Almost every souvenir sold on Damrak has a better version for sale within a few streets, usually made by the people selling it and often costing less.
This guide is a set of swaps: the tourist item, what to buy instead, where, and how to get it home.
Sign up for the Essentially Amsterdam newsletter for more of this before you pack.
Instead Of A Cellophane Cheese Slicer
Buy a Dutch kaasschaaf from a kitchenware shop or a department store: stainless blade, wooden or moulded handle, and it will still be cutting cheese in thirty years.
The cellophane ones on Kalverstraat bend at the blade after a few uses because the steel is too thin to hold an edge.
Same principle for clogs: a hand-carved pair from a working klompenmakerij is a shoe, and the painted miniatures are ornaments.
De Klompenboer at Zaanse Schans carves them in front of you, about twenty minutes from Centraal Station by train, and the workshop is free to walk into.
Instead Of A Red-Wax Gouda Ball
Buy aged Gouda by the wedge from a cheese shop, vacuum-packed at the counter.
Reypenaer‘s tasting room at Singel 182 sells their own cheeses aged up to four years, and the oldest has the crystalline crunch and depth people usually associate with Parmigiano rather than with Gouda.
The tasting itself is worth booking on its own.
De Kaaskamer on Runstraat, in the Nine Streets, carries several hundred cheeses and will cut, wrap and vacuum-seal anything you point at.
Vacuum-packed hard cheese keeps for weeks unrefrigerated, travels in checked luggage without complaint, and is admissible into the United States when commercially packaged - declare it on the customs form anyway.
Soft cheeses and anything made from raw milk are a different matter and will be taken off you.
Instead Of An Airport Box Of Stroopwafels
Buy them warm off the iron at a market stall - the ones on Albert Cuypmarkt are made to order and cost a fraction of the pre-packaged bags near Centraal Station.
For something that survives the flight and looks like a present, Van Wonderen Stroopwafels on Kalverstraat near the Munttoren sells decorated tins, with waffles dipped in chocolate and topped with meringue, freeze-dried fruit or gold leaf.
For volume at low cost, a Daelmans tin from Albert Heijn is the same product the souvenir shops sell at three times the price.
Instead Of A Novelty Chocolate Windmill
Tony’s Chocolonely is an Amsterdam company built around removing forced labour from the cocoa chain, the bars are deliberately unequal in their segments to make the point, and the milk-caramel-sea-salt is the one people ask you to bring again.
Buy it in a supermarket rather than at the airport.
De Ruijter hagelslag - chocolate sprinkles eaten on buttered bread at breakfast, by adults, seriously - is the most Dutch thing you can put in a suitcase for under €3.
Droste and Verkade are the older Dutch chocolate houses, and Droste’s tin carries the recursive image that gave the Droste effect its name.
Drop, Dutch liquorice, is the real dare: zoute drop and salmiak are salt-ammonium salty and split every room they enter.
A mixed bag from Albert Heijn costs under €5 and is a better gift than anything at the same price, provided you warn people.
Instead Of A Printed Delft Plate
Turn any Delft piece over before you buy it - hand-painted work carries a hand-painted mark, and a printed mark or no mark means a reproduction made elsewhere.
The Royal Delft showroom near the Munttoren sells the genuine article with a certificate, from small tiles at around €15 upwards, and Royal Delft has been in production since 1653.
A single hand-painted tile is the best value in the category: cheap, flat, unbreakable in a suitcase, and it looks like a real object on a shelf.
For antique Delft tiles and older ceramics, the dealers along Nieuwe Spiegelstraat in the Spiegelkwartier sell the real history, at prices that reflect it.
Contemporary Amsterdam ceramicists sell direct from their workshops - Marjoke de Heer and Rootfolk both do - which gets you something modern with a name attached.
Instead Of A Miniature Bottle Of Anything
Jenever is the Dutch juniper spirit that gin descends from, and it tastes almost nothing like gin: maltier, rounder, closer to a young whisky.
Wynand Fockink, a tasting house on Pijlsteeg behind Dam Square serving since 1679, pours both jonge and oude styles and the fruit liqueurs, and sells small bottles sized for a suitcase.
The house tradition is that the first sip of a full glass is taken with your hands behind your back.
Spirits must travel in checked luggage and count against your duty-free allowance.
Instead Of A Bunch Of Wooden Tulips
Buy real bulbs, from a Bloemenmarkt stall that sells them in packaging explicitly certified for export to your country.
For the United States that means a phytosanitary certificate, and not every bulb on the market carries one - ask, and if the answer is vague, go to the next stall.
Plant them in autumn and they come up in spring, which makes them the only souvenir on this list that gets better with time.
Flower seeds are lighter and less regulated, and the Dutch range goes well beyond tulips.
If you are here in spring, Keukenhof‘s own shop sells export-packaged bulbs alongside the gardens.
Where To Do This Shopping
De 9 Straatjes for independents, food shops and design, all within a ten-minute walk of each other.
Nieuwe Spiegelstraat for antiques, prints and serious ceramics.
Albert Cuypmarkt, Monday to Saturday, for anything edible at local prices.
Noordermarkt on Saturday mornings for organic food and small-batch Dutch producers.
Utrechtsestraat for wine and speciality food with almost no tourist traffic, and De Hallen in Oud-West for makers and a food hall under one roof.
For everyday Dutch food gifts, Albert Heijn beats every souvenir shop and the airport on price for identical products.
Skip Nieuwendijk entirely.
Packing
Ceramics go in the middle of a checked bag, wrapped in clothes, cushioned on every side.
Vacuum-sealed cheese and sealed tins are fine in the hold.
Bulbs are better in hand luggage, away from the temperature swings of the cargo compartment.
Bottles must be checked, and one rule covers everything else: if the same object is in ten windows on one street, it is not a present.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the single best gift to bring home?
A vacuum-packed wedge of four-year-aged Gouda from Reypenaer or De Kaaskamer - it costs little, survives the flight, and does not taste like anything sold as Gouda abroad.
Can I take cheese into the United States?
Commercially packaged hard cheese, yes; soft and raw-milk cheeses, no.
Declare all of it on the customs form.
How do I know Delftware is genuine?
A hand-painted maker’s mark on the base, and visible variation in the brushwork on the front.
Royal Delft supplies a certificate with each piece.
Are tulip bulbs allowed home?
Into the US, only with a phytosanitary certificate, so buy packaging that says so explicitly.
Cut flowers and anything in soil are not permitted.
Where do I buy jenever?
Wynand Fockink on Pijlsteeg, which has been in the business since 1679 and sells suitcase-sized bottles of both jonge and oude styles.
It has to go in checked luggage.
Is the airport a reasonable fallback?
Schiphol stocks Reypenaer, Tony’s Chocolonely, Rituals and a Rijksmuseum shop, so you can rescue a trip there.
Everything costs more than it does in the city.
