Kef, a small but quite famous local cheese shop on the Marnixtraat.

From their wonderful little basement, Kef sells an enormous choice of Dutch and French cheeses, all seasonal and imported from small producers. They also sell artisanal charcuterie, French bread and wine, if you want to make a real picknick out of it. They even sometimes have a cheese that goes by the name of the ‘Stinking Bishop’. Say no more.

The best thing is the fact that you can do tastings in their basement on Sunday afternoons; you’re seated at one of the tiny beer barrels they keep, and Marike, the owner, will serve you wonderful cheese platters. She will sit next to your table and she’ll take her time to tell you everything you need to know and what to drink it with, no matter how long the line of people waiting outside may be. The attention given to their trade makes you feel really special.

Be sure to call ahead for a spot on Sunday!

Sir Max has expanded – twice as big and three times more choice. I love it!

A jewel in shoes-land! It’s located in the 9 streets.

This is the the ultimate for shoe fetisjhists. Brands of hand made shoes like Crockett & Jones, Santoni, Alden, Saint Crispin’s and Edward Green are here to be bought by willing customers.

Not cheap of course, so really for the freaks, dandies and lovers of good shoes!

Great supermarket with health and eco food, and much more! They have a lot of take away goodies! Nice spot!

The “Overtoom”, the name of the street, is getting more attractive. It used to be a traffic – jammed road. Now you can go there for fun, food and shopping.

A real good new Marqt for Amsterdam.

Not the place for everybody, but a place for every Burgundian! What a selection of meat (Waguy), cold cuts, pâtés (home made), salads and sausages of all kind… They have professional and very friendly staff who help you make your choice(s). All the goodies and nice food is beautifully displayed, and makes your mouth water. Check out their new sausages, Henk can tell you all about it!

My choice is the Iberian pork and truffle sausages and the French Limoges Côte du Boeuf. This shop is a beauty for the eye and tongue.

They have the Italian fresh truffles, some as big as a tennis ball. Worth the detour.

In the Dapperstraat in the Eastern part of Amsterdam you will find the Dapper market. The Dapper market is one of my favourite markets. It is one of the busiest and biggest markets of Amsterdam.

The market sells a great diversity of food like fruit and vegetables. Besides food you will also find flowers, clothes, shoes and anything else you might need. I usually go there for flowers and fruit and vegetables and am always amazed at how cheap it is!

I also love the fact that at the market all different cultures come together to do their shopping. It is a really multicultural place and it represents Amsterdam really well. It is also worth it to check out the different shops just off the market where you will find little supermarkets that sell different foreign products. Also the market offers a diversity of different ready to eat snacks from lots of different cuisines. Another favourite of mine are the freshly squeezed fruit juices.

If you are planning to check out Amsterdam Oost, which I really recommend you do as it is a very lively area where lots of different cultures and kinds of people come together, you really can’t miss the Dapper Market.

I just found this cute spot with a friend of mine when we were wandering around at Haarlemmerdijk. Forget about teabags, here you will find the real deal and everything you’ll need to prepare a proper cup of tea! The tremendous amount of different teas, all arranged in transparent boxes where you can scoop the tea of preference in a little bag. They have over 60 flavors, from the standard earl grey to special mixes like the spiced grandma’s apple-pie.

Upstairs you will find the fresh white decorated tearoom, where you can enjoy a cup of tea or a big teapot. Treat yourself with one of the famous Lily’s cupcakes or an organic cookie to really make it a feast! And don’t worry coffee lovers will not be left aside, they serve biologic coffee (Bocca) as well.

I regularly visit this store in the fancy van Baerlestraat, because here you’ll find a very original collection of women’s clothes and accessories. They sell lovely tops, cute dresses, cool jackets and shoes that make you feel very feminine again!

They have some exclusive brands as well as some more affordable brands in their collection, like Modstrom, Cheap Monday, SNOB and Supertrash.

The store is accompanied with a website: welikefashion.com with an even bigger collection. If you’re not quite sure what the latest trends are for the season, pay a visit to this store and find out! The shop is not that big and therefore it is easy to go through the racks.