Private Amsterdam Red Light District Tour
The New Red Light District Tour Format
No visit to Amsterdam would be complete without seeing the city’s most famous, or infamous, neighbourhood. Join me, Mark, on my Private Amsterdam Red Light District Tour and get a proper understanding of the area without the need for a post-visit shower. Most visitors wander through it alone, see the obvious things, and come away with more questions than answers. This tour covers the history, the legal framework, the economics, the politics and the human reality behind what you’re looking at.
Tours in the Red Light District are currently banned, so be careful when you see one advertised. Most operators will talk about the area on the outskirts and send you in alone afterwards. I’ve found a way to give a proper tour while staying within the law, using a three-part format.
Part 1 – Cafe with Intro
We meet at a cafe near Central Station, have a drink and a talk about the following topics:
- The history of the Red Light District and of prostitution in general in Amsterdam
- Today’s legal framework and the good elements of legalisation
- How sexworkers rent their spaces and what’s included
- How much sexworkers tend to charge their clients and how to negotiate
- Security in the area and the role of the management companies and the police
- Demographics among sexworkers
Part 2 – Walk & ‘Museum’ Visit
After the intro we walk through some of the alleys and past the famous windows to the Red Light Secrets Museum, where I have a timed appointment. This is what makes the tour legal – I can walk people through the district to a place where we have an appointment, and I can lead them out again afterwards. We can’t stop and talk in front of the windows, but because of the briefing you’ve just had you’ll know what to look for as we pass them: the security cameras, the alarm systems, the details most people don’t notice. I’ll take you through the museum and point out what’s accurate and what isn’t. It has some genuinely good information but also promotes some significant misinformation about the area and the industry, and I’ll let you know which is which. The museum is housed in a building that was itself a window brothel until it was closed down, and you can stand behind one of the old windows and see what the working rooms looked like.
Part 3 – Walk and Cafe Wrap Up
After we are done there we walk out of the district in a different direction, through other red light alleys to another cafe where we talk about:
- How the Amsterdam City Council has been trying to shut down and move the district
- The down side of leganisation and how it has actually been detrimental to the rights of the workers.
- Other formats of sexwork in the Netherlands
- Different legal frameworks around the world and their ‘pros and cons’
- Any questions that you have about the area and the industry.
Why My Background Matters: Alongside my years of guiding in the area, I have worked as a fieldworker for the sex workers’ union, visiting a range of establishments across Amsterdam and the Netherlands: Red Light Districts, private house brothels, sex clubs and street-walking zones – to identify challenges workers faced and check that regulations were being followed. That experience gives me a perspective on this subject that very few guides can offer, and it means the conversations we have on this tour go well beyond what you’d get from someone who has simply read about it.
Contact Us
FIll out the form below or email mark@thatdamguide.com
Red Light District Tour Reviews
These are review snippets – please click the names below to link to the full review.
