As the owner of Amsterdam... Welcome to my Zub!

Amsterdam is one of the greatest small cities in the world. From its canals to world-famous museums and historical sights, Amsterdam is one of the most romantic and beautiful cities in Europe.

Amsterdam is also a city of tolerance and diversity. It has all the advantages of a big city: culture, nightlife, international restaurants, good transport - but is quiet, and largely thanks to its canals, has a little road traffic. In Amsterdam your destination is never far away, but get a bike for most authentic experience.

Amsterdam quick facts:
Population: 751,000
Time zone: CET (UTC +1 hour)
Telephone area code: +20
Country: The Netherlands (also known as Holland)

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PLACES TO EAT:

- Nieuwmarkt

Yes, that means ‘new market,’ and it’s just a bit south of the Red Light District proper, but this area is teaming with restaurants. There’s a concentrated Chinatown here, with the usual line up of similar restaurants, some of which offer a reasonably priced all you can eat buffet. Quality in the Chinatown is typical of most worldwide Chinatowns, in other words, pretty good, but rarely great. The Chinatown here also has quite a few options from all over East Asia. There are Vietnamese, Thai, Japanese, and of course Indonesian place mixed in, so this is a great place to go if you’ve got an open mind but aren’t sure of exactly what you want.

- Rembrandtplein

This area is known more for bars and nightclubs, but there are plenty of restaurants mixed in, including some really posh and pricey ones. On the square itself you’ll find a few of the old “grand cafés” with the wicker furniture out front, and these are a great place to hang out and watch the city go by while enjoying some food that otherwise wouldn’t deserve the high-ish prices. Just walk toward Rembrandtplein and you’ll find many options on every street, including many Middle Eastern take-away places and a few sandwich shops.

- Leidseplein

The grand daddy of them all, this might be one of the best restaurant neighborhoods in the entire world. No matter where you are staying, as long as you have more than 24 hours in Amsterdam, you should come out to Leidseplein for at least one lunch or dinner. In the small streets just off the main square you’ll find literally over 100 different restaurants lined up next to each other creating a culinary density that is an attraction all by itself. You could accurately call this ‘Amsterdam’s food court’ because just like in a shopping center, you can walk into this area and have so many choices that it’s hard to decide. With the exception of a few fast food chains, these are all small sit-down restaurants, most with al fresco seats out front.

They all have a menu posted out front, but on slow evening you might also have an employee urging you to come in as you are trying to decide. They are polite and it’s not really too annoying, so you should really make sure you are choosing the place you really want. As mentioned above, this is a really international food city and all of these choices are available in Leidseplein, and all within about a 5-minute walk of each other: Italian, Greek, Middle Eastern, Chinese, Argentinean steak houses, French, Surinamese, Indonesian, Spanish, Mexican, Tibetan, Ethiopian, and just about anything else you can think of.


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PLACES TO STAY:

- Brouwer £62 (www.hotelbrouwer.nl)

If you're on a very tight budget and want an atmospheric, canal-front hotel, the Brouwer is as good as it gets.

The building - a sea captain's house with the date 1652 emblazoned on its façade - has pedigree. Inside, the reception, which doubles as the breakfast room, has old Delft tiles and paintings of Amsterdam scenes on the walls. Bedrooms all face the canal, and are simple but attractive, with wood floors, beams, cream walls and a print by a Dutch artist. The most characterful are Mondrian, which has an old wooden gutter running through it, and Bosch, with an antique bed.

Nine rooms. Singel 83 (0031 20 624 6358)

- Orlando £69 (www.hotelorlando.nl)

This discreet little pad, spread over three floors of a stately, canal-facing house dating from the 1680s, feels like a rather swanky private home.

The owner, Paul Lodder, an affable ex-lawyer, has furnished the bedrooms with great flair: bare oak floors, silk curtains, Philippe Starck lighting and big, bold modern paintings set the tone. The rates are a steal. Skip the £69 basement room, and go for an £80 or £100 room - the best is beautifully proportioned Number 117, with three canal-facing windows. Paul serves a good-sounding breakfast in the light, basement breakfast room. Utrechtsestraat, which is packed with good restaurants, is a two-minute stroll away.

