Cricket22

Cricket is one of the few Amsterdam locals on the roster, a tall brunette with long dark hair and that clean northern look. She is 22, relaxed and quietly self-assured. Her sense of humour is very Dutch, which means direct and often delightfully dry.

Having grown up here, she can point a visitor to the brown cafes and hidden courtyards that most tourists never find. Day dates and dinners along the canal ring are her favourite bookings. Cricket speaks Dutch and English and visits addresses across Amsterdam.

Cricket knows Amsterdam as a local does. She can tell you which bakery has the queue worth joining, which bridge has the view without the crowds and where to get a decent coffee before the shops open. Ask her anything about the city and she will answer honestly, sometimes with a dry remark about the tourists that makes you laugh.

Her favourite bookings are day dates: a walk along the canal ring, a slow lunch, perhaps a boat ride past the houseboats, then back to your hotel. In the evening she makes a good dinner date: three hours, EUR 540, and a table she can suggest if you tell her what you like to eat.

She lives in Amsterdam Centrum, close to the Haarlemmerstraat, and needs 45 to 60 minutes after confirmation to reach a hotel anywhere in the city. A relaxed afternoon with her usually means two hours, at EUR 360; a single hour is EUR 180. If you want to try a few words of the local language, she is a patient and amused teacher.

If the weather turns, as it often does here, she knows the covered spots and warm cafes that make a rainy afternoon pleasant. Visitors who want to see the city through a local's eyes, and not only from a hotel window, usually enjoy her company a great deal. Ask her for her favourite canal view and she will gladly take you there.