Amsterdam lodging
 

My husband and I are taking a trip to Belgium and the Netherlands in August - it looked for awhile like we were going to have to cancel due to job issues, but thankfully things have worked out in a decent way, everybody is still employed, and the trip is a go :) So I am back in planning mode.

I am currently researching lodging in Amsterdam and looking for recommendations.

We will be there for 6 nights, arriving and departing by train. We also plan to take 2 day trips outside the city while we are there - one to Den Hagge and one to another place yet to be decided - traveling by train as well. I don't think we want to be super close to the train station, but either walking distance (within 1-1.5 km) or close to a tram route that goes to the train station for convinience.

Our budget is about 125 euro/night, which I know will be a bit of a challenge - I am hoping to snag deal though and stay some place a little nicer than this budget would normally allow - tourism being generally low these days. We could go as high as 150 euro/night for the right hotel.

We are also considering renting an apartment instead of staying in a hotel, but are not sure. We haven't done that before, and since it is just the 2 of us, we aren't sure if it would make sense - on the otherhand, we think that with almost a week, it would be nice to have a little extra space to spread out and have a kitchen.

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated :)

<b>Hotel Fita</b> and <b>Hotel Brouwer</b> fill up pretty fast and should be in that price range. There are a lot of B&Bs offered in Amsterdam - you can research them by going to the Tripadvisor hotels section for Amsterdam, and click on the tab for B&B/Inns. To find any specific websites, enter the B&B name in Google, should locate it fairly quick.

Note: for August, you might want A/C and I don't know if above hotels have it or not..

We stayed there last year, but for a longer time. I personally think there is too much to see in Den Haag for a day trip, but tastes vary. Our day trip to Haarlem was enjoyable. A pleasant historical city within minutes by train, with one of the best organs in the world, but you have to time it to be there when they are playing the organ.

I like apartments, but in Amsterdam we opted to stay on a houseboat. For either apartments or houseboats, most seem to have a one-week minimum, so you would have to pay for a week even if you only stayed six days. We enjoyed our houseboat, but I won't name it as I think it was being sold, and a lot could change under a new owner. As to location, Amsterdam is pretty compact and we ended up walking everywhere rather than taking a tram. I would suggest you decide what you want to see, and avoid, and pick a location based on that. Our houseboat was in a non touristy neighborhood, but closer to the red light district than I would have liked, although having stayed there, it turned out not to be a problem at all.

Take a look at http://www.houseboats.nl/index.php
We opted not to stay there as it seemed a bit far from what we wanted to see, but the boat looks real nice, and the price looks even nicer, but I think it is in more of a commercial maritime neighborhood than a residential one.

Have you thought of staying in Haarlem instead of Amsterdam? It is a lovely small city only 15 minutes from Amsterdam with trains every 15 minutes. You will get far more for your lodging dollar there. We were going to spend six nights in Amsterdam but were convinced by our Dutch neighbor to stay in Haarlem instead and were delighted that we did. We stayed at Stempels Hotel - a small historic hotel that is just off the main square accross from the Cathedral and it is a wonderful place to stay. You can click my name and read a more detailed description in my trip report. You will also find links to my photo page where there are pix of Haarlem and Stempels plus other sites in the Netherlands and Belgium.

I was wondering about the need for A/C in August. It looks like the average high is only 71°F, so it seems that anything above say 85 or 90°F is pretty unlikely. We grew up on the California central coast where the average temp in August is only slightly higher than in Amsterdam and A/C is practically unheard of there. How is the humidity in Amsterdam when the temperatures heat up? Would that add to the need for A/C?

Regarding the houseboat option - how did it feel to be on a houseboat? Did you feel exposed since basically as soon as you leave the interior of your house, you are right on the street? Or was it ok?

I know that Den Haag has more to offer than can be seen in a day, and I would love to have more time there - a day trip is the compromise though. We are Escher fans (just about ever engineer is - LOL) so we want to visit the museum and we want to see a bit of the coast, but we don't want to move around more than we are and burn sightseeing time moving in and out of hotels - so a taste of Den Haag it will be :)

I hadn't thought of staying in Haarlem instead of Amsterdam proper. How convinient is the ride back and forth? Do the trains run late?

B&Bs in Amsterdam are often highly recommended and within your budget. Check out TripAdvisor, and make sure you click the option for B&B reviews, not just hotels.

In Den Haag, I found the Panorama Mesdag a delightful small sight.

