Hospitality Nerd in Amsterdam (Travel Guide)

This is a travel guide for hospitality nerds. 

I'm absolutely passionate about hospitality, and when I travel, I love to explore new concepts.

I “sneak" into the hotel lobbies, then check restaurant, rooftop, and common areas. I observe people, interactions, and details. Sometimes I work from there on my laptop. Then I write my observations on Hotel Nuggets.

Inspiration can come from restaurants or museums too, not just hotels.

All these places on this list are in some (often weird) way inspiring for me. So I thought this compilation might be useful for another hospitality nerd in Amsterdam.

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Hotels

• Casa - The OG of hybrid hospitality. My preferred venue for coworking days.
• Jakarta - One of the first energy-neutral hotels in the Netherlands. Amazing jungle lobby that works as a replacement of the air conditioning during the summer months.
• Volkshotel - The best neighborhood coworking. Beautifully designed, a lot of light, productive vibe, fast internet, plenty of plugs. Check out the Canvas restaurant on the roof. Try sauna if you are staying overnight.
• Zoku - Uniquely designed coliving apartments (I recommend staying there overnight). One of the best examples of blending a reception, bar, lounge and coworking into one space.
• Unbound - Glamping resort right next to Amsterdam. Next to highway, not really nature or something worth mentioning. What makes it interesting is the location, target group, and how well executed the concept is. Can be packed with e-bike and you are in the city center in less than 20 minutes.
• July: Boat & Co - An example of very smart development where the aparthotel is perfectly connected with the waterfront. Really enjoyable during the summer, has some magic. The hotel is the destination - nobody would stay in that area.
• SWEETS hotel - A collection of 28 former houses for bridge keepers converted into 1-bedroom hotel suites.
• CityHub - European version of a capsule hotel. A perfect combo of design, technology and community.

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Restaurants and cafés

• De Kas - Vegetarian fine dining restaurant in the middle of the park. Converted from an old farm, they grow their own food. Very unique experience.
• FEBO - Probably the worst fast food I ever had. There is a lot of hype about robotics and automated restaurants recently. Imagine that these guys have been doing it since 60's.
• Pesca - A cool seafood restaurant where you first choose the fish like “from the market”. Then you buy drinks at the bar and only after that you are seated. Also a nice icebreaker for a business dinner. 
• Winter beach bar - There are many trendy beach bars with an unique vibe that I haven't seen in other countries. Fireplace, hippie wooden design. Very pleasant to visit during the winter or rainy weather. Some of my favorite that are close to Amsterdam: Tijn Akersloot, Aloha and San Blas
• Berlage café - The first building of Dutch Stock Exchange is now an event space and there is also a beautiful historic café.
• Venu - Well-designed coworking café. If you want to stay, you pay per hour. 
• Breadwinner - Jon is a friend of mine who started to bake bread at home during corona. Then he added bagels and started to sell them on Instagram. At some point, he opened his own bakery that has undoubtedly the best bagels in Amsterdam. Love the story.
• Bird brewery - Amsterdam has a couple of small craft breweries but one stands out for me: Bird brewery is located in a small forest and has a very unique vibe. I recommend to bike there during the sunny day (if you are lucky).

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Others

• Sauna Kuuma - A concept of autonomous sauna where you look on a ship from from 16th century while you are sweating. 
• Bijlmer - Fascinating story of a massive housing project where Le Corbusier with his boys were involved. Supposed to be the best place to live in Amsterdam that turned out into the worst neighbourhood, now gentrifying. Listen to the story on the 99% Invisible podcast.
• Rembrandt House Museum - Dutch museums are the next level and my favorite is Rembrandt's house. Don't expect many paintings, it's more about Rembrandt's life. It's interactive and you can attend small workshops. I highly recommend to take a device with the audio tour and listen the English version for kids.‍
• City farms - Amsterdam has a couple of small city farms with animals. Some of them are in parks, others in residential areas. Makes me think: What else we can bring to the cities, that for many people sounds crazy?‍
• Tuin parks - You can find quite a few dedicated city garden areas with small tiny houses. They look so cute. I love to stroll around (it's open to the public) because it's more interesting than walking in a regular park.

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