Hotel/Bed & Breakfast Reviews in Amsterdam
 

Author: jackbref
Date: 03/27/2007, 09:56 am
My wife and I are going to spend 3 nights in Amsterdam beginning May 11 and have found availability at the following places:
Hotel Kap
Hotel Agora
Amstelzicht Hotel & Apts
Atlanta Hotel

Does anyone have any opinions of these to help us make our decision? We would like a quaint bed & breakfast near the cultural sights not necessarily the night life.

A friend of a business associate who lives in Amsterdam recommended these hotels although we haven't checked them yet:

Park Hotel
Hotel de Paris
Hotel d'Amsterdam
Tulip Inn
NL-hotel

Any opinions will be appreciated.



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I am not sure if the Hotel d'Amsterdam is the same one we stayed in a few years ago..right across from Dam Square so I will not comment further (ours was simply called the Hotel Amsterdam)

Anyway, if you'd like another source of reviews besides the folks here you might try looking on www.channels.nl

Since you are at the stage of having so many hotels on your list it may help if you look at the reviews of each of these hotels on a site like tripadvisor.com - you can put in the name of the hotel and city in search and all the reviews for that hotel are listed in one place. You may be able to eleminate many hotels based on reviews or costs. Then narrow down to a couple of hotels that you seem to like equally and ask for specific opinions here. Just a suggestion.

we have stayed at Hotel Brouwer and it was all we could ask for. Their prices are low and they are extremely friendly. Views from the windows are amazing too.

We stayed at the Hotel Agora almost 10 years ago and really enjoyed our stay and the convenient location, in a canal house along the Singel, just a few doors down from the Koningsplein, where there is a corner grocery store and a tram stop. Across the Koningsplein is the beginning of the Bloemen Markt (Flower Market) which runs into the Muntplein. There's a great little pancake cafe that we like to visit along the Bloemen Markt, "het Singeltje" at Singel 494.

The hotel rooms were decent size with some antique furniture pieces. The breakfast room was nicely decorated and adjacent to the garden out back. Breakfast was typical Dutch (meats, cheeses, bread/rolls, jams, juice, coffe/tea) and an egg. There was no elevator, but they do lock the door at night for security (night clerk can buzz you in).

We also stayed at the Hotel Atlanta on a different trip, in Room #4, which overlooked the Rembrandtplein. While the view was nice, it could be very noisy on the weekend nights. The room was very small - by the third day we finally figured out how to move around without bumping into each other.

At night I would lay in bed and hear something mechanical running. It wouldn't start until I was just about to doze off, then it would run for several minutes, then stop, maybe for 15-20 minutes. Long enough to start to fall asleep, then it would begin the cycle again. Two days later, when we had dinner at an Italian restaurant down the street, I heard the noise that had been haunting me at night, and discovered it was coming from a pump in the basement (remember, Amsterdam is below sea level).

We were travelling with two young adult males (just graduated college) and they put them on the next floor up, in a room that looked like it hadn't been updated since the cold war. They lived in a frat house, so they weren't bothered by the lack of furniture and dingy walls.

When we returned one evening from day tripping, we discovered that the boys room had been broken into, or so we thought, and they were robbed. Here the desk clerk had given their room key to two guys that walked up and asked for it. He thought they were the guys we were travelling with. I don't know if these guys were hanging out in the ugly breakfast room and overheard us talking about our plans for the day, or if they had stayed at the hotel prior and realized how lax the security was. The hotel didn't offer to compensate the boys for their loss, until we were checking out, they said we didn't have to pay for the mini bar. Well, the theifs had emptied the mini bar and the maids never restocked it. Hell no, we weren't paying for the mini bar.

So please heed my warning and <b>DO NOT BOOK A HOTEL ROOM AT THE HOTEL ATLANTA!</b>

Peace, Robyn :)&gt;-

Staying for 3 days means you have the option of getting a vacation apartment, which is a better way of getting to know the city and works out better value and more fun! This apartment: http://www.way2stay.com/Amsterdam-ap...-en-67-817.htm
has its own garden and is in a canal house around the corner from the Amstel river and like 2 minutes away from Waterloo square in the old centre.
Enjoy!