The best honeymoon hotels in Amsterdam
An insider's guide to the best honeymoon hotels in Amsterdam, including the top places to stay for romantic suites, antique-filled interiors, lavish décor, intimate restaurants and canal views, in locations including Centrum, the Canal Belt, Jordaan and De Negen Straatjes.
You enter The Dylan through a 17th-century arch and gateway, and across a courtyard, which helps give the hotel its discreet, exclusive atmosphere. Inside, old-world elegance sets the base note (wood-panelled walls, leather upholstery), with exuberant contemporary flourishes (geometric light fittings atop a long, black marble bar). Each of the rooms is individually decorated, though décor follows five different themes, from the coppers, lush velvets, mother-of-pearl and silver leaf of the ‘Loxura’ rooms, to the muted colours and calm lines of the ‘Serendipity’ collection. The hotel has a very stylish salon boat, on which you can enjoy lunch or dinner while cruising the canals.
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This hotel was formerly the residence of a celebrated 19th-century Dutch artist, George Breitner, and is now lavishly decorated in a style he would have been quite at home in – complemented by welcome 21st-century touches, and generous, genuinely engaged hosts. Inside you’ll find rooms filled with museum-quality antique furniture, sumptuous fabric, a mosaic of fine artwork, stuccoed ceilings dripping with crystal chandeliers, and forests of fresh flowers. Each of the two suites has a separate bedroom and drawing room, and enormous bathroom (with Clarins products). The Isaac Israels Suite has its own garden terrace.
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The Toren is set in a couple of grand canal houses, and seems to suck you back into another world the moment you step through the door. Luscious fabrics, deep purples, rich colours, soft chairs, dark carved wood, subtle lighting and chandeliers: it's all very mysterious and womb-like. Here and there original features remain – a painted ceiling, carved wainscoting, stucco moulding. There are zany touches, too: crocodile-skin and faux corrugated-zinc wallpaper alongside the flock and damask. The lush décor from downstairs infiltrates the rooms, too, as do the period touches: a four-poster bed, perhaps, gilded ceilings, or an Empire-style writing desk. Some of the more luxurious ones also have hot tubs.
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Seven One Seven brings you as close as you can get to the experience of living in a stately Amsterdam canal house without actually owning one – the place to come if you really want to give yourself a treat. The rear part of the property dates from the 17th century; its elegant canal frontage added in 1810. The eight palatial rooms come replete with period décor. The two executive suites at the front of the house have enormous windows, with prime views of the Prinsengracht canal. The remainder, at the rear, are also charming, looking out over a courtyard garden. Comfy modern beds and sofas blend seamlessly with antique furniture to add contemporary convenience to old-world romance.
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An erstwhile Admiralty building (dating from the 17th century), one-time City Hall (in the 1930s), The Grand is now in bright new clothes as a luxury hotel – with a Gallic touch. French interiors architect Sybille de Margerie has worked magic to soften the monumental interior with warm colours and witty design touches, creating a contemporary air. Bedrooms are large for Amsterdam, and decorated with the same flair as the public spaces. They have been done up in natural tones, but with adventurous (though far from vulgar) shades of plum, deep pink and touches of orange.
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Owners Peter and Wolter have renovated their 1585 canal house with imagination and flair. Original features remain (wooden beams, old brickwork, a spiral staircase), and are enlivened by bold colours and inviting fabrics. Designer classics (Le Corbusier sofas in the bedrooms) rub cheeks with stately antiques. But underlying all this is Peter and Wolter’s sense of home. Up under the rafters, the Blue Room, done up in alluring film-star-eyed blue, has an impressive canal view and a cheeky round bed. The Red Room, one floor below, is a womb of rich warm colours, and the street-level Green Suite features a large separate sitting-room, and a truly magnificent four-poster bed.
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Old Amsterdam meets opera-set bordello at Hotel Estherea, with patterns on every fabric and different paper on every wall. Fake cherry blossom, real orchids, and crystal chandeliers with frilly shades fill these three adjoining canal houses in the heart of the Negen Straatjes – the ‘Nine Little Streets’ – a hip shopping, café and restaurant quarter. There are more than 90 rooms, of varying sizes and with different décor. One is done up floor to ceiling in Delftware blue and white; another panelled and draped in russets and browns. Most have bold wallpaper, piles of cushions, comfy sofas or armchairs.
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Seven Bridges is a 300-year-old canal house, sumptuously furnished throughout with the owners’ impressive collection of antiques. And we’re talking the real stuff – a rare Dutch Empire récamier in reception, a 15th-century oak staircase, a priceless little Louis XVI table, a Baroque commode; here an elegant piece of Biedermeyer, there a touch of Art Deco – all done with exquisite taste and care. It is much appreciated by antiques lovers and people wanting a taste of Old Amsterdam, and has many regular guests. It’s also in one of the Canal District's most beautiful spots with (as you might have guessed) a view of seven bridges at the intersection of two canals.
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The Waldorf Astoria has been formed out of six magnificent mansions located on one of Amsterdam’s most impressive canals. These have been converted with grace, a sensitive attitude to heritage (many 17th- and 18th-century features remain), and a careful eye to contemporary luxury and style. Parts reach museum perfection - such as the Maurer Room, a private dining suite with 18th-century wall-paintings and its interior entirely intact. The top-range suites have period architectural elements intact, but the rooms under the rafters are arguably the better option – quirkier, with more of an individual charm.
