Food and Drinks in Oosterpark
A permanent food kiosk with outdoor seating is near the Tropenmuseum. It serves fresh sandwiches, ice cream, beer and wine, cold drinks, and coffee. You will find other vendors around the park during seasonal times, more likely at path crossways where foot traffic is heaviest. Otherwise, a café is located inside the Tropenmusem. Street corner food vendors serve traditional Netherlands dishes, especially fresh fish sandwiches.

Outside Oosterpark
Tropenmuseum is technically outside the park. A formal garden leads you from the park into the museum’s rear courtyard. The museum’s focus is the cultural life and history of people who live in the tropics throughout the world. You’ll see a display of a Moroccan wedding, and a funeral ceremony from the mountains of southern Sulawesi (yeah, I didn’t know where it was either). The building housing the collection is itself an historical piece of architecture. Great for the kids. Open daily from 10am-5pm.

Walk across two bridges a short distances outside the museum to find the Artis Zoo. The oldest zoo in the Netherlands, Artis has thousands of animals and a Planetarium, Geological Museum, Zoological Museum, Insectarium, butterfly garden (very cool), and an Aquarium (with replica AmDam canal, as if you haven’t seen one on your trip yet). If you’re traveling Europe with kids the Artis is a must stop. Open daily 9am-5pm (6pm in summertime).

For my complete and idiosyncratic list of nightlife, tourist sites, festivals, restaurants, and neighborhoods to find a good hotel, jump to the Amsterdam city page. And while you’re touring the city, look out for AmDam’s other great parks, Vondelpark and Museumplein.
Directions to Oosterpark
“Oos” means East, so you’ll find Oosterpark on the east side of Amsterdam. The best way to get there is by canal water taxi. I’ve said this before: buy a 3-day pass and you’ll be able to hop on an off the canal taxi at all its stops, which are conveniently near all the major tourist sites. Oosterpark is at “K” stop of the Blue Line. The Blue Line travels on a one-way loop, starting out east and looping around. Catch the beginning of the Blue Line east of Amsterdam’s Central Train Station. If you must take the tram, #s 3, 7, or 9 will eventually take you outside the front entrance to the Tropenmuseum.

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