Agora
Singel 462. Phone: 627 2200. Fax: 627 2200. Price: DFl.190 ($114) with breakfast. All major cards. 12 rooms. (A2).
An inexpensive hotel well placed on the Singel canal just a few steps off Konningsplein.
The front door is always locked and the guests receive a key. The lounge and breakfast room are tastefully decorated, with a big window to a small garden. Friendly owners. No elevator.
Room no. 27 is rather small, with old-fashioned furniture, including an inlaid writing table. Everything functions well and the shower is unusually powerful.
Ambassade
Herengracht 341. Phone: 626 2333. Fax: 624 5321. Price: DFl.275 ($165) with breakfast. All major cards. 52 rooms. (A2).
Perfectly situated, on a relatively quiet part of the Herengracht canal 400 meters from Dam square and 200 meters from Spui square. The romantic hotel does not have an elevator and is thus not for the handicapped or elderly.
An old grandfather clock in the agreeable lobby gives the tone, continued in antiques of the first floor sitting room. It gives the feeling of a 17th C. home of a rich merchant, full of antique furniture. Part of the aura consists in steep and narrow stairs. Willing and friendly staff toil with the luggage. Guests get keys to the front door.
Room no. 28 is on the third floor. It has the width of a whole canal house and has a marvelous view from three large windows to the canal. It is ample and amongst other things equipped with an old chest of drawers and an old dining room chair. The bathroom is fully tiled and well appointed.
American
Leidsekade 97. Phone: 624 5322. Fax: 625 3236. Price: DFl.475 ($284) with breakfast. All major cards. 188 rooms. (A3).
This delightful, castle-like Art Nouveau hotel is well placed at Leidseplein itself. The city theater is next door and all around are the cafés and restaurants. On the other side of Singelgracht are the world famous museums of Amsterdam and the Concertgebouw. The guests are late risers and breakfast hours take that into account.
This is the traditional home away from home of artists, entertainers and art lovers. It was erected in 1897 in free-rein Art Nouveau or Jugendstil, resembling a Disney castle. It has become famous in the history of architecture and is classified as a protected monument. The interior decoration of Café Americain on the ground floor is famous.
Room no. 416 is on the Singelgracht side and has a beautiful view through massive trees. The room is of medium size, well equipped and has a good bathroom. Livelier rooms overlook Leidseplein and the sidewalk café of the hotel, but then you have to accept the noise, at least when the windows are open. Some of these rooms have balconies and some are round turret rooms.
Amstel
Professor Tulpplein 1. Phone: 622 6060. Fax: 622 5808. Price: DFl.825 ($494) without breakfast. All major cards. 58 rooms. (C3).
The grand hotel of Amsterdam on the river Amstel. (Shortlisted for evaluation and inclusion)
Ascot
Damrak 95. Phone: 626 0066. Fax: 627 0982. Price: DFl.390 ($234) with breakfast. All major cards. 109 rooms. (B1).
A convenient and smart hotel overlooking the Damrak avenue, 50 meters from the Dam itself.
It has excellent furnishings and friendly staff in the lobby. Breakfast was rather badly done and the breakfast room staff not trained at all. The breakfast room itself is attractive, done in a marbled brasserie style.
Room no. 311 is rather big and cozy, furnished with light blue bed covers and curtains and had an exceptional view down to the avenue. The quality bathroom was all in marble.
Avenue
Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal 27. Phone: 623 8307. Fax: 638 3946. Price: DFl.210 ($126) with breakfast. All major cards. 50 rooms. (B1).
A spotless hotel of small rooms, recently renovated in detail, 500 meters from the central railway station. It is in a brick warehouse, formerly owned by the East India Company.
The breakfast room adjoining the lobby is simple and tasteful, but the tiny bar behind the lobby is rather gloomy.
Room no. 230 is samll, attractively decorated in style. It has too small a wardrobe. The bathroom is small, but practically designed, fully tiled and agreeable. The sound insulation is perfect.
Barbizon Palace
Prins Hendrikkade 59. Phone: 556 4564. Fax: 624 3353. Price: DFl.500 ($299) without breakfast. All major cards. (B1).
Opposite the central railway station. (Shortlisted for evaluation and inclusion)
Canal Crown
Herengracht 519. Phone: 420 0055. Fax: 420 0993. Price: DFl.300 ($180) with breakfast. All major cards. 67 rooms. (B2).
On a traffic artery near Muntplein. (Shortlisted for evaluation and inclusion)
Canal House
Keizersgracht 148. Phone: 622 5182. Fax: 624 1317. Price: DFl.230 ($138) with breakfast. All major cards. 26 rooms. (A1).
