Priceline Hotel: 3* Amsterdam (City Centre-Museum Quarter) Nh Caransa

[kayess]

Or

[thereuare]

Thank you for this new property for our lists.

Enjoy your stay.

[kayess]

Checked out today and checked into the Amsterdam Marriott till Sunday. Now sitting in a cosy internet coffeeshop on a sidestreet off Leidseplein overlooking a canal. We are having a GREAT week in Amsterdam.

Now, about the hotel. I think I should probably post a review in a different thread but then I'd need to type out the hotel name and region and price information again. The NH Caransa is one of Amsterdam's many NH hotels - good solid chain. It's a 3 star according to priceline but they call themselves 4* I think. Anyway, 3 is more accurate.

Great location on Rembrantsplein, lovely little square with loads going on, central enough to be within walking distance of just about everything but not in the most touristy bits of the city. Right next door to a tram stop.

Sadly they have extensive renovations going on at the moment at the NH Caransa. We checked in and were allocated a twin room which had clearly just been redecorated. In fact when I hung 2 shirts on the clothes rail it fell off the wardrobe wall. We requested and were given a room change, to a smoking floor but with a better view and a wardrobe which worked. The plug in the sink didn't either but it was clean and comfortable, with a free easy to use safe.

We'd been told on checking in that the restaurant was closed due to said restoration work, but to use the sister hotel over the square instead. Fine, we weren't planning to eat at the hotel anyway. The next moring we were awoken at 8am local time (7am our time) by workmen who were noisy working in every room on our floor. I was fine with that but my daughter was knackered and whiny so I went downstairs to ask for an extra sachet of hot chocolate to cheer her up. I came away with 5 sachets of hot chocolate and a transfer over the square to the much nicer sister hotel over the square, the NH Schiller for our remaining 4 nights of our stay.

We threw our belongings into cases and dragged them over the Rembrantplein, stopping to marvel at the exhibition of statues depicting the Nightwatch in front of the statue of Rembrant himself, and checked into the NH Schiller which will be the subject of my next post. Whew, it was wondereful...

One final point about the NH Caransa, which I would be delighted to get again at a 3* price once the renovations are over, was that neither they nor the Schiller reception staff had heard of priceline so at both places I had long embarrassing conversations at checkout about the fact that I HAD prepaid. But both reception staff handled it very professionally and apologised profusely when I turned out to be telling the truth!

Right, back to the Marriott to meet the ex in-laws!