The streets at night
The rhythm is inverted compared with the centre. On weekdays the Zuidas is crowded from breakfast meetings to after-work drinks around the Mahlerplein, then the towers empty and the wide streets fall silent well before ten. Weekends are quieter still, unless a large congress at the RAI has filled every bed in the south of the city. That silence changes the logistics in useful ways. Business hotels here expect late visitors, because deals and flights both run late, and a well-dressed woman crossing a lobby at eleven reads as a colleague arriving for a working dinner. The one real hurdle is the lift: most towers let only a keycard reach the guest floors, so she will message you from the ground floor and you meet her at the lift bank. In an aparthotel with a separate residents' entrance, send the name on the door as well as the street address, since several buildings share a single block.
