In the past, we’ve paid a special attention to writers with a knack for completeness. Hunting through a foreign city for every excellent restaurant -- or cathedral, or statue, or tourist attraction -- is a surefire way to warm our obsessive little hearts. Our members are a meticulous bunch, we like to think. Which is why it makes sense that koshkha, a UK native who recently visited the Netherlands, just had to win a spot as our Traveler of the Week. Her exhaustive journal catalogs where she stayed during her visit -- and gives us a guide to the best lodgings in towns across the Low Country.
When you’ve been staying at a five-star hotel, a downgrade is always a shock, as koshkha discovered while staying at the Golden Tulip: “It’s easy to get accustomed to the high life and to hit the ground with a bump when you slide down the star-ratings but I wasn’t too bothered about moving because I’d not really loved the Huis ter Duin.” Despite the “hideous” carpet and small size of her room, it fared well in comparison to other Dutch hotels: “The bed was surprisingly comfortable. I say surprisingly because beds in Dutch hotels are generally dreadful. I slept really well and both the mattress and pillows were perfect.”
Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport is a hub for travel on the continent. If you’ve got a layover, you’ll want to know exactly where to stay, and that’s where koshkha comes in -- her praise for the Dorint Hotel is all you need to hear. She writes: “My room was surprisingly good. I say surprising because of all my deeply held prejudices about Dutch hotels but even by normal standards it was a nice room. The carpet was a fine pattern of tiny brown squares on cream background. The colour throughout the room was earthy with shades from beige through to ginger which all gelled together quite nicely. The window dressing combined fine sheers with blackout curtains and decorative edge curtains at either end of the room-width bank of windows.”
More Places to Stay in Europe
Hotels in Amsterdam
Hotels in Rome
Hotels in Barcelona
Posted by tdbeckwith (Thomas Beckwith)