Hotel Orlando, Amsterdam

Joel wasn’t exaggerating when he said how much we enjoyed Amsterdam. It is, by far, my favorite city. The size, food, culture, people, aesthetic….

Before I spend the next week recounting our time there I want to take a few minutes to sing the praises of our hotel, Hotel Orlando.

Selected entirely because Casey and Wen like it, we couldn’t have been happier.

The room (117) was huge, faced the canal, clean, bright, beautifully decorated and very comfortable. I loved the tub and large bathroom as well. It’s a 3-star hotel and not extremely luxurious but definitely generous in the areas that matter.

Room 117 – Panorama!

Breakfast is included and while I was not feeling great, Joel enjoyed it both mornings.

The hotel’s location is ideal and makes you feel like you live in Amsterdam.

Picturesque Location

We were already raving about the hotel but the series of events with my migraine yesterday just blew us away.

As we approached Amsterdam by train yesterday on our way back from Amersfoort I realized that I needed to lay down quickly and considering we had two hours to kill until our train to Paris, we were at a loss. This was complicated by my impaired vision, sensation and word recall. We decided to just take a taxi to the hotel and see if they had a room for that night. We planned on delaying our trip by one day as I had bought travel insurance for our train tickets.

We arrived at the hotel at 11:30am (well before check in) with no reservation. Rose welcomed us immediately and showed us to the only remaining room. While I shut my eyes Joel called the train service and found out that it would still end up costing about $300 to delay our trip home. We decided to try to make the trip home that day as planned and called the hotel and said we would be happy to pay for  another hour so I could rest. They allowed us to stay, unannounced, in a room free of charge so that I could rest before the trip home.

The generosity they showed was inspiring and I am so thankful. I truly think those 2 hours of rest allowed me to get home safe and sound yesterday.

If you end up in Amsterdam please look up Hotel Orlando. You won’t be disappointed.

Exterior View