My husband and I will be ending a three week trip in Amsterdam in October. We will be spending our last three nights there. I found some interesting apartments online with two different companies. Stayamsterdam.com and coolamsterdamapartments.com. Has anyone booked through these companies? I have tried to find reviews or any information on them and couldn't find anything. I also searched the fodor forum and found nothing. I noticed that coolamsterdamapartments is only about a year old. We have stayed in apartments before, where our only contact was the internet, and it was fine. I would just like to find an independent review before booking. Thanks for any help you can give me.

I havent used those companies but have stayed at this houseboat.. just a suggestion...
http://www.vrbo.com/82969

This coming Sept.We are renting from http://www.valens.nl/nlhtmldocs/canalsite.html

Good Luck.

I have never heard nor read anything negative about the two sites you mention. I have always checked them out, but usually ended up using VBRO.com which always seems to offer just what I am looking for at a price I like. I am staying in a studio apartment(VBRO #63027) for 500 Euros for 7 nights. It is located on na canal just around the corner from a great nightlife (and daytime hang out area)called Leidseplein.

Another great ofering is the "Little Bear on the Water" houseboat which usaully rents for aroiund 100 Euros a night; Find nthis on VBRO also.

The best apartment I ever stayed at was the Krasnapolsky apartments around the corner from the Dam at the end of the red light district. I managed to get a fanstastic deal using booking.com.

Have fun.

Hey jetsetj,

I also stayed at the Little Bear. Great place.

Roce48

jetset, I really liked the apartment..it looks spacious, modern and very neat.
I will bookmarks this thread..I was in AMS two years ago and plan to go back there again..

Thanks for all your suggestions, I will be checking them all out. I would rather go with a company that someone else has used and liked. The house boat sounds great. I also like the studio, but it says you can only reserve it a month in advance. That may be to long to wait.

My family of four stayed on an Amsterdam houseboat (an actual boat, not the platform style of Little Bear) last spring break and really enjoyed it. If you're interested I can look back and see if I can find it. The property was great and the rental went very smoothly.

Therese, I would really appreciate that, if it isn't too much trouble. I did not know there was a difference in the houseboats. I don't know if it matters to me or not. If you had four people in your family, you may have paid more for a bigger boat than we need. I am planning on making reservations by next week. I am seeing no vacancies for October already. Thanks

We rented houseboat 40 from http://www.houseboathotel.nl/

You actually end up dealing with the individual owner, and we found ours to be fine. Boat very cool, and well-suited for us (myself + husband, and two teen-aged children). We specifically chose this property because we wanted a boat (as opposed to a floating apartment) and because the sleeping arrangements accomodated the kids.

This agency's got lots of other boats, and conventional apartments as well. The smaller boats are likely to be on smaller waterways, which I would have preferred. Ours was moored directly on the Amstel. Our "neighbors" were interesting: one enormous, very elaborately re-done barge (inhabited by a wealthy couple whose entire wardrobe matched the dark green and black decor of the boat), one young couple with small children (aack, on a boat), and one very hippy sort of guy who lived in the wheelhouse of a boat that had been subdivided (the other portion also being a short term rental). All of neighbors were essentially permanent residents.

Thanks for taking the time to provide me with this information. This is a website that I have not seen yet. It is nice to know someone rented from them and had a good experience. I really appreciate it, and will be spending some time looking at all the places on the site. The house boat you rented really looks nice.

grace44,
Let us know what you decide. There are so many good choices.

The boat was very nice, grace44, and exactly as pictured. We especially liked sitting up top on the deck or in the wheelhouse. I wouldn't dismiss the "floating apartment" out of hand, by the way, as you still get the very cool experience of living right on the water, and many of them have nice outside space.

Grave44,
Even though the VBRO.com Studio #63027 web site says that you can only rent it out 4 months in advance, I asked almost 6 months in advance and was accepted.

Therese,

That is one great looking houseboat, but 1700 Euros a week is pretty steep if you only need accomdations for 2. Please don't get me wrong, if I wasn't so cheap and had that kind of money, we might have stayed there. We found the Litle Bear quite charming and unpretentious, and it is only around 700 euros per week vs 1700 Euros.

Also, most "house" boats that I have seen in my life are somewhat boxy.

Just because someone has decided to take an old working boat, or a tug boat and decided to make it into a boat with expensive, modern, classy accomndations, does not make those as you call them "floating platforms" or "floating apartments" any less charming (AND Dutch) to those of us that do not need a martini glass in our hand and deck to sit on displaying ourselves.

Sorry about the slap back at you, but your attitude was showing. ;-)

The previous comment by Roce48 was a little heated, but I guess you do not like houseboats. Some people do, and apparently some don't. We stayed on one in the Jordaan District a couple of years ago and loved the experience, and we found it cheaper than hotels in the same area. We found a variety of different types and prices available at this website: www.houseboathotel.nl/

Oh, dear, I certainly didn't mean to offend. Thanks ever so much for taking the time to point it out.

Just to clarify, I never for a moment meant to suggest to the OP that she should rent the particular accomodation that we chose, as it's clearly larger she needs (but only just large enough for my party of four adults). I related our experience so as to give the OP as much information as possible, and provided her with a link to an agency she'd not previously identified, an agency that lists many properties at many price points.

And you're absolutely correct, most houseboats are the boxy sort on platforms, and that's precisely why I wanted to take advantage of the other type in this instance. It's not a question of one being better than the other, or of (and here you'll have to admit that the tone of your message really is quite insulting) or anything to do with whether or not one may claim to be among "those of us that do not need a martini glass in our hand and deck to sit on displaying ourselves." It's just an experience that's not easy to find other places, and one that we enjoyed.

To be on the water in Amsterdam is a fun experience regardless of what or where you drink on it.

There are many types of floating homes.
Find one you like and have a blast !!

And the non-floating homes are great, too---if you're in Amsterdam you're never far from the water in any case. Lots of options, and Amsterdam really is a cool place tp visit.

Therese,

My sincere apolgies for any "heat" that I posted in reponse to your post. I had a great time on the Little Bear houseboat, which is a very representive style of most of the houseboats one will see thoughout AMS, and for whatever reason became defensive. Sorry.

Thanks, Roce48 (and this time without any snark at all on my part). Very nice of you to apologize, and I will say that in retrospect the thought of me and my husband swanning around with martini glasses, a la Lovey and Thurston Howell III from "Gilligan's Island" is pretty funny. We were mostly drinking beer, though, and you can't get much beer in a martini glass.

Now that I think of it, the couple from the swank boat near ours reminds me a bit of Lovey and Thurston.