I just said that in my experience out of the 15 coffeeshops I went to I found barneys to be the best and I wasn't saying it was the best in amsterdam just in my experience. Specifically said that I wasn't saying it was the best in amsterdam lol.
I found grey area to be insanely crowded/cramped, the guys there seemed really chill, seemed like it was just a hole in the wall that looked like a dealers house. They tried to sell me some sub-standard hash though (was black and appeared to be 3rd run trim bubble or something at some ridiculous price). Utopia was okay but nothing special in my mind?
Yeah in my experience I doubted coffeeshops 'us genetics' a lot of the time, haze is really big there, essentially every shop will sell some form of haze.
Also I wouldn't go during the cannabis cup, complete overrated tourist trap and police have been shutting it down lately. You'd be infinitely better off going to one of the many cannabis cups in the US.
I guess it comes down to doing some research and just having a look around, Always kindly asking to see things before you buy them, I made a rule to personally stay away from stores that had neon signs as I considered these to be tourist traps, I also recommend going to a waffle place when you're there, the dutch are big on their waffles (waffle stores everywhere) and nothing beats some good weed and an amazing Amsterdam waffle!
Also take some time to admire the architecture, Amsterdam has some of the most beautiful architecture, their airport is a work of art (also funny story, they let me smoke weed in the smoking area in the pub of their airport which in my mind seemed taboo, smoking in an airport haha!)
Amsterdam is also home to a number of wonderful museums.
I'm also going to recommend the 420 cafe, I'm sure this place is touristy but it (unlike most of the places i went to) had very decent space and let you use their bongs, plus very nice staff, I found a lot of places (especially the greenhouse) don't seem to like customers just buying weed, they want them to order food and stuff too, usually we'd get pressured by annoyed staff that didn't like us just buying their weed and smoking there without ordering some food (which made the experience really unchill for us at times, not all places are like this though)
Also from what I can recall Amnesia had some good stuff (not sure if they are still operating)
Damprking was also alright but very crowded, usually impossible to get a seat (not sure if they are still operating either)
dabbing DOES exist in amsterdam, but it's hard to come by, amsterdam are just catching up to the US in this regard, i've seen people dabbing but it's always be staff hidden behind closed doors and not offered to the public probably because of all the safety concerns, but idk, depends where you go, i think Amsterdam are usually quite simple joint people..
That's another point, don't ordered pre-rolled joints, just don't, ever.
Gotta be able to see what your buying, they'll usually try and sell you some shit in those pre-rolled trust me.