Flickr member gladiolaroot gives one of those short, to the point, Flickr caption reviews where we learn just enough about The Times Hotel in Amsterdam, a small canal side hotel:
Cute green room at the Times Hotel, on Herengracht in Amsterdam. That little door is the closet. The ceiling was very high and the paint treatment was cute. The poster on the wall is a Van Gogh. I give it 3 out of 5 stars.
The hotel can be had for around $250 a night.
HotelChatter Tip:
If you want to try and add a star to your stay, try one of the canalside rooms, where you will look out over the canal instead of at your Van Gogh poster. Room 451 on the top floor offers sweeping canal views.
While you might've thought that staying underground or even underwater has the makings of being in an unusual hotel, you ain't seen nothin' yet! Think high above the harbour, think movable room, think breakfast delivered from below in a lift: and you've got the exclusive Crane Hotel in Harlingen, just an hour from Amsterdam.
Yep, this is definitely one of the most unique hotels around, and sadly there's only one room of it. Inside the crane things are pretty luxurious, and you get fantastic views over the harbour. It's a bit of a squeeze getting in up the elevators, and they recommend packing just a small suitcase or soft bag if you want to get into your room easily. But once you're there, you'll never leave, because you'll be having way too much fun moving the crane around! It's still functional and you can "drive" it yourself. The kind of holiday where you're never going to see the sights, except from your hotel room window. At $400 a night for a couple (including delivered breakfast) it's not cheap, but come on: you can stay in a crane!
We're already convinced Amsterdam is a great place to visit, but hearing about one more good experience and one more great hotel makes us, well, double-convinced. Blogger JustinDZ spent his last stopover in the Dutch capital at the Amsterdam American Hotel and in his own quiet way raves about it in his blog:
The Hotel American in Amsterdam is a very nice hotel. I recommend staying for more than one night and going to bed early enough to actually appreciate the room. [and later, summarising his whole trip] ... the fact remains that Amsterdam had nice waterways, a good public tram and the nicest hotel so far. Not the most expensive. Just the nicest.
The American clearly does have a few things going for it, not least its central location on the Leidseplein and near to the Van Gogh Museum and shopping areas. Our up-to-the-minute news is that they're just finishing some refurbishment, with a little more work still to do:
Following our stunning renovation of the Café Americain and 101 hotel rooms (finished March 2007) the next stage of our plan will involve the renovation of the façade of the hotel. As from Monday 12 February 2007 till the end of September 2007 we will be renovating the façade/front of the hotel. This to bring the building back to its historical Art Nouveau monument.
So you can stay in an architecturally significant building (although for Europe its relatively young, having been built in 1900), get around Amsterdam easily and chatting with all those friendly Dutch.
The Grey Lady headed over to Amsterdam to check out the new Mövenpick Hotel which opened this past September on Amsterdam's busy harbor. While the hotel has "City Centre" in its name, it's actually not quite in the center. It's near the Muziekgebouw Hall and is just a tram stop or two away from the real city center. You could also walk it in 10 minutes.
Despite this, the NY Times reviewer Gisela Williams likes what she sees:
that is owned by a former ice cream company. But Mövenpick's latest hotel, a 408-room high-rise that opened in September on Amsterdam's busy harbor, is a cool surprise. Designed by the Dutch firm Claus en Kaan, the hotel has a 20-story exterior striped in alternating bands of glass, white concrete and green granite -- not unlike an enormous Popsicle.
The guests most likely to be found there are business travelers and "tourists in jeans and T-shirts." And also good to know the hotel is smoke-free, something we would have liked on our recent trip to Amsterdam.
As for the rooms, floors 10 and higher have better views of the harbor but all rooms lack a good flat-screen TV and any inspiring decor. There is free WiFi throughout the hotel along with two computers in the hotel lobby. The hotel has its own restaurant and a 24-hour room service menu. Room rates are decent at $189 for the weekdays and $227.60 on weekends.
Here at HotelChatter, the turning over of the annual calendar gets to asking ourselves some really deep questions, like...Does anybody really know what time it is? What's love got to do with it? Are you going to Scarborough Fair? And is the Wittgenstein Suite available?
