Hiya
Whilst I can't give specific info about hotels, I can give you some pointers of stuff to do. My best mate lived out there for 9 years so whenever anyone would visit it'd be at his rather lovely apartment just outside of East Amdam
I must admit, I've only seen a little of the 'classic' Amsterdam and nearby areas, Seen the Tulip fields, the windmills, and sorta driven past the dams. I know there's much more to see in terms of museums, historical buildings, places and things to do - guess you'd be able to find and review those in guide books etc.
I highly recommend an eatery called ' La Place' (pronounced La Plass) and if I remember correctly it's just short walk away from Rembrandsplein (sp?) Fantastic Fresh food, hot and cold and brilliant desserts - perfect food hangover cure !
A Awesome fanstastic Japanese restuarant called Akura - it's inside one of the larger hotels (I can't remember which!) relatively pricey - we paid around £55 per head, but the food is cooked on your table, you are assigned a chef, he'll ask you which food you want him to cook and the whole place is very very upscale - I can still taste that nosh!
I've been to a few more places, Thai food, dutch cuisine etc - just can't remember names right now -
Shopping area - well just have a short walk from Rembrant Square and you can't really miss it ( I forget all the road names - but only 3-4 mins walk)
I hardly used the trams - theyre quick and fast - but we just used to walk around, Amsterdam is really quite small.
If you go over a weekend and want to stay with the 'weekend oh no the english are here' crowd, then the 3 Sisters pub in rembrandt is usually quite packed! Heineken bar is also packed too, thats a short walk away.
Above and just a few doors down is an excellent place called the 'Kroon bar' (crown bar I think) and it's very airy, open and has plenty of local dutch people around. The window section overlooking the square is very nice to get a table in
don't know if you're into the 'other famous' attractions of Amdam, but there's some excellent pubs in the Red light area, I personally don't smoke - but if you do, there's loads of little 'coffee shops' and 'smoking bars' etc - Grasshopper being one of the biggest and most well known, just a stone throw from the main central railway station.
Stick to the usual busier side streets if you must go 'window shop' at the girls - Amdam's red light area is quite safe, I've seen 4-6 year old kids on the streets at like 7ish pm - it's not 'seedy' at all. Just be a little safer later in the evenings though!
everyone speaks English, although the dutch do kind of like it if they see you away from the 'usual english mob and places' and quite a few people will then say 'no english' but generally you'd be ok -
that's as much as I can say in a nutshell - dont know how much of it will apply to you specifically though!
Hope it helps anyway!
Cheers! Dennis! West London & Slough UK!
