Where to Stay in Amsterdam: Honest Advice
It's easy to get Amsterdam wrongon your first visit. I learned that the hard way when I spent an hour walking around the Jordaan district, trying to find a hotel that wasn't on a street lined with souvenir shops and tourists snapping selfies with the canal bridges. I’d booked a place online, but the description said "quiet," and the reality was a cacophony of street performers and late-night bar crowds. I ended up checking into a tiny guesthouse on Wagenstraat, a street so narrow that a passing bike almost knocked me over, and the bed was a single mattress on the floor. I’d rather have stayed in a hostel than that. After a night of sleepless rolling over in that mattress, I decided to take a different approach. I asked a local barista at a café on Oudezijds Voorburgwal for recommendations. She suggested a place I’d never seen on my online searches: De Lijn. It’s a small boutique hotel tucked away on a quiet street near the Westerkerk, and it’s run by a couple who’ve...