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Amsterdam hotels - for every bent

A reflection of the city's personality; its pleasures and vices

By Alison Appelbe

In spite of superstar Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, who disparages Amsterdam for what he sees as its anti-modernist, pickled-in-aspic appearance, Amsterdam remains knockdown gorgeous.

To my eye, visual treats are everywhere — maybe a wrought-iron swirl on a townhouse railing; an art installation like the Brobdingnagian side-tables piled beside a city tram stop; or an imaginative jazz-concert poster wrapped around a canal-side kiosk.

Also, of course, Amsterdam offers the lure of sex and drugs, mostly along and around the canals of the Oude Zijde (old side). Here the Red Light District draws hoards of gawkers (as well as, presumably, customers), as does a generous sprinkling of “coffee shops” where marijuana and hashish are smoked and sold.

One morning, at the Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky, on the edge of the Oude Zijde, a couple of wags streaked naked across the lobby. No one seemed to know why — or care. And it should be noted that the Amsterdam Tourism Board doesn’t discourage the rogue in visitors. It recently acquiesced to the use of the city’s 16 th -century, red and black   “coat of arms,” featuring three suggestive x-es (as in “xxx”), as a tourism and souvenir symbol. (The three crosses actually represent St. Andrew, who is said to have died by torture.)

Ideally, hotels reflect a city’s personality while providing an easy entrée to its nearby pleasures (or vices). The following are a handful of my favourites.

The lobby of the 468-room NH Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky , on Dam Square, is usually a sea of people, and its lovely Winter Garden atrium delivers an unbeatable buffet breakfast. But a lesser-known attraction is its new wing, with rooms located above a side street lined with drinking and pizza joints. With full-height windows extending over the Damstraat, the rooms function as a perch from which to enjoy the scene below. But be warned: the Damstraat runs 24-7. Hotel Krasnapolsky rooms begin at 195 Euros.

If the Oude Zijde encourages raffishness, the Western Canal Ring, a five-minute walk from the Dam, is decorous. The 70-room Hotel Estheréa — opened in the 1940s in a house on the Singel canal, then expanded to four houses — epitomizes old-world charm. My traditionally furnished room included a claw-footed bathtub, but more importantly spectacular nighttime views of the illuminated canal. Rooms start at 171 Euros.

From here extends a series of canals characterized as strings of pearls — including the Herengracht, Keizersgracht and Prinsengracht. This is a shopping area, embracing the De Negen Straatjes (Nine Little Streets), Leidsestraat (fashion) and Spiegelstraat (art and antiques). It also boasts a number of canal museums, including the Huis Marseille (Museum for Photography), Biblical Museum and Theatre Museum.

Next door to the Estheréa is the Hotel Hoksbergen . A small, budget option, with rooms starting at 84 Euros, it is well maintained and includes breakfast. The glory of my room was a first-storey outlook on the Singel. I watched the municipal boats sweep the canal of autumn leaves, and heard the bicycles whisk along the cobble lane in the small morning hours. A major drawback was the lack of a reading lamp.

Near the end of the Singel, beyond the Bloemenmarket (flower market) on the Vijzelstraat, The Albus Grand Hotel is at once minimalist and luxurious. My room was small — with no view of note, but the duvets were white and plush, and the bathroom refined and functional. Rooms start at 180 Euros.

Nearby, on the slightly seedy Rembrandtplein — surrounded by open-air beer gardens and cafes — stands the 92-room NH Hotel Schiller . Opened in 1912 by an art collector named Schiller, the hotel retains its original art-deco interior and 350 paintings. Its street-level brassiere offers excellent bistro food; rooms are from 179 Euros.

The Southern Canal Belt and Museums Quartier — with the Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh Museum and Concertgebouw concert halls — is pastoral in comparison. The 47-room Best Western Delphi Hotel, on a park-like boulevard call the Apollolaan, is a sweet retreat — mid-priced and popular. But beware: when my Internet booking (some hotels overbook, then won’t honour them) failed to clinch a second night and a move to larger room to accommodate an arriving friend, I had to vacate.

There’s great (if distinctly upscale) shopping and dining on the Beethovenstraat, Cornelis Schuytstraat, and Pieter Cornelis Hooftstraat in the Museums Quartier.

The 117-room Lloyd Hotel , located in the Oostelijke Handelskade (Eastern Docklands), is a spectacular six-storey brick pile built in 1921 as an “emigrant hotel” in the decorative Expressionist architectural style of the day.

By 1935 the hotel was bankrupt, allowing German occupiers, in 1941, to turn it into a prison. After the war, it served as a detention centre (albeit a progressive variety). Then after winning a city competition in the 1990s, the Lloyd (named for the shipping company that built it) was completely refitted as the Lloyd Hotel Amsterdam.

And what talent went into this reincarnation; several dozen designers were involved — for the big jobs, of course, but also for details like children’s chairs, mirrors, a myriad lamps and carpets, the numbers and letters on room doors — even a guest book.

Its narrow, zigzagging hallways — walls lined, top to bottom, in handmade tiles — were quite enough to win me over. But the rooms, too, are chic. In our fifth-floor room, a “bathroom” panel pulled out from the wall to place the showerhead directly over a wood-slatted drain. The crisp white bedding is oh-so-Dutch. Rooms are rated one to five stars (95 to 450 Euros), depending on floor space.

The high-ceiling hotel dining room, with a bar for folks who like to chat with other Lloydites, is about fresh, locally sourced products. And another feature of the iconic Lloyd is its “Cultural Embassy” — a weekly event said to serve “as matchmaker, events initiator, cultural guide, and interdisciplinary in-the-know host.”

A disadvantage, for some, is the fact that The Lloyd is a little off the beaten track. A circular (one-way) tram runs from a stop behind the hotel called Rietlandpark (where you’ll see those giant stacked tables) into Amsterdam’s Central Station.

For more on The Netherlands and Amsterdam, visit www.holland.com.