A sympathetic and personal hotel of antiques in a few canal-side houses 10 minutes from Dam square. No TV sets are in the hotel and children are not accepted.
The front door of this warm hotel is always locked and guests carry a key to let themselves in. A small lobby, a mirrored bar and a beautiful breakfast room with a piano lounge are on the ground floor. The guest rooms are strewn about the upper floors, mingled with short steps and long corridors, full of antique furniture and dresses.
Room no. 3 is rather small, cozy and quiet, with a view into a well maintained back garden. It has two bare brick walls, spacious cupboards and antique furniture, including a lamp sculpture. The bathroom is fine, well tiled and has an efficient shower cabin.
Citadel
Neuwezijds Voorburgwal 100. Phone: 627 3882. Fax: 627 4684. Price: DFl.200 ($120) with breakfast. All major cards. 38 rooms.
(B1).
Centrally located near the royal palace. (Shortlisted for evaluation and inclusion)
Classic
Gravenstraat 14-16. Phone: 623 3716. Fax: 638 1156. Price: DFl.225 ($135) with breakfast. All major cards. 33 rooms. (B1).
Straight in the center, in a quiet, pedestrian alley behind Nieuwe Kerk, 100 meters from Dam and just a few steps from noisy Damrak. It has modern furnishings of a jenever distillery from 1880 at the side of the Drie Fleschjes “proeflookal”.
Everything is small here except the guest rooms. The ground floor is modern, with a small lobby including a bar corner, opening into the breakfast room. You cannot hear the city noise in here. But acoustics on the floors are a problem.
Room no. 110 is rather big and had windows in two directions. It has solid and tasteful cane furniture. The bathroom is fully tiled.
Dikker en Thijs
Prinsengracht 444. Phone: 626 7721. Fax: 625 8986. Price: DFl.375 ($225) with breakfast. All major cards. 25 rooms. (A2).
A small hotel in an Art Decco building straight on the pedestrian shopping street Leidsestraat, on the corner of Prinsengracht canal, 100 meters from lively Leidseplein. It is above the famous Dikker en Thijs confectionery shop. The well-known Prinsenkelder restaurant is in the cellar.
The lobby is just a little nook behind the shop, entered from Prinsengracht. Opposite the lobby Café du Centre doubles as a breakfast room. A little foyer fronts four rooms on each floor, enhancing the atmosphere of a private house. The best rooms are high up on the canal side.
Room no. 504 is modern in style and had a bowl of fresh fruit. The white, plastic furniture gave a cold impression. Two armchairs are at an outsize window opening out to a tiny balcony. The double glazing prevents the Leidseplein noise to enter. The bathroom is fully tiled, well furnished, also with a large outside window.
Doelen
Nieuwe Doelenstraat 24. Phone: 622 0722. Fax: 622 1084. Price: DFl.375 ($225) with breakfast. All major cards. 85 rooms. (B2).
An old and an old-fashioned hotel at an imposing and a central location at the confluence of river Amstel and canal Kloveniersburgwal, 200 meters from Muntplein and 300 meters from Rembrandtsplein. It is long and narrow, squeezed between the canal and the street.
In the narrow northern end this faded hotel has probably the best known hotel and piano bar in town. Half the rooms look out to the canal and those are preferable to the other half. The stairs are of marble and the candelabras of copper. Try to get rooms with an Amstel view.
Room no. 218 is spacious, well equipped in an old-fashioned and an impersonal way. It has two big windows and a balcony overlooking the Amstel river.
Estheréa
Singel 305. Phone: 624 5146. Fax: 623 9001. Price: DFl.355 ($213) with breakfast. All major cards. 75 rooms. (A2).
Centrally located a few steps from the historical museum. (Shortlisted for evaluation and inclusion)
Europe
Nieuwe Doelenstraat 2. Phone: 623 4836. Fax: 624 2962. Price: DFl.610 ($365) with breakfast. All major cards. 100 rooms. (B2).
This fine hotel in town has an excellent location sitting on the confluence of Amstel river and Rokin and Singel canals, facing Muntplein, 600 meters from Dam and 300 meters from Rembrandtsplein. The hotel was built in 1896 and resembles a giant, floating cake. The illuminated basement kitchen evokes the interest of passers-by, as the chefs seem to work underwater.
This old hotel of nobility is venerable without being snotty. It has been renovated from top to bottom. In the technical respect it is on par with hotels that have been built recently. Personal service is better than it is at similarly priced chain hotels. Guests are quickly remembered by name. It takes no time to get whatever you want, a midnight snack or a rented car.
