The budget hotels of place Amsterdam are like no others on earth. Located chiefly in canal houses of 17th and 18th century construction, they go up, not out. So narrow are these buildings that their stairways are like a ship’s-thin little ledges that require a bannister for support.
On the outside of each house, you’ll see an iron beam with pulley that juts over the roof. That’s for hauling furniture and other heavy items-which simply can’t be carried up the steep stairs! But don’t let the stairway situation discourage you; older tourists are always placed on the ground or lower floors, and younger or more vigorous ones will look upon the stairs as a sightseeing attraction!
Some other features of the budget hotels in Amsterdam: each of them serves a gigantic, free breakfast-just as the British hotels do-except that here the emphasis is not on bacon and eggs, but on cheese, ham, several different kinds of Dutch bread, butter, and milk. Always remember that every quoted hotel price, at a budget hotel in Amsterdam, includes a whopping big morning meal. And that price is always quoted in terms of a per person rate-never in terms of single or double rooms. A hotel in Amsterdam will charge either eight guilders per person, or ten, or twelve, regardless of whether you occupy a single or double room.
We’ve grouped our hotel choices in Amsterdam according to price, beginning with the more expensive budget hotels, and then proceeding downwards, guilder-by-guilder. Obviously, our lowest-priced categories are composed of the very oldest canal houses, with the steepest stairs; but as we ascend in price, the stairs will flatten out (a little), the rooms will grow in size, and you’ll discover that Amsterdam offers some of the best hotel values in Europe.
