Red Light Districts
Prostitution is a part of life. Many tourists windowshop the famous red light districts of Europe with wide eyes. What cities have the most interesting red light districts? Here's what you thought:
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Amsterdam red light district
theamsterdamdiaries.net
The women involved in prostitution in the famous Amsterdam Red Light District are, for the most part (a bit like real life), nice, intelligent and ordinary. They have simply chosen an unusual career path. They strenuously deny accusations of trafficking, a fact that that many people are reluctant to embrace.
Marcus
London, Inner UK 03/19/2012
Amsterdam Red Light District
I have known prostitutes in Amsterdam for 20 years and can assure you that most are not forced. They are simply girls who choose a less conventional living.
For the few that are coerced- there are currently huge efforts to stop any trafficking of women and illegal activity connected with prostitution. In fact large areas are due to close this year and the red light district will be confined to a smaller more controllable area. Continued updates can be found here- http://www.amsterdam-red-light-district-maps.com
George
Amsterdam, USA 02/12/2012
Amsterdam has a red light district. It's funny because the RLD has hookers as well as a church and regular families all mixed together, very interesting place. We took a tour of the RLD with our tour guide Duke for our package with amsterdam trips llc. It was a lot of fun, highly recommended!
C. Chandra
Las Vegas, NV USA 01/12/2011
redlight dist
brothels in regensburg, nurnberg and amberg areas; nurnberg-frauentormauer str and ottostrasse, amberg-sulzbacher str and hollergasse str, regensburg-auweg str, neumarket-lowenstrasse/ dreichlinger and karl-spitta str. 50 euros.
robby n.
phoenix, az USA 09/10/2010
Germany Red Light Districts
I was stationed in Stuttgart Germany in the Army from 80/83. My experiences with the Red Light Districts in Franfurt, Stuttgart and Berlin were all good ones. The only one that was a bad experience was the one I went to when I was in Munich. The girl was a fast talker and when I bought the bottle of champagne she keep filling her glass with it and stirring it with her straw so it would spill out so she could hurry up my visit. The money I paid for the service I receieved was a waste. The Red Light District in Munich was not comparable to Frankfurt. I managed to visit Amsterdam while there but only window shopped. I was on a 30 day travel around Europe before I left so I only had so much cash to spend. I did manage to indulge in the hashish though. Overall a great experience.
Joe Smythe
Detroit, MI USA 09/01/2010
The moral of these stories is stay out of brothels and seedy areas. Let's face it, brothels and bars in areas with hookers aren't staffed by "moral" people so why be surprised when there are massive scams going on. Stay clear of these places and your chances of being scammed go down considerably.
I'll also add the human slave trade is alive and well and some girls are forced into prostitution. You are adding to the problem when you pick up hookers.
kc
USA 07/19/2010
Beware of entering Strip Clubs in Germany. A friend recently had an incident when he walked in and put his card behind the bar so he could start a tab to have a few drinks. Later he was presented with three separate reciepts for £3000 each and was bullied into signing these by a rough bouncer. BEWARE.
02/18/2010
Do NOT sit down for a drink while at a brother or similar place in RLD
Beware of sitting down at a bar in a brothel or similar establishment you would go to for private time with women. Here is the typical scam: You walk inside and sit down for a drink. One of the ladies working there will sit down next to you and the bartender will ask if she may have a glass of wine. After a conversation and buying her 2-3 glasses of wine you will decide to pay your bill and it will be a large unforeseen amount of money (over 100 euros). You will refuse to pay this bill and then you'll notice the large bouncer at the door who will make you pay the bill or escort you to the nearest ATM to get the cash.
This exact same scenario happened to me while I was in Cologne, Germany. A friend and I had stopped at a place in the RLD area to get a drink. We weren't even stopping for the "company of a lady" and just wanted to have a beer or two before we went back to our hostel. One of the women working there came to sit down next to us and we saw no harm in having a chat with her while we drank our beers. We were asked if we would like to buy her a glass of wine and in the end it had turned into 3 small glasses of very cheap wine. When we went to leave we were informed the bill for the wine was going to be 120 euros. Immediately we knew we had been scammed, but were forced to go to the nearest ATM by the bouncers who were present. Being people who had spent our entire trip with a thrifty attitude we were shocked to be spending an amount of money that would usually last each of us 3-5 days on a few glasses of wine.
