An evening in Amsterdam when you are on your own

• Socials by Detor, this site. Four to six people who have not met, at one table for dinner, drinks, coffee or brunch, in English or in Dutch. We choose the group from a few answers you give once, and a person checks it. We book the venue and send the address the day before; until then the others see only your first name and pronouns. You pay per seat, with no membership, and settle your own bill with the venue. Visitors book like anyone else; what is open this week is under "On this week" below and on the Amsterdam page.
• Timeleft: dinners for four to six on Wednesdays and Fridays at 19:00, drinks on Thursdays, coffee on Saturdays, a walk on Sundays, in Dutch or English. It needs a subscription, booking closes 13 hours before, and you pay the venue for your own food. Its strength is reach: one app for more than 200 cities.
• Groupvibe: four to six people for coffee or brunch at a café, matched on personality, interests and age. Known to us from a 2024 IamExpat article, so check it still runs.

I amsterdam, the official site, has a What's On page and monthly guides to free things and concerts under €20. The list at godetor.com/city-happenings/amsterdam gathers what costs nothing this week. In November the IDFA documentary festival screens citywide until 23:00.

• An English pub quiz. Gebrouwen door Vrouwen, a brewery bar on Jan Pieter Heijestraat in Oud-West, lists one on the third Monday of the month from 20:00, sign-up by email; we read the listing second-hand, so check its site. Quizitive runs English quizzes at other bars; sign up on its site.
• A language night. The Meet Berlage exchange at Oudebrugsteeg 1 is described as fortnightly, and Language Corner's free bar nights as monthly; both read second-hand, so check dates.
• An evening walk. A paid two-hour walk in English with a local guide is listed from the National Monument; we found no free one with a fixed start time.

For eating alone, the solo guides name De Foodhallen, a food hall, and the bar Amsterdam Roest; any brown café seats one person. Oud-West, where the quiz is, is the one neighbourhood they name.

• Tipping is optional. Service is usually in the bill; rounding up, or 5 to 10 percent at a sit-down restaurant, is what the guides suggest.
• Generally safe at night; the cautions in every guide are pickpockets and the Red Light District late on.

• Choose one thing with a fixed start time; it gets you out of the room.
• Go where talking is the point: a quiz team, a language night, a table of strangers.
• Sign up the day before; the quiz and the tables close in advance.

What Socials has on in Amsterdam this week, in English and in Dutch, is on the Amsterdam page.