Escort Amsterdam Oost, gardens, docks and music

Oost is compact on the map and well connected in practice. Companions from Amsterdam Centrum reach the Plantage and the docklands quickly, and those in De Pijp simply cross the Amstel. Arrival within the hour is the realistic expectation for most of the district, with the metro beneath the Wibautstraat and the trams as dependable alternatives to a taxi. IJburg lies further out, across the water, so add a little time there. On concert nights at the waterfront, when taxis queue by the entrance, an earlier message keeps the timing exact.

Oost rewards the guest who likes a programme with some air in it. A concert at the Muziekgebouw on the IJ, or jazz in the smaller hall beside it. Dinner in the Plantage, where the streets are lined with trees and the evenings are hushed. A walk across the red bridges of Borneo-Sporenburg, or a drink by the windmill at De Gooyer, before the night turns back toward the hotel. Angelika, confident and devoted to jazz bars, seems made for a late set beside the water. Liana, gentle and a keen gardener, would linger among the glasshouses of the Hortus if the hour allowed. Lucy likes to run beside the Amstel by day, and with her dreamy, artistic turn of mind would surely ask about the planetarium at Artis before the evening is out.

Oost mixes grand old streets with very new ones, and addresses on the docklands islands can be hard to find after dark. Name the island as well as the street, whether Java, KNSM or Borneo, and mention the entrance for an apartment block. For a hotel near Amstel station, say which side of the tracks it faces. If the evening begins at a concert, give the hall and the expected hour of the final applause, and your companion will be waiting as the doors open.

Oost holds some of the city's gentlest attractions. Artis, one of the oldest zoos in Europe, shares the Plantage with the Hortus Botanicus, where glasshouses shelter plants first brought to the city by the Dutch East India Company. Near the Oosterpark, the Wereldmuseum occupies a grand building of towers and carved stone, its halls devoted to cultures from every continent. The Dappermarkt, a few streets east, is the district's own daily market.

To the north, the Eastern Docklands turned warehouses and quays into a museum of contemporary housing: the Whale on Sporenburg, the curving blocks of the KNSM island, the bridges of Borneo. By De Gooyer windmill, a small brewery has poured beer beneath the sails for decades, and the terrace is a favoured stop on a summer evening.

The eastern metro lines run beneath the Wibautstraat to Amstel station, where trains leave for Schiphol and Utrecht, and trams reach the Plantage, the Oosterpark and the docklands. From Centraal Station, the Muziekgebouw on the IJ is a pleasant ten-minute walk along the water. By taxi from the airport, allow twenty-five minutes or so outside the rush, a little more to IJburg.

Companions from the centre and from De Pijp are the nearest, but the whole collection can be reserved here. A clear sense of where you are, island, park or station, lets the coordinator give you an arrival time that holds.

Oost shares the Amstel with De Pijp, and the metro from Amstel station continues south to Zuidas in a handful of stops. How longer evenings are quoted is explained on the rates page.