Room no. 316 is exactly as the public rooms, decorated in white and a soft, greenish blue in a French style, with matching period furniture. It is immense and has a window that can be completely opened for an excellent view directly to Muntplein and the tourist boat traffic on the Amstel. The bathroom is laid in marble, well equipped with large towels and bathrobes.
Grand
Oudezijds Voorburgwal 197. Phone: 555 3111. Fax: 555 3222. Price: DFl.625 ($374) without breakfast. All major cards. 155 rooms. (B2).
A recent hotel in a historic building in the center. (Shortlisted for evaluation and inclusion)
Krasnapolsky
Dam 9. Phone: 554 9111. Fax: 622 8607. Price: DFl.475 ($284) with breakfast. All major cards. 4213 rooms. (B2).
One of the landmarks of Amsterdam, a hotel palace opposite the Royal Palace at Dam square. The hotel has been here since 1866 and has in recent years expanded into neighboring houses. This location is as central as possible. Short distances to all directions in the center.
Guests breakfast in a famous Belle Epoque winter garden, Wintertuin. It can be difficult to find one’s way in the hotel. Corridors and elevators are strewn around. It is wise to try to get a room in the oldest part, with a view over the square to the Koninklijk Paleis. The outfit of those rooms has been renovated.
Room no. 2032 has the expected view to the Dam, where happenings of entertainers, religious groups and protesters enliven the view from morning to night. This is a perfect observation point. The room is daringly designed with colors in black, white and silver in dramatic combinations. Everything functions perfectly in the room and the bathroom.
Marriott
Stadhouderskade 21. Phone: 607 5555. Fax: 607 5511. Price: DFl.460 ($275) with breakfast. All major cards. 392 rooms. (A3).
The top chain hotel stands opposite Leidseplein on the other side of Singelgracht, 200 meters away, and has a good view from the front side over the city center.
The lobby is busy as a railway station. Guests are coming and leaving all the time. It is more quiet behind the lobby, in the peaceful hotel bar of several levels, decorated in a library theme. A disco is downstairs, Windjammer Club.
Room no. 307 has a view to Leidseplein. It is spacious, equipped with heavy furniture, matching in style with the colorful curtains and courageous wallpaper. Strangely the well appointed bathroom is wallpapered, not tiled.
Mercure Arthur Frommer
Noorderstrat 46. Phone: 622 0328. Fax: 620 3208. Price: DFl.255 ($153) with breakfast. All major cards. 90 rooms. (B3).
A colorful hotel 500 meters from Rembrandstplein, designed in an 18th C. housing development for thirteen weavers.
There is no room service in this otherwise winsome hotel and the basement breakfast room is rather uninviting.
Room no. 214 has eccentric furniture, including carved armchairs and a rocking chair, thick bedspreads and a small bathroom with a sunken shower. The furniture is starting to fade a little.
Owl
Roemer Visscherstraat 1. Phone: 618 9484. Fax: 618 9441. Price: DFl.190 ($114) with breakfast. All major cards. 34 rooms. (A3).
A cheap and quiet hotel in a small street of affordable hotels behind the Marriott, 300 meters from Leidseplein, near the main museums, offering warm welcome to travelers.
It has friendly staff and a nicely decorated breakfast room and a smart bar in the basement. A beautiful garden is in the back.
Room no. 444 looks out to the back garden. It is small, pleasantly furnished and has a fully tiled bathroom, but is not soundproof enough.
Parkzicht
Roemer Visscherstraat 33. Phone: 618 1954. Price: DFl.150 ($90) with breakfast. All major cards. 14 rooms. (A3).
A small and cozy hotel.
Some of the rooms overlook Vondelpark.
Room no. 5 is appointed with old furniture in good condition. The bathroom is satisfactory.
Port van Cleve
Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal 178. Phone: 624 4860. Fax: 622 0240. Price: DFl.325 ($195) with breakfast. All major cards. 99 rooms. (B1).
Centrally located behind the royal palace, 100 meters from the Dam, alongside the former central post office that has been transformed into a mall of boutiques, Magna Plaza.
This small and comfortable hotel has friendly staff and one of the best known traditional Dutch restaurants in Amsterdam, the Poort. Ask for a renovated room.
Room no. 518 is one of the renovated ones and overlooks nearby rooftops. It is big and stylish, with a fully tiled and well equipped bathroom.
Pulitzer
Prinsengracht 323. Phone: 523 5235. Fax: 627 6753. Price: DFl.500 ($299) with breakfast. All major cards. 230 rooms. (A2).
About 700 meters from Dam, occupying a whole block of houses between Prinsengracht and Keizersgracht, most rooms facing Prinsengracht. The lobby is on that side but from the other side you enter the hotel bar and restaurant Goedsbloem. On the outside there is little indication that this is an hotel or rather a travel sanctuary inside.
