Chill staff. Relaxed and cozy atmosphere, even if you are not yet a local. Good food and plenty of space in the bar area to relax while you have a view of the boulders. Routes are varied and enough reclining plate not to blow your arms in no time. However, handles are not that clean, even the handles that have only been in them for 1 day: perhaps there is something to be learned from some other halls where things seem to be going better. Furthermore, this hall is highly recommended.
Plus: Many routes, lots of choice, spacious. All facilities available, everything good for each other. Friendly staff. Minus: too busy & too loud music. Really wait until you could climb the wall, not really climb chill then. In short: go at quiet times ... but that's not always possible if you also work. Hal threatens to go down as a result of his own success, at least for my kind of climber who also wants some rest and wants to try some moves. That does not work so well if you are stared at by a group of people waiting. High hipster / student content. That can be both positive and negative;)
Its nice place except the food. Several time i got disappointed about the food quality. Although its look nice on nice looking collorful plate- doesnt taste nice. I mean everything except burgers.
Cool place to boulder with a friendly atmosphere and great for beginners to start learning. They do a boulder ladder which changes every couple of months which I found very useful when learning as the boulder routes start of very easy and get progressively harder. Highly recommend this place!
Love this place. Such a great vibe, sense of community and the problems are always keeping you guessing. Bonus is they also have a fab menu so you can also just chill out and have a coffee or burger when your body is recovering. The staff are super friendly and even the patrons are willing to help out with solving the climbs.
Very nice to climb a day! Friendly and helpful staff (climbers). Only the bar people came across a bit arrogant. For example, I had to say 3x what I wanted to order; a sandwich is not that complicated ... Furthermore, a super location to improve your climbing qualities!
Great place to practise your bouldering. What bothered me at diner time was the smell of food. The restaurant is located in the middle of the climbing hall. After a while I got used to it and had an awesome climbing experience. Not too busy.
What I noticed is that the staff has a lot of knowledge about climbing. The knowledge about hospitality is less but I have no doubt that it will increase. Would go here again.
Top location, strangers who give you advice, good service and interesting routes. I myself really want to be in the hall at 11:00 instead of 12:00 (during the week)
Has the best training area hang/campus boards etc out of all the gyms in the city. Also better structured or more spacious than others, so people can easily climb and move around safely without bothering each other.
It's a very nice bouldering hall indeed, however my last time there left me with an unpleasant aftertaste. My bouldering partner made the booking and the reception confronted us claiming we double-booked the reservation, which never happened since we checked the email and even if it happened it would of course have been unintentionally. I found the behavior rather rude I must say, while she was pointing out repeatedly the money that they are forced to lose now that we made the wrong booking, in a rather scolding way... As if we didn't understand what happened and as if we did this on purpose. Above that, our ears almost bled on the noise of screwdrivers screeching during our whole stay there since they decided it's a good idea to renew some of the Boulder routes while people were actually bouldering! I found it very unprofessional and disturbing and also as a beginner I could only do very certain routes which at that time were being renewed so I was just left out doing one route or something. I don't know if this is the case or not to renew the bouldering walls while people are bouldering but it surely does not guarantee a pleasant bouldering experience and a pity for the wasted money.
A fabulous place to introduce the whole family to bouldering. We (parents) took 3 kids along (aged 7-13) and everyone enjoyed themselves, was challenged and came away feeling satisfied. We had a superb introduction to bouldering from Lukas - he was very informative, welcoming and responsive to kids' requests for information and new challenges. Didn't sample any food or drink, but the menu looked tempting. Highly recommend.
Great bouldering. We didn't climb though but had a meeting in the facility's meeting room. Nice atmosphere, great coffee and friendly priced. Very flexible as we were able to arrange very last minute.
I spent the a few days visiting friends in Amsterdam and visited a couple of walls whilst I was here. I'm pleased to say that I only have one minor gripe with Het Lab which is that the grading/colour coded circuit system wasn't all that straight forwards for a first time user. I'm sure I'd get used to it though.
The central staff area/island had a Mos Eisley cantina bar '2.0 version' thing going on which really sets the place off nicely and really sets a tone for the rest of the centre - curved, light and airy with no dark, dingy corners. The staff were friendly, the coffee was spot on - all this going for it and I've not even started climbing yet!
The atmosphere - even though it wasn't super busy - was nice/warm/friendly. The training area had a decent array of equipment which means you could easily shoe horn in a make shift circuit before/after climbing. Plus, there's a slack line for really honing those fine motor skills and balance.
Route setting is pretty subjective so all I'll say is that I enjoyed what I got on and that there were a couple of stand out problems for me - which is a good thing. It's all hooks to bring you back, right!?
In short, if I were living in Amsterdam I'd be looking at membership options at Het Lab first and foremost.
My favorite place in Amsterdam, bouldering is one of the best sports, routes are updated every week and they have a huge location. The food is super tasty and looks very tasty (a salad, some gluten-free alternatives and vegan without soy on the menu would make it perfect). The beer collection is 10/10, something for all tastes, lots of different bottles and a few drafts with Hertog Jan lager and then 2 seasonal specials. The staff is perhaps the most beautiful of this toko, I have not met anyone who was not passionate about the business, they are all beautiful, strong and intelligent individuals who love to help their guests and share a smile.
After trying and failing to book a slot for today on their confusing website yesterday (and failing to do so) I called and booked by phone. After showing up today, even earlier than the agreed time, I was told by a rude employee that "I was not in the system" so there was nothing that could be done for me and had to leave. Wasted an afternoon going to the place for nothing. Too incompetent. Too rude. Avoid. There's plenty other places to climb in Amsterdam. Go somewhere else.
Great range of routes with plenty of different holds to practice on. Wide variety of intermediate levels. All the holds are nice and clean. very nice space to chill too! Will stop going to MONK and go here :)
Het lab is a great bouldering spot. There's a wide spread of difficulties, as well as motivated people trying their fanciest moves. Tired? Have a shower, or sit next to the fire and have a dubbel. Of course, you can rent shoes and there's even some snacks. Anyways, nice place.
Update; they now just have a tap and shower, staff is also very friendly, the registration system is still a btj buggy but will be fine, now the terrace and it's the best;)
Has the potential to become very cool, but is still very new; hopefully they will soon have a tap to wash your hands and they will be less difficult about their own food and drink. I really want to buy some food there, but eating a banana must be gwn, so you can't complain if someone brought yesterday's ff pasta.
Wonderful place to bouldering. There is also a corner to train with many options. You can also eat and drink well there. Both vegan and non-vegan dishes. Relaxed atmosphere with a summer terrace. Dog friendly