A'dam is our first stop this summer and I want to impress my mother with a wonderful, "cute" hotel. The above hotels have availability.
Seven Bridges has the top room available, 150E/night with breakfast.
Hotel Fita is 125E/night with breakfast. Since we're staying 3 nights, it's about a $100 difference. I understand Hotel Fita is very close to the museums, but *gasp* we are not really museum people.
Anyone care to share what they would do? A good location is important, as we plan on doing lots of walking.
I've tried bidding on Priceline several times, but I have yet to have an offer accepted.
Thanks!

I've stayed at the Fita a few times. It's very nice and well located for much more than museum going. It's only a few blocks to the Leidespleine, close to shopping and close to trams. Save the $100 for a great meal or two.

I've enjoyed staying at The Hotel Seven Bridges. It's impressively "cute" and walking distance to everything (yet in a very quiet location in the canal district).

The location is drop dead gorgeous - from our window we would always see couples stopping at this canal intersection to admire the view (which for some reason usually led to a kiss...).

The Fita sounds nice too. I suppose you MIGHT get a charming, perfectly located hotel on Priceline, but then again you might not.

We stayed at the Hotel Fita for one week about 18 months ago. It is well located, albeit not really in the center, but if you like to walk, and Amsterdam is certainly a walk-able city, it is not too bad. We had a triple room which was big enough, although it lacked charm and "the cuteness factor" you are looking for, I believe. The bathroom had a paper cup dispenser, there was no actual soap bar, but soap and shampoo dispensers, all in all making it look more like a US motel. But most of all, we did not like the owners. They were (or rather I should say "he was" because we only saw the man's wife once at check-in and then never again) extremely rude, brusque, even offensive I dare say. Breakfast was fine but I do remember there were some things we did not like about it, although I cannot remember now what they were. Personally, I would not stay here again.

Is there any problem with stairs? I don't know Seven Bridges but boy oh boy are those some steep staircases I've seen in Amsterdam. I would spring for the $100 for a nicer hotel in a better location.

You don't have to go to museums (loads of people don't care for 'em ... we just don't admit it here on Fodor's -LOL!)

Hotel Fita has a very small elevator which can carry about one person plus their suitcase. I believe that if stairs are a problem, you have to be very careful before choosing a hotel here, since indeed there are very steep and winding steps everywhere. I don't know about Seven Bridges but I suggest you ask them before making your reservation.... anywhere....

My mom's pretty young and fit- only 55, though she'll turn 56 while we're in A'dam (should I be worried??) . So stairs shouldn't be a problem- plus, I'm her mule- so if she needs me to carry her suitcase, I will. Any other suggestions?

Flame 123

We leave tomorrow for the Amsterdam and the Hotel Fita. Your negative review of the Hotel Fita is the first one I have seen. Punching up Fita on Fodor's I found numerous positive reviews, none negative. The e-mail responses from the Hotel have been prompt, polite and helpful.

Could you amplify your negative critique?

Thanks.

Anthony

Hi Anthony,

I hope you will still see this message before you leave for Amsterdam and the Hotel Fita.

Let me clarify for you : The hotel itself was clean and the triple room we had was large enough for us. The bathroom/shower/tub was also clean, but the room had none of the "charm" the first poster was interested in.

The hotel breakfast was quite adequate to start the day off with, although some of the items were not very good.

Having said all that, I was almost offended by the presence of the man who runs the hotel together with his wife. He was a very strange fellow, curt and brusque, seemingly "joking" most of the time while actually I think he was being just rude and nasty. Whenever we asked him a question about a place we wanted to visit or bus schedules or anything, he rolled his eyes up as if to be exasperated and then grudingly answered our questions. But the worst of all was when our toilet got backed up. I called him on the phone and he pretty much yelled at me that "why can't we use the toilet properly and now he has to come all the way to our room to fix it, etc. etc.". When he did come, he made a big deal of it and I felt almost like he was going to ask us to pay for his services. It was really really ugly. All this was seemingly done in a coy, lively manner but it was just a cover-up in my opinion for his being beligerant and just plain rude. His wife seemed to be very nice, but as I wrote before we saw her only once at check-in and then never again, anywhere.... in a week's time. Why, you may ask, did we not decide to leave and find another hotel? I think it was just laziness on our part and since I liked the cleanliness and size of the room, which are always very important to me, I tried to get past the nastiness of the inn-keeper. In the end, when we paid our bill, I did not feel they deserved our money.

I truly hope that your experience will be different and that you have a great time. As for tripadvisor, there are definitely some negative reviews on it about this hotel (go down to the reviews that are on the end pages) although you are right that they are few. Good luck......

That surprises me as I've had nothing but kindnesses from the proprietors. Powell, if you do stay at the Fita, please let us know how you find it. Enjoy Amsterdam. It's a great city.

Catbert - I am glad you had such a good experience and truly hope Anthony does as well.

Anthony - sorry, in my previous post I referred to tripadvisor.com and you had written about feedback on the Fodor's site. If you DO check tripadvisor you WILL see some negative comments exactly in the same vein as I wrote about, i.e. I was not the only one who experienced this. I too am anxious to hear about your experiences in this hotel and in Amsterdam upon your return. Have a safe trip.

Flame123: Thanks, I will go with an open mind.

Catbert: I will report my findings.

We stayed at the Fita a couple of years ago and found it to be fine. There was no problem with the proprietors that I can recall. The room was comfortable & clean and the street was quiet & pleasant. If your interests lie 'in town' then it is a bit further out than many hotels but it was handy to the tram and we never found that to be a problem.