When indoors, the lobby looks smallish and unpretentious and the staff are pleasant and relaxed. All the hotel is furnished with exquisite taste in modern style in seventeen adjoining houses. Most of them are from the early 17th C. and some from around 1600. The hotel is full of corridors and small stairs between the individual houses and there is no elevator.
Room no. 419 is unusually aesthetic, with all modern comforts under the bare beams of the old structure, extending to the width of a canal house, looking out to Prinsengracht. Brick and beams are more prominent in some other rooms. Sunny and harmonious colors of the decorations accent the summer feeling. Everything is comfortable and solid in the room and bathroom.
Rembrandt
Herengracht 255. Phone: 622 1727. Fax: 625 0630. Price: DFl.300 ($180) with breakfast. All major cards. 111 rooms. (A2).
Perfectly situated 400 meters from Dam, in a big house facing Herengracht canal and three small houses facing Singel canal.
The lobby is small and modest, but the rooms are stylish and enjoyable, particularly up in the attic where the structural beams are much in evidence.
Room no. 407 is spacious and bright. The beams dominated the decoration. The fixtures of the room and bathroom are solid. And it was an extra convenience to have an electric trouser press.
Renaissance
Kattengat 1. Phone: 621 2223. Fax: 627 5245. Price: DFl.395 ($237) with breakfast. All major cards. 425 rooms. (B1).
Very central, on the corner of Spui and Kattengat, 300 meters from the central railway station, in an area with many restaurants and some new hotels. It is built with style and personality in concert with the city environment protection authorities. Thirteen houses from the 17th C. were incorporated into a new building designed with traditional gables.
A pedestrian subway connects the hotel with its conference facilities in the Ronde Luterse Kerk, a former, circular Lutheran church. The hotel is a world in itself, with shops and restaurants, and some commotion in the lobby. A well-known disco is in the hotel, Boston Club. It also spawned some new restaurants and bars in the formerly run-down neighborhood of storehouses.
Room no. 806 is commodious, well furnished and comfortable. It has a thick, red carpet. All the furniture matches in style. The bathroom is fully tiled and perfectly fitted. Other rooms have good outside views.
Rho
Nes 11. Phone: 620 7371. Fax: 620 7826. Price: DFl.200 ($120) with breakfast. All major cards. 105 rooms. (B2).
A comfortable hotel built into an old brewery from 1908, a few steps off the Dam square, in a pedestrian alley, offering value for money and quiet abodes right in the center of Amsterdam.
The vaulted lobby, Art Nouveau in style, is spacious and airy, the most attractive element of the hotel.
The rooms are rather small but well furnished in modern business style and have all the usual conveniences, including a coffee set. The bathroom is fully tiled.
Roode Leeuw
Damrak 93-94. Phone: 555 0666. Fax: 620 4716. Price: DFl.295 ($177) with breakfast. All major cards. 80 rooms. (B1).
A small hotel with a good staff above a restaurant with the same name right on the Damrak avenue just a few steps from Dam square, as central a location as possible in Amsterdam.
The lobby is small and the rooms are of different sizes. The heavily decorated ground-floor restaurant with woodcarvings in the ceiling, offering traditional Dutch specialities at lunch and dinner, also serves as a breakfast room. A street-front café adjoining the restaurant offers a convenient observation point of the heavily pedestrian Damrak.
Room no. 102 is large, with almost an empty look in spite of sporting an extra sofa and two easy-chairs and an ample writing-desk. It has two large windows opening out to the Damrak, but is quiet when the windows are closed. The furniture is modern and straightforward. The bathroom is well and simply equipped, with a linoleum floor and papered walls.
Victoria
Damrak 1. Phone: 623 4255. Fax: 625 2997. Price: DFl.410 ($246) with breakfast. All major cards. 305 rooms. (B1).
A solid and almost staid Neo-Classical hotel at the northern end of Damrak, opposite the central railway station. This is a traditional first class railway hotel that has been renovated and expanded into new buildings.
The public rooms are gracefully decorated in pine and paintings. The hotel also boasts of a pool.
Room no. 411 is spacious and a little bare, as the furniture does not fill it up properly. A view to the station through two windows, but traffic din does not reach the room. The bathroom has good fixtures.
Vondel
Vondelstraat 28. Phone: 612 0120. Price: DFl.275 ($165) with breakfast. All major cards. 28 rooms. (A3).
Just behind Marriott hotel, 200 meters from Leidseplein, a snug hotel with friendly staff.
There is no elevator.
Room no. 5 is big, has a sitting area and extra room for a third bed. The furniture is old and clean and the bathroom is tiled.
1996
© Jónas Kristjánsson