During the rest of our trip we encountered several people who had succumbed to the same scam in many different European red light districts.
Long story short, if they don't get their money from your time spent with the female entertainers then they WILL find away to get it some other way.
ALWAYS go to places with cover charges because you will quickly find out none of these places are truly free....
120 euros gone...
Anytown, USA 02/07/2010
RDL- Prague
Total disapointment. In reality, Prague has no organized RLD. Just scattered stip clubs and brothels around Wenceslas Square. Every block will present a different gang of agressive Nigerian "helpers" begging to escort you to another club of their choosing (they get a cut for each sucker they bring to the door). This is a typical tourist trap. Overpriced at $150-$200 USD for average gals. I hear that the locals frequent "hidden gems" about 4 kilometers outside the square. Unfortunately, we never found them. DO NOT travel to Prague expressly for its fabled RLD. Its a myth. Go to Frankfurt.
traveler
NY, NY USA 01/17/2010
Soho, more like SoNo
Why did I not check this site first, F&$% !!! London's Soho is really lame (you get more bang for your buck from the internet) and on top of that, I was scammed out of my 9£ too. Heck that’s 9 beers at an off license ..SACRILEGE..
When presented that exorbitant bill I told them to call up the cops, they then presented some crappy notice (sure it’s fake), some BS about the Metropolitan Police. Man, I bolted out of there and Soho so fast.. But hey, chalk it up to experience been there done that and never again.
Ex London Visitor
Somewhere, abcd USA 06/20/2008
St Pauli in Hamburg
The St Pauli area in Hamburg has a great red light area. There's one street with about 15 red light houses and plenty of women of varying beauty. There are walls at both ends of the street with warning signs stating that no children or women are allowed to enter. There's also lots of Romanian, Bulgarian and other eastern european women standing around outside the area trying to get customers to follow them to a room. Most of this entire area is very overpriced and not worth what you get. Best prices and value appear to be from the Thai and asian women that are working in nearby buildings down the Reeperbahn strasse (usually only 30 euros).
ALEX
Hampton Roads, VA USA 06/10/2008
Belgium offers plenty of red-light surprises. Brussels North station is host to four or five streets lined with window-girls, ranging for the very beautiful to the very opposite end of the spectrum. Clearly, some are chirpy, self-motivated earners but there is also the saddest end of the trade on show and some women are so obviously doing it under duress it is hard to understand why a man would consider dealing with them. Quoted prices vary according to your appearance (including skin colour: I saw girls quoting sky-high rates to North African men). It gets cheaper later at night too. The formerly seedy area around the South station used to feature streetwalkers (and tons of skag) but this is no longer in evidence.
Antwerp's formerly enormous zone near the port has been badly tamed and is a shadow of its former self. It used to have bars, sailors, tattoo shops and loads of banter between men and the girls, now it has been sanitised and typifies the prissy modern approach to fun. Near the station at Liege is a row of windows, but a marvellous arcade is to be explored in Ghent - again, in the station vicinity! (How better to spend 30 minutes waiting for your connection?)
Roadside brothels are visible on the road to Deinze, especially garish and busy at nights at the weekend. Plenty of 'mature' women staff these establishments, be warned....Has anybody found a redlight zone in Ostend by the way?
Matt
uk 04/12/2008
Rules:
Europe's red-light areas come in many shapes & sizes but a hassle-free time can be had if you remember the rules:
First, always barter - it's not rude, it's expected. (If you don't get a price reduction, ask for an increase in the time spent, for instance).
Second, never sit down for a drink. You could be charged a week's wage and get nothing back.
Third, be sure who you are with....ideally, somebody who was born female and is still female, as there are hundreds of gender-benders around! (Disregard this, if that is your bag).
Matt
uk 04/12/2008