The best luxury hotels in Amsterdam, from Michelin-starred dining to rooftop pools with canal views

The Pulitzer sits on an attractive stretch of one of Amsterdam’s most gracious canals, five minutes’ walk from the Anne Frank House and only two or three more to the Royal Palace on the Dam. The hotel, which runs through 25 different buildings, is a delightful warren of passages, stairways, sudden open spaces, with many original features intact, but with a fresh, contemporary atmosphere. Rooms come in all shapes and sizes, many with fine canal views. Gracious service, garden courtyards and good cuisine add to the mix. Pulitzer’s Bar is a city institution and serves good wines and classic cocktails.

The Grand is a place of elegance and repose in the heart of town, just a few minutes’ walk from the Dam. The hotel is housed in an erstwhile Admiralty building dating from the 17th century and one-time City Hall (in the 1930s); the monumental fixtures are softened with a warm palette and calm contemporary design touch. Rooms are large for Amsterdam, and either come with views of canals or the beautiful garden courtyard. The cuisine at Bridges restaurant hits the perfect note, especially when paired with organic wines. Breakfast is superb, with a buffet that extends beyond the usual fare, ranging from congee to Dutch pancakes.

The cream of Dutch creatives roam relaxedly through this centrally located hotel and member’s club, all soaring ceilings, stained glass, Art Deco angles and boldly coloured tiling. Rooms – with parquet floors, enticing textiles, original artwork, vintage-style furniture – continue the tranquil, engaging tone of the communal areas. A roof terrace with a 360-degree city view, private cinema, canal-view gym and easy-going, yet attentive service add to the allure. The House Kitchen does robust, tasty fare with US and Mediterranean influences, made with prime ingredients, while Cecconi’s serves inspired Italian fare.

You enter The Dylan through a 17th-century arch and gateway, and across a courtyard, which helps give it a discreet, exclusive atmosphere. Inside, old-world elegance sets the base note, with exuberant contemporary flourishes. Rooms vary considerably in shape and style: some large, with canal views; others up under the roof beams. All od them are individually decorated. For dining, Vinkeles (situated in the former almshouse bakery) serves modern, Michelin-starred cuisine with a busy bevy of counter-flavours. The more casual Occo Brasserie in the courtyard is also delightful.

The hotel’s location couldn’t be better; magnificent canal out the front, large garden out the back. The period pieces reach museum perfection, such as the Maurer Room, a private dining suite with 18th-century wall-paintings and its interior entirely intact. Beyond the 17th-century style garden, there’s a large gym, a tranquil Guerlain spa, and an indoor pool. Classic good taste prevails in the rooms – here a Queen Anne table, there a contemporary designer coffee rest – paired with high-tech mod cons. Expect sumptuous high teas at the Peacock Alley lobby-lounge and excellent cocktails at The Vault bar.

A quietly luxurious hotel in a 23-storey building that towers over low-rise Amsterdam. It’s situated in hip De Pijp, surrounded by trendy restaurants and cafés. Guests have access to the tranquil Nagomi spa, the largest hotel pool in town, and a large, well-equipped gym with professional trainers and natural light. The higher you go in this 23-storey building, the more spectacular the view over low-rise Amsterdam (and the higher the room rate). It’s home to a bushel of restaurants which boast four Michelin stars and a Bib Gourmand between them. You’ll be able to enjoy new Dutch cuisine at Ciel Bleu, authentic kaiseki ryori (Japanese haute cuisine) at Yamazato, and communal grilling at Sazanka teppanyaki restaurant.

Built in 1867, the Amstel is every inch a classic grand hotel, a gracious old lady who can comfortably take her place alongside the Ritz, Reid’s on Madeira or Raffles in Singapore. Yet it is by no means stuffy or overwhelming. The lobby is welcoming, and though gleaming with marble has a large dash of Dutch gezelligheid (‘warmth’ or ‘conviviality’, an agreeable national trait). Rooms are furnished with classic taste; the best are those with a view over the river to the old part of the city. At river level, an indoor pool is part of a well-equipped spa, and La Rive, the waterside restaurant on the River Amstel, has long been ranked one of the best in town.

Italian interiors architect Piero Lissoni has transformed the weighty 19th-century building (once a bank, and for many years the Sweelinck music conservatory) into an uplifting expanse of contemporary design. Many features of the original structure remain intact, beautifully restored, but it is Lissoni’s trademark clean lines, muted fabrics and cheeky flashes of colour that set the tone. The lobby-lounge surpasses any in town for drink, meal (it includes a brasserie), or coffee stop-off. The most alluring rooms are those in parts of the building that had imposingly high ceilings, now transformed into split-level rooms and suites.

An exclusive suites-only hotel in a 1916 building, almost next door to the Royal Palace. Suites are spacious and the décor is sumptuous, yet the atmosphere relaxingly domestic thanks in part to the pleasant, quietly attentive staff. If there is an opposite to Dutch Minimalism, this is it. Every surface is draped, decorated or shiny: damasks from Rubelli in Venice, silks from Parisian Pierre Frey, lit by wildly modern sculpted light fittings by Brand van Egmond. The cocktail bar is a welcome retreat from the hectic Dam, and the cocktails here are some of the best in town; the petite gin-and-lime Bee’s Knees is a perfect pick-me-up.

The W is housed in an erstwhile telephone exchange building (the Exchange), as well as in a 1906 former bank across the road (Bank). The location couldn’t be more central, rubbing noses with the Royal Palace. The rooftop bar on Exchange is a hot local hangout, featuring frequent parties and events of a fashion and design flavour. There’s a spa deep in the vaults at Bank, and includes a large gym, pool and treatment facilities. Mr Porter atop the Exchange has magnificent city views and serves steaks to make carnivores drool. Across at the Bank, Michelin-starred The Duchess offers lighter French-Italian cuisine.