Guide · Schiphol · 2026-10-15
Hotels around Dam Square, at the centre of a first visit
Dam Square is where most first-time visitors find themselves within an hour of arriving, whether they meant to or not. The hotels around it range from grand rooms facing the palace to small ones on the lanes behind, and each has its own way in after dark.
The square is the old heart of the city, the place where a dam once crossed the Amstel and gave Amsterdam its name. On one side stands the Royal Palace, built as a town hall, with the New Church at its shoulder; opposite them the white column of the National Monument rises in front of a grand old hotel and a department store. By day the square is a crossing point for trams, bicycles, street performers and people photographing the pigeons. By night it empties more than most visitors expect.
Two kinds of hotel around the square
Beside the monument and on the wide streets that branch off the square are several large hotels in substantial old buildings, with doormen, broad staircases and lifts. Behind the square, on the lanes that run toward the Damrak and the Nieuwendijk, are many smaller places in narrow houses, some with a reception that closes in the late evening. The difference matters only at the door. In a large hotel you meet her in the lobby; in a small one, the thread needs to say how the street door opens after the desk has gone home.
From the airport to the Dam
The airport train to Centraal and then a walk down the Damrak brings you to the square, or a tram covers the same stretch in a couple of stops. With a heavy suitcase the tram is kinder than the cobbles. A taxi from the airport cannot drive onto most of the square, which is closed to cars, so give the driver the hotel's street rather than the square itself.
Fitting a session into the first day
A first afternoon here tends to fill itself: the palace, a canal boat from the Damrak, a wander through the shopping lanes. Sending the first message as you head back gives the forty to sixty minutes room to run while you walk. Ask the hotel for a room away from the square if you can, because the trams brake and ring there well after dark. The etiquette guide covers what to have ready in the room.
Couples in the larger rooms
The big hotels around the Dam hold some of the more spacious rooms in the old centre, with beds wide enough for two guests side by side. A couple who chose one for a special trip can ask for a session together, either with one therapist or with one each; the couples page explains how that is set up.