The hotels facing Centraal Station, for a first arrival by the airport train

The airport train pulls in beneath a long roof of iron and glass, at a station that was built on artificial islands in the old harbour. Walk out through the main hall and the first row of buildings across the water and the tram tracks is mostly hotels: large ones on the Prins Hendrikkade, narrower ones squeezed along the start of the Damrak, a few tucked behind the domed church of St Nicholas. For a guest who has never been to the city, the appeal is plain. The suitcase rolls a short distance, there is no tram to work out, and the bed is reached before the evening has properly started.

What the station-front rooms are like

Most hotels in this cluster are big operations with a reception staffed through the night, a bank of lifts and long corridors. Rooms on the front look across at the station and the coming and going of trams and ferries; rooms at the back face courtyards or the roofs of the old centre and are noticeably calmer. The buildings range from turn-of-the-century facades with new interiors to plain blocks from later decades. Space beside the bed is usually reasonable, which suits most formats without any planning.

When to send the first message

Because the walk is so short, this is the cluster where the timing is simplest to judge. Write once the train has pulled away from the airport platform, with the hotel's name, the length you want and a note that this is your first booking. The reply names who is free and proposes a start, and a room here is reached forty to sixty minutes after you say yes, which leaves time to check in, unpack and stand under a hot shower. The guide to the journey in from the airport sets out the rest of the route.

Busy lobbies and the lift

A station-front lobby rarely goes quiet. Tour groups check out at dawn, the last trains bring guests in after midnight, and nobody at the desk pays attention to one more visitor crossing to the lifts. Some of the larger hotels lock their lifts to key cards in the evening, so the easy routine is to come down when she writes that she is at the entrance. Put the room number in the thread as soon as the key is in your hand.

A first evening around the station

The area is a crossroads rather than a neighbourhood. Free ferries cross the IJ from behind the station, the old centre begins a few steps south, and the canals of the western ring are a short stroll away. A brief walk before the session, then the room, then sleep, makes a sensible first night for anyone whose body clock is still somewhere over the ocean. Sensual massage, slow and unhurried, is a gentle way to close a day that began on another continent.