Five rooms. Prinsengracht 1099 (0031 20 638 6915)

- Seven Bridges £76 (www.sevenbridgeshotel.nl)

The 300-year-old building overlooks one of the city's prettiest canals (the hotel's name comes from the view).

The hands-on owners, who have been here for more than 30 years, have furnished the bedrooms with Persian rugs, Tiffany-style lamps, Biedermeier cupboards and Louis XV chairs, and the bathrooms are tiled and pretty.
There's only one room at £76 - and it's in the basement. The next up in price, Numbers 9 and 10, at £100, are lovely, light attic rooms, while the most expensive (Number 5 - £180) is vast, with its own terrace.

Drawbacks are the steep stairs and no lift, and lack of a public room. However, a substantial, well-presented breakfast is brought on a tray to your room - unless you're in one of the three "studios" in a house a couple of doors away, which are equipped for DIY breakfasts.

11 rooms. Reguliersgracht 31 (0031 20 623 13 29)

- Owl £89 (www.owl-hotel.demon.nl)

Run by the same, welcoming family since the early 1970s, this 19th-century townhouse is well placed, on a quiet side street near the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum, an easy walk from the centre. The cream-and-green sitting room, bar and breakfast room are attractive, and back on to a pleasant garden terrace (where breakfast can be eaten). Bedrooms are a bit dull - simple modern furnishings, the odd Impressionist print - but well maintained. Numbers 26, 36, 46 and 56 are some of the biggest.

34 rooms. Roemer Visscherstraat 1 (0031 20 618 9484)

- Lloyd £95 (www.lloydhotel.com)

Most things about the Lloyd are unconventional. There's its history: in the 1920s, it was a boarding house used by emigrants bound for the Americas.

There's its laid-back and arty vibe: the hotel's Cultural Embassy arranges impromptu musical events, talks and exhibitions in the building. And there are the quirky bedrooms, which range from one-star cabin-like rooms with shared bathrooms down the corridor (you're given robes), to five-star funky attic spaces with a bathtub in the room, costing upwards of £250.

A vast open-plan hall, where you can dine well from an extensive brasserie menu at communal or private tables, serves as the building's focal point. The hotel's location is also unusual. It's out in the up-and-coming Eastern Docklands, five to 10 minutes by tram from the Central Station. Bikes - the best means of exploring the area - can be rented from the hotel.

117 rooms. Oostelijke Handelskade 34 (0031 20 561 3636)

- 't Hotel £100 (www.thotel.nl)

Occupying a 17th-century house on one of the city's prettiest side canals, this b&b has a first-rate position. Recently taken over by a Slovakian woman, 't Hotel has a garish reception that now doubles as the Slovakian tourist office.

Bedrooms, reached via a separate entrance, are understated and tasteful, with art deco lamps, brown armchairs and grey-and-white bathrooms. Doubles with a canal view cost £114 per night. Note that stairs are steep, and there's no lift. You go out of the building and back in again to reach the jolly basement breakfast room.

Eight rooms. Leliegracht 18 (0031 20 422 2741)

- Piet Hein £104 (www.hotelpiethein.com)

A classy hotel in a 19th-century villa overlooking the Vondelpark; the Van Gogh Museum is a short walk away.
The lobby doubles as a lounge/bar (vases of tulips everywhere, cream leather sofas, a reading desk, with newspapers and magazines and internet terminals that are free to use).

A nautical theme pervades the place, with black-and-white photos of racing yachts in the basement breakfast room and in the modern bedrooms.

Cheaper rooms are in the villa; those in a new extension at the rear are a bit more spacious, have airconditioning, and cost about £14 more per night.

Note that the section of the Vondelpark in front of the hotel will be a building site for the next month or two, and the hotel is expanding into the next-door house, which may also create some disturbance.

60 rooms. Vossiusstraat 52-53 (0031 20 662 7205)

- Canal House £107 (www.canalhouse.nl)

This is Amsterdam's most characterful old-fashioned hotel. It is made up of a pair of interconnecting 17th-century houses, and its rambling corridors and individual bedrooms are liberally sprinkled with bric-à-brac - statues, framed costumes, interesting prints - pot plants and fresh flowers.
The hotel's pièce de résistance is a palatial chandeliered salon, where a decent buffet breakfast is served. Bear in mind that the cheapest (£107) bedrooms are small and viewless.

