For affordable luxury
THE COLLEGE
It’s a college on two counts. Just five months old, the hotel was formerly a
place of learning (economics), but it is now run by students from the city’s
hotel training school, under the guidance of a professional management team.
Despite the L-plates, it all works seamlessly (although you might want to
avoid the first week of September, when the new intake begins its
practicals).
The late-19th-century building is an architectural triumph of ornate
brickwork. Located in elegant Amsterdam South, near the Rijksmuseum, the Van
Gogh museum and the smart stores of PC Hooftstraat, the College has 40
sumptuous and individually designed rooms, most with enormous windows
overlooking a quiet bricked and pebbled courtyard.
There’s a lively bar and a restaurant with an open kitchen, again the domain
of students, serving modern — and, thankfully, lighter — variations on
traditional Dutch dishes. A five-course extravaganza will set you back £35.
Doubles from £143, room-only; 00 31 20 571 1511,
www.thecollegehotel.com
For quirky character
THE LLOYD
There’s nowhere quite like the Lloyd hotel. Jointly created by a lawyer, a
doctor/cook, an art curator and an underground party organiser, it opened a
year ago in the run-down/born-again eastern docklands, converted from a
huge, rather severe 1920s listed waterfront building, built to house
migrants en route from eastern Europe to the Americas.
It is a brilliant work of reinvention and full of creative surprises — baths,
and even showers, in the middle of some of the 116 bedrooms, one with a
12ft-wide bed, another with a grand piano. A mobile recording studio will be
available from early 2006. The Lloyd also breaks new ground in hospitality
by offering a choice of one- to five-star room options, the former with
shared bathrooms (towelling robes are provided for middle-of-the-night
calls). Other facilities include a restaurant (Snel, meaning brisk), a shop
for groceries if you want to picnic in the room and a superb library of art
books, as well as space for visiting artists.
Doubles from £55, £68, £96, £123 or £191, according to stars; 00 31 20 561
3636, www.lloydhotel.com
For pure romance
SEVEN ONE SEVEN
Guesthouses come no more sumptuous than this. Home to the late fashion
designer Kees van der Valk, the 19th-century canal house has been lavishly
embellished with treasures acquired on his global travels, as well as
antiques, oils and contemporary artworks, all assembled with exquisite
taste.
The eight bedrooms are snuggle-perfect roosts that will fast-track anyone’s
calendar to February 14. If you do decide to venture out of the bedroom, you
will find curl-up-on sofas, lots of candles and real log fires in the living
rooms.
The Seven One Seven also has a library and a breakfast room with grand piano,
with a patio shaded by an old maple tree for alfresco eggs or afternoon tea.
Rooms lead off the narrow, twisting staircase in the main house and include
two enormous suites overlooking the canal. Despite their front-of-house
position, they are perfectly tranquil.
Doubles £277-£451, including breakfast, afternoon tea, wine, beer and soft
drinks (check the website for special offers); 00 31 20 427 0717, www.717hotel.nl
For big spenders
THE GRAND
Grand by name, grand by nature, the top hotel in town is a skip away from Dam
Square. Aside from a shower of stars, you get a full helping of heritage;
the building, a blend of architectural styles, began as a convent (14th
century), then became a royal lodging house (16th), then the Dutch Admiralty
(17th) and, until 1988, Amsterdam’s City Hall. When the bureaucrats moved
out, millions were spent on a caring renovation — check out the still
functioning Marriage Chamber, decorated with splendid art-deco murals, and
the stained-glass windows that run the full height of the main staircase.
For your money — a lot — you get old-school service, an Albert Roux restaurant
housed in the old canteen, a microscopic gym, a sauna, an indoor pool and an
oasis of a courtyard garden. And what are the 182 rooms like? Spacious, with
smart but unmemorable fabrics and furnishings that are straight from the
props room of five-star central casting.
Doubles from £287, rising to £1,020 for the Royal suite, room-only; 00 31
20 555 3111, www.thegrand.nl
For tight budgets
HOTEL WIECHMANN
A three-generation Dutch-American family affair with 37 rooms, including
triples and quads (so ideal for families) spreads like a warren through
three canalside houses. One in three rooms has canal views — and these are
worth the extra — the best being the six corner rooms with windows on both
Prinsengracht and Looersgracht. The rest peer peacefully into an inner space
between the buildings. There’s also a bright and cheerful breakfast room,
which used to be a pub.
There’s nothing fancy about the Wiechmann. The rooms are simply furnished,
with an eye to function rather than style, purse rather than pleasure, but
you do get a happy ship and a prime location. The hotel borders Jordaan, a
former working-class district that comes amply stocked with cosy brown cafes
and funky, Noddy-size shops. The Looier antiques market (open daily except
Fridays) is just around the corner.
Doubles from £85, B&B; 00 31 20 626 3321,
www.hotelwiechmann.nl (note that the hotel is due to close for three
months this winter)
Fine, but how do I get there?
Amsterdam is well served from both the UK and Ireland. KLM (0870 507 4074,
www.klm.com) flies from 15 UK airports, including Aberdeen, Birmingham,
Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Heathrow, Humberside, Leeds, London City,
Manchester, Newcastle and Southampton, and from Dublin; EasyJet (0905 821
0905, 65p/min; www.easyjet.com) flies from Belfast, Bristol,
Edinburgh,Gatwick, Glasgow, Liverpool, Luton and Stansted; VLM (020 7476
6677, www.flyvlm.com) flies from London City; BA (0870 850 9850, www.ba.com)
flies from Gatwick and Heathrow; Jet2 (0871 226 1737, www.jet2.com) flies
from Leeds and Manchester; BMI (0870 607 0555, www.flybmi.com) flies from
Heathrow; BMI Baby (0870 264 2229, www.bmibaby.com) flies from Birmingham
and Nottingham/ East Midlands; Thomsonfly (0870 190 0737,
www.thomsonfly.com) flies from Bournemouth, Coventry and
Doncaster/Sheffield; and Aer Lingus (0845 084 4444, www.aerlingus.com) flies
from Cork and Dublin.
