Where to stay in Amsterdam

We stayed at the Hotel Wiechmann.. on my top 5 hotels.... ever list ! Family run Inn, good breakfast.. fantastic location, reasonable price... Steep stairs, of course, and no lift (if climbing stairs is an issue). Be sure and spend just the little bit extra for the canal side room, you will be glad you did!

Thanks--we'll look at it. Stairs aren't a problem (good exercise!). Is it easy to get to the train station? That would be nice since I know we'd want to do some day trips. It seems better to do that than plan on traveling to other places for a night.

The Avenue Hotel is near the Centraal Station and has a tram stop in front of it

http://tinyurl.com/z3ao27n

lois, it is a little walk from the train station, not too bad, if you are an normally active person.. We took the tram from the station, then walked a short way to the hotel. If you take the tram though, be careful. Those tram doors shut in a hurry.. My husband and I got separated. I As I threw the last backpack, that he forgotten to him, the tram doors shut and off I went to the next stop.. Of course, I was totally disoriented as to how far we were between stops.. Fortunately the people in Amsterdam are so incredibly nice, I asked questions and was able to easily walk to the hotel.. I have copies of our itineraries in each peace of luggage, so 2 nice ladies helped my poor husband to the hotel, putting our little bags on their bikes and walking him there. A story I will always treasure!

lois, We also, took a couple of day trips.. One to Dellft and one to Haarlem... Easy walk to the train station.. We loved both towns , but I particularly fell in live with Haarlem!

Christy, did you go to one of the Delftware pottery factories? It looks from descriptions that there are a couple, but neither particularly near the center of town.

lois, we did not go to any factories. We just went and walked through the town and the shops, had lunch and stopped for afternoon refreshments, before taking the train back to Amsterdam. BTW, we stayed 4 nights in Amsterdam, We are not museum people, take that in to consideration. It is, by far, the friendliest European country we visited. Also Ireland , though!

We used to stay at a B&B in Amsterdam Sud--out by the football stadium. But the B&B owner cashed in his real estate and sold it for condos. That's common throughout the outer communities in Amsterdam.

We later stayed at another apartment with a NYC expat in the same neighborhood.
Another time, we stayed at Hotel Schiphol, a large convention hotel 2 miles west of the airport. Their courtesy van would take us over to the airport where we'd catch the 12 minute train into Amsterdam's train station. The place has the nicest and largest rooms of any hotel we've ever stayed in--and the price is really right on weekends.
See what VBRO and AirBnB has for Amsterdam. The people you'll run into are pretty memorable.

If you plan on the last week in April you'll be there for King's Day April 27 (you may want to Google it). Besides hotels already being booked there will be massive crowds.

Thanks for the heads-up, Richard. Would that be a good day, if I'm there then, to plan on one of the day trips, or would train schedules be different and crowds in other places anyway? Maybe best to try to avoid?

We spent 8 days in Amsterdam and had a great time. Many fascinating cities are no more than an hour away by frequent trains all day. Very easy, very convenient, (too) many choices. We bought our tickets from the staffed desk in Centraal Station from the helpful and friendly folks - just have cash. We visited Delft, Utrecht, and others. The Waterland Bus Pass at 10 euro pp was a great day trip opportunity, and I hope it still exists when we return this May for the 4th time. I have never been during Kings Day, but on our first trip years ago considered it. Our timing was a problem, and our B&B owner, Peter Boogaard btw, advised us firmly: "Don't even think about trying to come into or leave the city on either end of the holiday. Public transportation will be swamped." We took him at his word. One day, though, we will be there. Have a wonderful trip in one of the greatest cities in Europe!

Thanks for the info about traveling on Kings Day. We were thinking of leaving that day--will it be a problem getting to the airport?

Also, we were thinking of The Seven Bridges hotel--anyone had any experience with it?

This will be my first experience with King's Day but I'll go out on a limb and guess you won't want to walk with luggage to the train station. In Internet forum fashion, after my trip I'm sure I'll be an expert on the subject!

Richard, will you be there for King's Day this year? Since we're not big on crowds, we are considering arriving a day or two earlier and leaving on April 26th, when getting to the airport won't be an issue. I'm sure the celebration is an event, but then, so is New Year's Eve in Times Square, and as a native New Yorker, I would never think of going!