At Amsterdam's Hotel de Filosoof, or Philosophy Hotel, you can sleep with the big thinkers and big ideas. The hotel is comprised of three connected 19th century buildings, with a total of 38 rooms. It serves breakfast, is close to a tram stop, and a stroll through the nearby VondelPark will get you close to both the Rijksmuseum as well as the Van Gogh Museum.
But it's the rooms that are the key here; each one has a special theme and/or moniker. You can choose suites like "Water," "Thoreau," "Confucius," "Passion," and "Spinoza."
From the hotel's website, a description of the "Passion" Suite:
This room is dedicated to the French philosopher, Georges Bataille. The title of his book, "The Tears of Eros" is the inspiration for this room. What physical love (Eros) does not know tears?
Bataille tries to combine Eros (concepts of erotism, and sexuality) with morals (concepts of death, art and religion). Passion, lust and pleasure stand in contrast with, and at the same time very close to, concepts of horror, anxiety and death.
It's not often that one gets to experience passion co-mingling closely with tears, horror, and anxiety.
Still, TripAdvisor reviews reports a stay at the Filosoof provides the ultimate icebreaker: "So, what's your room theme?" Admittedly, some guests weren't exactly sure what their room theme was.
Other comments noted the plethora of very good and VERY bad paintings and photographs; that it was a blessing and a curse to be a bit removed from the city center (quiet, but a bit of a haul to the main Amsterdam sites). Finally, comments range from "icky" to "cozy."
What would Thoreau say about the place? As he once wrote, "It's not what you look at, but what you see."
At behest and via the courtesy of the Netherlands Board of Tourism, HotelChatter is currently in Amsterdam reporting live on our trips, travels and travails. Enjoy.
During our stay at the Lloyd Hotel in Amsterdam, we were able to look in at pretty much every type of hotel room--ranging from one-star to five-star. The Lloyd is probably one of the only hotels to do this type of room categorizing based on size but just because a room is listed as a five-star don't expect the presidential suite.
This here is a shot of the famous Lloyd Hotel Eight Person Bed. The bed is located on the second level of Room 121. We say level instead of floor because it seems like the bathroom and the bed were made out of a balcony that overlooks the rest of the room.
We understand you can sleep eight people in this bed, but there's no way eight people can walk around the bed comfortably. We doubt you can even fit two people comfortably in the bathroom. We barely had enough room to stand back and snap this shot.
The room does have floor to ceiling windows, a gigantic red mirror, a grand piano and a table that can seat more than eight, making it the perfect room for business meetings.
At behest and via the courtesy of the Netherlands Board of Tourism, HotelChatter is currently in Amsterdam reporting live on our trips, travels and travails. Enjoy.
We've arrived back stateside and we're ready to spill all on our trip to Amsterdam, starting with our hotel review of the Lloyd Hotel. We filled you in a little bit last week but this time we have better pictures.
At behest and via the courtesy of the Netherlands Board of Tourism, HotelChatter is currently in Amsterdam reporting live on our trips, travels and travails. Enjoy.
This is the view from our second room we were given at the Lloyd Hotel in Amsterdam after the one-star we "rested" in early yesterday morning. Room 604 is a pretty big three-star room overlooking the water. It looks pretty bleak but things are actually quite cheery here.
What's great about all the rooms on the sixth floor is that they are essentially the attic rooms with slanted wooden beams that provide a sort of rustic feel.
Also addding to the rustic feel is the cement floor. It's the original floor from 1921 and when the building was renovated into its reincarnation as the Lloyd Hotel in 2004, the owners decided to keep the floor as it was. So what that means is an old, bare cement floor running through the hallways and in the rooms. There's one rug but it's pretty tiny. Just to be sure, we cranked up the heat on the huge radiator which works very quickly.
The furnishings are minimalist to the max. There are two nightstands, one chair, a luggage rack and a simple desk and chair. All of these are without drawers, which is fine because we're not sure we even use drawers when we stay in other hotels.
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by markj
