Discovering Amsterdam is a must.
Whatever stereotypes you may have about this place, erase them ! It’s like visiting any other place. You see pictures or perhaps a movie and think you have it all figured out. For example ‘In Bruges’ with Colin Farrell. The point is, you need to see it for yourself. Any film you just saw is completely subjective. Sure enough, after discovering Amsterdam, our outlook has completely changed !
One fact that remains about Amsterdam is the $$$ hotels. It is hard to understand where to stay in advance because the battle is location vs budget. Then, when you think you’ve found the place – was it exactly what you were hoping for ?
Once we booked our plane ticket Amsterdam, the only missing piece of the puzzle was the hotel. We checked all the sites, Trivago, Expedia and Booking over and over again, but there was nothing under $150-200 CAD per night. Almost at our wits’ end, we find this place on Expedia that seems pretty reasonable. It turns out, it was our little loft in the attic.
The price was already lower than all the other hotels. We just weren’t sure about the location and accessibility. Looking at the map, it seemed far from the city centre tucked away in the Oude Pijp neighbourhood. We could walk to the city center but it was quicker to take the streetcar. (Budget wise, its best if you take the 24 or 48 hour passes) After all, the Bed and Breakfast is perfectly located. A mere six minutes walk to the Heineken Experience and 13 minutes walk to the Museum quarter.
We haven’t seen any single homes discovering Amsterdam. The city was purposely designed this way to save on space and taxes. The owners were taxed on the width of the home. You can visit the narrowest house in Europe, which happens to be in Amsterdam. We saw it from a boat tour since we had a short trip, but if you are staying longer you’ll surely find it by foot. The house is 2 meters wide and 5 meters deep, insane !
We rented the attic, you know, the triangular space at the very top of the house. Ironically, I don’t think we could have found better. The owners are great hosts. They emailed us just before arriving and were quick to respond to our inquiries. Our only issue, was mis-planing our money situation. The Bed and Breakfast only accepts cash and it was clearly indicated in their notes. The miscommunication seemed to be with Expedia. This put a dent in our cashflow as we wanted some money and tried to use our credit cards the other moments. As I said, this was our mistake as we 
hadn’t read the instructions properly, but we found our solution.
It’s no mansion, it’s just enough for 2 people travelling (careful for the bags because the stairs are steep and it’s on the 3rd floor) plus I doubt they accept any more than that. However, it is super clean and you have everything you can possibly need. They gave us a starter kit in the refrigerator plus, bread, stuff for sandwiches and there is a market nearby if you need to restock. It’s really quiet and it was great to come and go as we pleased.
We give Amsterdam a high five and two thumbs up for this bed and breakfast. We also invite you to contact us when you plan to go to Amsterdam !
Cheers !
