Amsterdam

Pros: Easy, affordable last minute rooms
Cons: Might be sold out during peak events. Rooms are only available for same day arrival and short stays.

Last minute trip, and hard to find a good rate for a hotel in Amsterdam?

Most hotels in Amsterdam have an agreement with the KLM hotel desk, the VVV tourist information office and the GWK exchange offices. If a hotel has rooms available for...

Pros: Hotels in Amsterdam finally start upgrading their service levels and facilities. Compared to some other cities, rates are still reasonable - provided you're flexible with your dates.
Cons: As is common in Europe, older hotels tend to have small rooms originally meant for single occupancy

As a Dutchman living in the US, many of my friends ask me to recommend hotels in Amsterdam. Having lived there for a number of years, here is an overview of some of the more upmarket hotels:

Considered by many as the best hotel in Amsterdam,...

Pros: always more to discover
Cons: the weekend influx of tourists in search of beer, drugs and sex

Saturday mornings were my favourites. The Dutch party hard on Friday nights, and wake late, so you can steal a march on them. Even in winter, when the light comes late, nine o'clock, I could walk across the Oosterpark with barely a soul in sight, pick up...

Pros: Very easy to navigate, inexpensive
Cons: Not always very quick to get around! Driving in the city is not convenient at all.

Amsterdam is a very compact city - ideal for walking around. One thing you definitely should NOT do is rent a car, at least not if you are expecting to use it in the city. The narrow streets, bridges, and somewhat confusing lay-out of all the canals...

Pros: friendly, easy to see on foot
Cons: prominent drug culture

I wandered off the train in Amsterdam alone, without so much as a tour book. All I really knew was that it was supposed to be a beautiful and fun city, full of pickpockets and drug dealers. I bought a Lonely Planet guide with my visa and set off to...

Pros: Beautiful City
Cons: Get away from the tried and true

So you've been there once - you've been dragged through (or led the way to) the red light district, you've visited the 'coffee shops,' and you've done the day of the Rijksmuseum, Anne Frank's House, the brewery, the canal tour, and the Van Gogh...

Pros: Clean, Inexpensive, Friendly Fellow Travelers
Cons: Not Particularly Quaint

Amsterdam is a very beautiful, historic, and fun city. It has many many museums, more 17th century buildings than any other European city, gorgeous canals, a friendly attitude, a great nightlife and of course, coffee shops.

Since it is such a...

Pros: World class museums, friendly culture, social freedom
Cons: Can be intimidating for those not used to extreme differences in ways of life

The city of Amsterdam offers the opportunity to see life from a completely different angle. It is most famous for its liberal allowances of almost every vice you can think of, but thinking that this is all that the city offers would be a grave mistake....

Pros: Nice Architecture, museums, not expensive
Cons: a little dirty, junkies around in some areas, two days is enough

After havin seen the Mediterranean countries I've now moved upwards North through Sweden, Finland, and the Netherlands.

Coming in by train from Shiphpol airport to the center of the city I passed through a hidden area of...

Pros: hospitality, joie de vivre
Cons: weather, red light district

I had avoided Amsterdam as a teen after hearing rumors of the city's seediness and crime, but the rumors died down and even my mother found Amsterdam to be a safe traveling destination (even though she had some items stolen out of her suitcase at the...

Pros: very cheap, tram in front of building, breakfast
Cons: suitable for backpackers only :-)

I stayed in Amsterdam for more than 6 months and really love this city.
Before I lived with a friend in one of Amsterdam's suburbs, I stayed in a backpacker's place which was only about 11 Dutch Guildars (about US$ 7, I estimate).

The...

Pros: all you want
Cons: ditto

Amsterdam.

Chances are its myths became known to you sometime around the age of 15. Maybe it was when you smoked your first joint, maybe it was from the travel channel. Either way if you're of a certain persuasion, you've wanted to go there...

Pros: Architecture, uniqueness, canals, Pancake Factory
Cons: dirty in spots, can be easy to get lost

I went to Amsterdam in June 2006 for 4 days. It was somewhat last minute during a vacation in Paris that we decided to rent a car and go to Amsterdam. My first suggestion (if you drive) is to NOT enter the city with the car. The city has a program ...

Pros: Beautiful, fascinating, and an excellent way to restfully take in the sights
Cons: Duck doo is one of the more pleasant things giving the water that colour

One of the first things I did at the beginning of my long stay in the Netherlands was to take a canal-boat tour of the city. Between the lingering effects of jet-lag and the exhaustion that followed my previous brisk walking tour of the city, I...

Pros: Lots of culture and history. Legal cannabis. Good currency rate; usually.
Cons: Cold, damp, windy, weather. Rude dutch people. Short days in winter. Crime.

I'll admit that I first went to Amsterdam just to smoke cannabis. However the more I went (been there 4 times), the less that was the reason. If you go make sure not to overlook the cultural side which includes the Van Gogh museum, the rijks museum, the...