Prostitution Information Center (PIC)

Right here in the heart of Amsterdam's red-light district, tucked between the canals and the glow of neon, sits a place that does something quietly radical: it tells the truth. The Prostitution Information Center, known as the PIC, has been doing exactly that since 1994.

It was founded by Mariska Majoor, a former sex worker who felt that the conversation around her profession was always happening without the people who actually lived it. So she opened this center to change that. Not a campaign office, not a charity, not a place built on pity. A real information hub, run by people with firsthand knowledge.

Inside, the PIC works as a mini-museum, an education platform, and a space for genuine dialogue. It represents the interests of sex workers in Amsterdam and beyond, and it does so by speaking with them rather than about them. Stigma doesn't survive very well when the people being stigmatized are the ones holding the microphone.

For tourists, activists, researchers, and the simply curious, this is a rare place where complicated realities are treated with clarity and respect.

And if you walk in expecting a shocking exposé, you'll likely leave with something more useful: a much more honest understanding of a neighborhood you thought you already knew.