De 9 Straatjes

This teeny offshoot of The City Street Spa offers a slimmed down version of the treatment menu: manicures, pedicures, and brow shaping—that's it. The most brilliant part of all is that they're devoted to walk-ins, meaning you can pop in for a quickie mani/pedi on a whim while wandering around Nine Streets.

The purpose of The City Street spa is to provide all the services one might look for in a traditional spa, but in an urban setting with busy schedules in mind. The treatment menu includes massages, facials, waxing, eyebrow shaping, and mani/pedis—all performed in a tranquil, minimalist environment. For the guys, there's face-mapping, manicures, and pedicures. There's a mini spa outpost a few blocks away that's really good about walk-ins.

As gorgeous as the line of paraben-free skin care and bath product is, the true beauty of Marie-Stella-Maris is in its mission: Every purchase of an MSM product—be it a gentle body scrub or the deeply cleansing shampoo—provides 1 euro toward clean drinking water projects all over the world. The flagship boutique is an excellent place to get familiar with the offering and stock up (the line isn't widely available in the U.S. just yet). And if the name sounds familiar, it's because the Marie-Stella-Maris brand of natural mineral water is served at most local restaurants.

While it’s not especially difficult to get your hands on a solid cup of coffee around these parts, the skilled staff at this teeny café really know their way around an almond milk latté, and coffee snobs will be especially impressed by their stellar pour-over technique. There's a second location in Haarlemmerbuurt.

The Cold Pressed Juicery has two locations in Amsterdam: One in De 9 Straatges and one on Willemsparkweg near Vondlepark—both smartly situated for grabbing a juice/smoothie in the morning before touring around the city, or during a mid-afternoon pit stop. The juices are cold pressed and organic and largely made from locally grown produce. This is also a good option for a quick lunch (salads, wraps, soups). Another cool thing about The Cold Pressed Juicery is that instead of throwing out juice pulp, they use it to make nut milks and other snacks.

Within Amsterdam's picturesque canal-side shopping district, De 9 Straatjes ("The Nine Streets"), you'll find De Kaaskamer van Amsterdam, which has to be one of the world's most wonderful cheese shops. Obviously there's a lot of gouda, much of which is organic, along with ready-made food—homemade salads, sandwiches, and snacks—as well as specialty hams and wines. And should you be so inclined after visiting, they ship to more than 25 countries, including the U.S.

A Dutch brand through and through, Love Stories chose a well-loved, bi-level canal house as its only stand-alone location; inside, the setup is equal parts punk and French boudoir. You can easily cobble together matching bra-and-pantie sets, but the real fun lies in playing with different combinations of gauzy bralettes, cheeky panties, and silk pajama shorts. As of late, designer Marloes Hoedeman has been trying her hand at loungewear to great results.

It’s likely you’ll get a whiff of Gerda’s freshly picked blooms while bumming around 9 Streets before you actually see it. Whether you’re looking to pick up a quick hostess bouquet or elaborate centerpiece (these guys provide florals for tons of fashion events all over the city), beautiful results are guaranteed—high praise considering flowers are serious business in Amsterdam. While they make really great use of wildflowers, the selection of orchids and other exotics is excellent, too.

Although the shop itself is rather small, it’s easy to burn an entire afternoon here. The walls are decked out from floor to ceiling with framed curiosities of all kinds, from brilliant blue butterflies to delicate beetles and stick bugs. And while we won’t pretend to know anything about bringing taxidermied goods through customs, there are plenty of other items worthy of suitcase space, like antique globes, unique cutlery, and stationery.

With a focus predominantly on fashion, design, architecture, and photography books, Mendo’s cavernous, sexy space couldn’t be more fitting. All in all, it’s one of the most stunning bookshops we’ve ever visited.