Amsterdam

Messiah:

1. if i could only make one suggestion about travelling in amsterdam, it's this: rent a bike! make it the first thing you do after you check into your hotel. it really made my trip - it beats walking, is much cheaper than taxis, and it's a flat, not-to-hot-not-too-cold city so it's fairly comfortable biking around. the city is very well set up for biking, bike lanes everywhere, not too many cars, etc. plus it really brings into focus all the nice views/atmosphere between your various destinations around town, which i found especially atmospheric at night coming back from the clubs.

2. the best place i stayed out of 4 places was hotel citidel on nieuwezijids voorburgwal 98-100 (tel. +31 (0)20 - 627 3882. at E65/night (E95 on weekends) it was one of the nicest mid-range places i've ever stayed at in europe - big rooms, elevator, free breakfast, real paintings, very central location, toilet/shower in the room, spotlessly clean, etc etc. sort of a institutional-yet-posh business traveller vibe to it, but in a good way. extremely comfortable. make reservations, it fills up.

utopia coffeeshop/hotel would have been a good deal for a single room at 25/night, if it wasn't so damn cold - nothing too special, but (fairly) clean, central, friendly and cheap. might be a good outside the middle of winter.

3. rent a bike! a good place to do it is holland rent-a-bike, in the basement of the buers van berlage at damrak 243

4. clubs: at the time of visiting, club 11 is the place on saturday nights for minimal techno with a laid back, hip but not too ridiculously hip 20-something crowd. plus it has fantastic views of the city.

also, de kroown on rembrantsplein is absolutely *filled* with beautiful young women, and the musics not half bad, in a defected-in-the-house kind of way. wear something nice.

5. oh, and did i mention, rent a bike! some days about all i did was get stoned and bike around, to tell the truth those were probably my best days there. plus i must have lost like 3 kilos in 2 weeks from all the (light-but-steady) excersise.

Tim
go to expedia.co.uk, they've got rooms in the Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky on Dam Square (you can't get anymore central) for less than 80 quid/night (shared single or double). I lived like a fucking king while i was there, total bargain.

Paradiso is good - I went on the Tresor night and had a great time. I don't even like techno. I also recommend the mushrooms from Kokopelli on Warmoesstraat.

also, www.amsterdamhotspots.nl is quite useful, lots of hotel reviews and everything else.

don't stay at Hotel Ajax on Rokin, nasty dump.

all in 10/10 as a city.

Aly Farrow:
Phil and I stayed at the Hotel Winston last year, just down the road from the Hotel Krasnapolski, almost opposite the Police Station. We got a decent double for about 35 quid and were very happy there. Just don't ask for one of the 'Art' room though, if you want a good nights sleep - one of them has a life-sized sculpture of a man with his head attached to the ceiling, which is made of loads of sellotape. I found it very disturbing, the thought of having a sellotape man looming over the end of the bed.

Oh well, maybe you had to be there....

We only went out clubbing once - to a friday night at Mazzo. Steve Rachmad was playing and very good it was too. Its a nice venue, with a large bar area and a decent sized dance floor. The only problem is that the entrance is at the wrong end of the dance floor, so you have to navigate around dancers to get to the bar area. Even so, we enjoyed it.

I still reckon Amsterdam is one of the best cities in Europe, so whatever you decide to do you'll probably have fun.

Doug Fisher
Dam links:
http://www.partyscene.nl/
http://www.xs4all.nl/~adark/ (speshly good links for all yer clubs + party info)