Amsterdam first visit
 

I'm visiting Amsterdam with my 22 yr old & 17 yr old in early April--first time for us. We'll be there only for about 3 days. Any recommendations on hotels and must-see's?
Thanks!

For all the must see and hotel recommendations maybe do a search first....there have beena lot of postings on these subjects.
By early April in 2010 do you mean Easter? If so things will be busy.

No, not Easter. The following weekend. (And still looking for hotel recommendations after a search--not sure even in what part of town we'd want to stay...)

How much do you want to pay for a room? Early April is the start of tulip time so it will be busy and hotels may already be booked. Have a look at Priceline and see what if anything they have.

The Brouwer is popular with Fodorites, and in a good area.

You probably do not want to stay in the Red Light District or near it. It's not dangerous, but there are better areas to stay.

If you can't find anything in Amsterdam then consider Haarlem a short train ride away.

Must sees - Van Gogh museum, Rijks Museum, Anne Frankhuis.
Keukenhof for bulbs.

Have a look at Palenque's thread on Amsterdam - it has lots of useful information and ideas of things to see. http://tinyurl.com/yajgun3, but also just read through some of the Netherlands threads for more hotel ideas.

If you decide on the Anne Frankhuis I suggest buying your tickets online to save queueing.

we stayed at http://www.valens.nl/nlhtmldocs/canalsite.html or http://www.ibbp.com/europe/netherlands/treesmilder.html

it would be fine for you. there are 2 twin beds in one room and double bed in another room. the location is PERFECT.

dont miss:
van gogh museum
anne frank house

you can buy tickets online...

We enjoyed are stay at the Hestia. Breakfast included and free Wifi. It is very near the Van Gogh and Rijk museums, overlooks Vondel Park and has good transportation a few steps away.

Book you Anne Frank Haus tickets online and print the. You;ll save yourself from the long lines

http://www.hotel-hestia.nl/

I have just spent a week trying to find a triple in Amsterdam for the week after Easter and was amazed at how expensive it is for what you get.... We ended up booking the Ibis central (fully refundable if I find something better in the meantime) - I am not usually a fan but the price of a triple was pretty good and it was nice and close to the station and transport. I emailed almost every hotel recommended in these forums in the last month and all were full or over 250 euro a night for a very average room! I would recommend booking something soon

We stayed at Boogaard's B&B and it was fantastic
http://www.boogaardsbnb.com/

Well located and great host!

Hi! I'm going to be there around the same time. It seemed to me the accommodations in Amsterdam fell out pretty much between the area around the Van Gogh Museum and the more central area near Jordan (pardon my spelling -- it's still early). I found the best and most reasonably priced selection in bed and breakfasts. Lots of variety of options, such as communal breakfast vs. breakfast provided by stocking a refrigerator in your room. I also like B&Bs for the personal attention of the hosts. One drawback: steep steps to the rooms. They generally don't have elevators. If you search TripAdvisor, keep scrolling down to the ones with the lower rankings (e.g., 30). They still get rave reviews, just a smaller volume.

avalon,

Even though the Frank family was German I don't think the Dutch would be happy to see the Anne Frank Huis called the Anne Frank Haus.

Second to hetismij's recommendation for Keukenhof if the bulbs are in bloom.

I agree re bnb's Abbydog and that was my goal however I could not find any that did not have truly horrible reviews that had a triple available... many that showed availability on their websites actually did not when I enquired.

We stayed at http://www.citycenter-amsterdam.com. It is a lovely bed and breakfast located in the centre of Amsterdam within walking distance to most sites, quiet, comfortable beds, clean rooms, great breakfasts served in your room.

I very much enjoyed my stay at the Hotel Ambassade. I walked to almost every tourist and not-so-tourist location, and the hotel, while in a historic building, was in very good condition, had all the services I needed, and I felt I had chosen very well.
If you would like to see my trip file on a short visit to A'dam, email me at ESL1051 at yahoo dot com