Yet with so many bars to visit, they make it easy to be mobile and the cumulative effect they have over the course of an evening can be quite intoxicating. Many are staffed by a women who keeps the WC from overflowing. Most of the bars and pubs are small and narrow, yet each has a unique personality and crowd all its own. They go strong until 3 a.m. The clubs are massive, holding anywhere from 500 to 1,000 people and stay open until 5.
Most places deal in cash, so have plenty of guilders on hand.
You're going to need them. There's a lot of grunting involved in speaking Dutch. English is spoken freely. Amsterdamers will not object to speaking to you in any language they speak and it's certainly not necessary to learn Dutch in order to thrive here. As is always the case, it's polite to at least make an effort in the local lingo.