Amsterdam is fun although Schipol Airport (AMS) is not. It's a nice smooth journey if you use STN as your departure point, use KLM rather than the "We may or may not fly, it depends on what mood we're in" airlines. Get to STN early and sit yourself in the executive lounge if you've got a Priority Pass card.
Once you arrive and trapse around Schipol, you can either take a train or a cab into Amsterdam. As for accomodation, I'd recommend the Renaissance Hotel (Marriott) which is just down from the Central Station. The price is reasonable; the room only cost £100.00/night plus taxes (off-season) and we were upgraded to a club room because I smiled nicely at the receiptionist. There is a little square behind the hotel and a great looking steakhouse if you go left out of the front door although we didn't have time to try it out.
We were planning on heading out there again last weekend but it's a good thing that we didn't because it was a Dutch bank holiday and our friend Liz (who was out there at the time) said the hotels were all full.
You can get a pretty good long weekend for just over £500.00 if you find a reasonably priced flight. Obviously, if you want to slum it in a four star instead it'll probably be about £75/night instead.
On the return journey, you'll have to manage Schipol again; it's big and bizarrely laid out. It comes second only to ORD as far as traveller frustration goes. Remind me to tell you about the time I had to get from International arrivals at ORD across to one of the other terminals via immigration and customs in only 90 minutes to catch an onward flight to MSP. LAS probably takes third place as the major distuption whilst they installed the transit system a few years ago still makes it a chore to navigate. It makes you really appreciate how great the Intl terminal at SFO really is.
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Date: 2002-05-16 05:15 pm (UTC)Once you arrive and trapse around Schipol, you can either take a train or a cab into Amsterdam. As for accomodation, I'd recommend the Renaissance Hotel (Marriott) which is just down from the Central Station. The price is reasonable; the room only cost £100.00/night plus taxes (off-season) and we were upgraded to a club room because I smiled nicely at the receiptionist. There is a little square behind the hotel and a great looking steakhouse if you go left out of the front door although we didn't have time to try it out.
We were planning on heading out there again last weekend but it's a good thing that we didn't because it was a Dutch bank holiday and our friend Liz (who was out there at the time) said the hotels were all full.
You can get a pretty good long weekend for just over £500.00 if you find a reasonably priced flight. Obviously, if you want to slum it in a four star instead it'll probably be about £75/night instead.
On the return journey, you'll have to manage Schipol again; it's big and bizarrely laid out. It comes second only to ORD as far as traveller frustration goes. Remind me to tell you about the time I had to get from International arrivals at ORD across to one of the other terminals via immigration and customs in only 90 minutes to catch an onward flight to MSP. LAS probably takes third place as the major distuption whilst they installed the transit system a few years ago still makes it a chore to navigate. It makes you really appreciate how great the Intl terminal at SFO really is.
Regards, Ade.