Can anyone recommend an apartment that you have stayed in or know of near the Ambassade Hotel or in that general area? I would like a view of a canal. There will be only two persons, but I can accept a 2-bedroom if the apartment is right. Price is not as important as location and view.

If not a specific apartment, how about a rental company that specializes in that area or one you have used before and trust.

Thanks.

Actually, just that general area would be fine, but definitely within the canal ring area.

Someone already mentioned Pied a Terre Properties, which has very nice apartments. Anyone have any other ideas?

Topping one last time before I give up.

After a lot of searching (we've always stayed at the Ambassade before, so I know what you're looking for), this is the place we're renting for a week this summer.
It is sure small, but seems very nice and has a great view -- also only up one flight. We eliminated a lot which were four or even five floor walkups, or "semi" below ground.

http://tinyurl.com/ya5muc

You can check the rest of the Simply Amsterdam site also. They were highly recommended to us.

Well, I'll top too in the hopes you don't miss this "last attempt".

Thanks so much for the suggestion. It is certainly in the right area, but I think it is a bit small for us. Very nice place though with great view, and great price.

Out of curiosity though, I checked the availability and the apartment appears available every day during June, July and August. Are you going this summer?

sevendown, thanks for the alert on that. We only confirmed our dates and made the deposit a couple of weeks ago, so perhaps they aren't up to date on their availability calender, but I'm certainly going to ask them about that! Yes, we're going this July.

Meanwhile here is a great apartment on a canal in a great location. If we weren't going the budget route, this would have been our first choice!

http://www.ensuite-logies.nl/en/pagina1.html

Thanks. I saw that apartment earlier, but I just can't get a good feel for it with the tiny pictures. Without better pictures it looks a little sterile for us.

What week are you going in July? We will be there July 1-8. I sure would have been frustrated if we tried to rent your apartment based on the clear availability calendar, just to have them tell me that they had not updated their calendar yet and it was booked.

We'll be there July 10 to 17. Many sites are very bad about keeping those availability calendars up to date. More than once people have commented that they looked at an apartment, but figured something must be wrong with the place as it doesn't show a single booking.

It's odd with SimplyAmsterdam as their calendars for other apartments show lots of bookings thoughout those same months. In any case, I've emailed and asked about that.

Well, that was quick. I emailed and asked about the calendar late this morning. I already got back a reply apologizing and saying they had somehow missed blocking off the dates. (Oddly enough they had penciled them in for me about four months ago, but it took that long for me to actually confirm with them). I kept hoping for something that looked that nice but was larger and had air conditioning for the same price, but couldn't seem to come close. Six weeks of apartments in Europe gets expensive. Meanwhile it's now correct on their calendar. Thanks again for the alert.