Ambassade hotel
 

My sister and I are going to Amsterdam in June 2015. We are looking at the Ambassade hotel. It seems like it has very good reviews. Any thoughts?

It was recommended to us by a friend who used to live nearby this hotel. We loved it's location near Spui and The Seven Streets . It is a series of attached gabled homes so there are variations in floors and rooms. We opted not to be on the canal and had an interesting view of the rooftops of this historic area. Our room was charming and very quiet. We only ate breakfast there once as there are many neighborhood places to eat at a much lower price. We would stay there again.

I enjoyed the location of the hotel and the service and amenities justify the price. However, I will also add that I was really shocked by the difficulty of accessing some of the rooms given the narrowness and steepness of the steps in the twisting stairwells. As described above, the hotel is actually comprised of several historic townhouses, so the original stairs in some areas are preserved as is, which I am all for. But I happened to have a room that could only be accessed by one of these narrow stairwells and while I have complete mobility, I walked up and down these stairs at a snails' crawl because they were so narrow. (Half the treads were no more than 2 inches wide). I also had a lot of difficulty maneuvering my carry on bag up the stairs. I have no idea what it would be like if you had a large suitcase.

So if you happen to have mobility issues (or wear bifocals!) or are coming with a load of luggage you might want to ask specifically for a room with level access (there are some).

There are many nice hotels in Amsterdam and b&bs with good locations and service and charm that cost less than the Ambassade.

Here's a humorous photo somebody from Moscow posted on Tripadvisor of one of the staircases in the Ambassade

http://www.tripadvisor.com/SavedPhot..._Province.html

I had been booked into the hotel by someone else so I didn't read any reviews before I went, so hence my surprise.

If you do stay at The Ambassade they have a library filled with books written by well known.authors who have stayed there. Interesting.