More desirable ones, which may have handsome antiques or be up under the gables, cost from £130. A five per cent discount is offered for bills paid in cash. The owners, and many of the staff, are Irish.

26 rooms. Keizersgracht 148 (0031 20 622 5182)

- Misc £107 (www.hotelmisc.com)

The name of this little 17th-century canal house hotel is so-called because its six bedrooms are so different from each other. Afrika has a photo of an East African beach covering one wall, Design has an upmarket Ikea look and Wonders is all Arabian Nights.

But this isn't just a gimmicky place. Bedrooms are good quality, the American-Dutch owners are really welcoming, you can have breakfast in the laid-back café/bar until midday, and rates include a fridge full of soft drinks and snacks. The £107 rate is for a rear bedroom on a weekday. Weekend rates are higher, and larger but noisier canal-facing rooms cost £14 a night extra.

My only caveat is the location - just beyond the fringes of the red-light district, and a little close for comfort to the many bars on the Nieuwmarkt.

Six rooms. Kloveniersburgwal 20 (0031 20 330 6241)

- De Filosoof £113 (www.hotelfilosoof.nl)

The hotel's creator, Ida Jongsma, a philosopher, recently sold up, but the small Dutch chain that acquired the property is keeping its identity.

Individual bedrooms are themed after a thinker or philosopher, through murals and books. Tablemats in breakfast areas summarise philosophical tracts. Philosophical seminars are held here every fortnight. But even without its theme, the hotel would be highly recommendable.

Spread through several 19th-century terraced houses, it includes a number of attractive public areas, and has a pleasant garden (where breakfast can be taken). Some elegant new suites, with kitchenettes, have opened in houses across the street. The location, in a residential street alongside the Vondelpark, is quiet, but a little out on a limb - the city centre is a five-minute tram ride away.

45 rooms. Anna van den Vondelstraat 6 (0031 20 683 3013)

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PLACES TO GO:

- Anne Frank’s House

In Amsterdam a house exists that is the location of one of the most important literature piecdes of the 20th century; Anne Frank’s Diary. Anne Frank was one of the Jewish victims of Nazi persecution during the second world war. Anne and her family decided to hide in the back of a shop behind a bookcase to escape from Nazi persecution. They stayed here for 2 years and Anne kept a diary of the events of these days. After more than two years the family was betrayed and deported. Anne died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen in March 1945, only a few weeks before her concentration camp was liberated. Now the house is a museum dedicated to her struggle and the words she lay down.

- Museum Willet-Holthuysen

Museum Willet-Holthuysen is a museum on the Herengracht canal. It is the only fully furnished canal side patrician house in Amsterdam that is open to the public. The museum has a large collection of silverware, plates, and books from the Dutch Golden Age. It also has a substantial collection of art.

- Koninklijk Palace

The Royal Palace of Amsterdam is situated on Dam Square in the centre of Amsterdam. It was originally built as the city hall for the magistrates of Amsterdam. The building became the royal palace of king Louis Napoleon and later of the Dutch Royal House. It is situated in the west side of Dam Square in the centre of Amsterdam, opposite the War Memorial and next to the Nieuwe Kerk.

- Oude Kerk

The Oude Kerk ("old church") is Amsterdam’s oldest parish church, consecrated in 1306 by the bishop of Utrecht. It stands in De Wallen, now Amsterdam's main red-light district. The square surrounding the church is the Oudekerksplein. The church covers an area of some 3,300 square meters. The roof of the Oude Kerk is the largest medieval wooden vault in Europe. The Estonian planks date back to 1390 and boast some of the best acoustics in Europe.

- Amsterdam Red Light District

The Amsterdam Red Light District covers a large area of the oldest part of the city. The buildings are tall, thin and crowd together, overlooking the tree lined canals. This infamous part of the city is a major tourist attraction. Each year, millions of visitors come to see this vibrant and exciting part of Amsterdam. The Red Light District is located just south (10 minutes walking) of Centraal Station, the main train station. It consists of theaters, shops, museums, restaurants, bars, coffee shops and of course the famous windows (about 250) with sexy girls, dressed in eye-popping underwear. And window-shopping, performed by both sexes is a favorite activity in the Red Light District.