We will be in Amsterdam for 3 days in August. Can you suggest a few hotels with the best location possible, great charm and cost is not an issue (special occasion).

Any recommendation for great restaurants to try would also be appreciated.

MONSOON99, try the search function, there are a million threads on this. have a nice trip.

Monsoon, in your searches, try two ways:

1. enter amsterdam and press Search

2. refresh the forum then go to the dropdown list and select 'netherlands' and Search.

Both ways will give you all the threads pertaining to those areas, and the titles will indicate which are about hotels.

american hotel, pulitzer hotel, marriott hotel or amstel hotel. all are wonderful, well located and on the upper end pricewise. If price is truly not an issue, I'd do the amstel or pulitzer in a heartbbeat.

If price truly isn't an issue the the Amstel gets my vote. It where all the rockstars, filmstars etc stay when they are in Amsterdam. It is in a lovely position on the river.

As noted the Amstel is on the river and you might have a mental image of staying at a hotel on a canal.

Even though it is not among the most expensive hotels in Amsterdam, you might want to consider the Canal House. In the Jordaan neighborhood which is great. Has the charm you are asking about--book one of their best rooms--large, canal front.

No AC though and perhaps that would be a problem in August--it was not in June.

In addition to searching, there is a recent thread to look at.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35028742

Thank you all. We are club members with Intercontinental and Amstel seems to be an I/C hotel and it seems really nice. Thanks for your help.

You are just an absolutely brilliant boer, monsoon99. Why didn't you say up front that you are club members of some international overpriced bed outfit?

No eat recommendations from me. You probably have chits from someplace. Stuff yourself.

BTW, boer is the correct Dutch spelling for farmer.

monsoon99: check out www.thegrand.nl also. different location on the canals, 5 star like the Amstel.

completely agree, hopscotch, would have saved much trouble.

You picked a good one richardsonsnm. The Grand hotel may be 5 star and maybe not, but the neighborhood is definitely negative 5 star. I only got as far as the lobby.

BTW, Holland does not have an official "star" system. Every hotel gives itself the stars it wants.

Is the Grand in the Red Light District? I avoided that area, but that's what it looks like to me on the map. Whether that's good or bad depends on your requirements, I suppose.

Hopscotch: I am not sure what you are talking about. In the US, Intercontinental is a regular hotel and being a club member is not a big deal. Your sarcastic comment is unhelpful and beats the purpose behind the fodor forum.

As for all other suggestions, I really appreciate it.

Hi, monsoon99, in my circle, Days Inn is a regular hotel and Holiday Inn Express is a splurge!

A final reply to monsoon99:

I guess that you thought that you would get twice as much information, none of which you needed, by posting the exact same question twice, within 2 minutes.