Guide · Schiphol · 2026-10-15
Hotels around the Nieuwmarkt and its medieval weigh house
The Nieuwmarkt is a square of café terraces around a fortified gatehouse that later weighed the city's goods. Its hotels are small and old, a short ride from the station, and they suit a visitor who wants a lively square below and a quiet room above.
The building in the middle of the square began life as a gate in the medieval walls, became the weigh house when the city grew past it, and now holds a restaurant lit by candles. Around it the square is ringed with terraces that fill on any dry evening. Streets lead off in every direction: north to the station, west into the old church quarter, south along the Kloveniersburgwal canal toward the Amstel.
What the hotels are like
Hotels here are mostly small and family-run, in narrow houses of four or five floors. Lifts are the exception and stairs the rule, and the rooms at the top often sit under the roof beams. They have character and fair prices, and a guest who chooses one has usually done so on purpose, trading a lift and a big lobby for creaking floorboards, a window onto gables and a host who remembers your name by the second morning. For a session, the points worth a line in the thread are the stairs and the size of the room.
Arriving from the airport
Take the airport train to Centraal and the metro one stop to Nieuwmarkt, where the exit comes up on the square itself. Or walk from the station along the Zeedijk, a lane of shops and restaurants that ends on the square; with a small bag it makes a pleasant first walk in the city. Message from the train rather than from the room, so that the forty to sixty minutes are already running while you climb the stairs.
Terraces below, quiet above
The square stays busy until the bars close, and the front rooms hear it. Back rooms look over gardens and rooftops and are much calmer. If the hotel can move you, a room at the back is worth asking for, especially for a late session. Soft music in the room covers whatever chatter still drifts up from the street.
A first evening on the square
Dinner on a terrace, a stroll along the canal as the lamps come on, then the room: that is an easy first evening after a long flight. The first evening, hour by hour follows a similar day from landing to sleep, and the roster shows who might be free that night.