I've not been to Haarlem, but I would not stay outside of Amsterdam. The whole town is an engineering marvel. The Dutch are often quite critical of Amsterdam, rather in the way a lot of Americans are critical of their cities. I've never been to the red-light district (which seems to draw the most nose-wrinkles from Amsterdam nay-sayers) but Amsterdam is a beautiful, very civilized urbane place, full of lovely surprises.

Zeppole, to each his/her own. If I had never been to Haarlem I might have said the same thing but Haarlem is a lovely and charming town that is more Dutch than tourist. For the price of a one star hotel or B&B in Amsterdam, you can stay at a place like Stempels that is absolutely beautiful with every amenity including a free computer work station in every room.

It can get hot and humid in August, but it is unusual. Only you can decide whether A/C is a necessity or not. A/C is unusual in anything but hotels and offices of course. We cope just fine without it. You can always open windows if you don't have A/C.
Staying in Haarlem will naturally increase you expenditure on travel every day, both in financial and time terms. A return ticket from Haarlem to Amsterdam costs €6.70 pp and the train takes about 15 minutes. There are regular trains until 00.40, and one night train at around 2am, but that takes longer to get to Haarlem, and is probably not a good idea.
You need to decide whether you can save enough on hotels to make Haarlem worth while.
Haarlem to Den Haag takes between 35 an 45 minutes, depending on the train you get, and costs €13.80 return pp.

Escher lived in Baarn, which is very close to me, and is still where the Escher Foundation is based. Sadly it missed out on his museum due to Den Haag's bigger budget for such things.

hetismij - of course everything you say is correct, and it comes down to the experience that one wants. For us, our neighbor's suggestion to stay in Haarlem and "commute" to Amsterdam was perfect - it allowed us to enjoy the best of both worlds, a bustling international city and a charming small Dutch city to come "home" to - all at the same time. Sitting in Haarlem's central square at night having a bite to eat and people watching was a delight and a relaxation after a day of touring Amsterdam or wherever else we went that day.
The added experience made the commuting time worth it for us, and even with the extra expense of the train tickets, we still came out far ahead of what a hotel equivelent to Stempels would have cost in Amsterdam. That was a plus of course, but even if the costs were the same, we would do it that way again. Heck, DW enjoyed Haarlem so much she even said it could be nice to move there.

I'm not arguing about which is better, I have never stayed in either as I live only a short train ride away.
But since November_moon is on a pretty tight budget she needs to be able to include any extra travel costs in her decision as to which city she chooses.
If she can hang on a bit with booking the hotels or uses a consolidator she will probably get some very good deals for August, as, like elsewhere in Europe, Amsterdam's booking are down.

November_moon - if you are visiting Bruge, may I suggest the Lut & Bruno Setola B&B. The 3 rooms are really very nice, all ensuite. Lut is a gracious hostess, serves a good breakfast and the location is perfect- a quiet street no more than a 2 minute walk to the central square. All for about 60 euro/night (at least that is what we paid last year).

Thanks for the additional recommendations. The Hotel Brouwer looks like it is right up our alley. I will look into B&Bs as well.

I think that A/C isn't going to be an issue for us. We live in a warmer climate and don't have A/C - as long as the windows can be openned, we are fine.

I think we will try to stay in Amsterdam proper rather than Haarlem, just for the ability to be able to step out of the hotel and be close to things - and have the ability to come back to the hotel easily to drop things off, take a rest, late night convinience, etc - our lodging budget wont go as far, but we will have the convinience of being in the thick of things.

I have stayed 2x at www.nadia.nl

The Nadia is in a great location. There are alot of stairs though. Owners were nice both times. Breakfast included.

We stayed once at
http://www.vacationhomerentals.com/v...roID-5343.html


Nice little houseboat with a very nice owner. We had to take tram to center but no big deal. It was only a block away.

As to privacy, I would equate a houseboat to a house. You step off the boat onto a sidewalk. Many have a deck that functions like a patio.

For stays of a week or more, I would prefer a houseboat to a hotel or an apartment, as, with no shared walls, there is more privacy, and, at least in my experience, better natural ventilation. When we were in Amsterdam, we spent a lot of time sitting on the deck and watching the tour boats go by; they apparently thought we were natives, and we just thought we were lucky to be there.

We stayed at the Herenstraat Apartments last August and thought it was wonderful. The apartment is well furnished and the location is great. The same guys run Mae's B&B, which is right beside the apartments. Both get good reviews on TripAdvisor.

http://www.herenstraat.com/

Enjoy your trip, we loved Amsterdam!

Hi; I suggested this to another poster, but perhaps you could also consider the apartment. www.vrbo.com/125532 iris1745/dick