Hotels in and around Amsterdam

Every 10 years the Dutch put on a massive flower festival known as the Floriade. The last one was back in 2002 and at the time I had a very large number of KLM frequent flier miles and decided to blow almost all of them on taking my parents, my sister and her partner, my husband and I to Amsterdam for the weekend to visit both the city and the Floriade. My family are lovely but they drive me nuts because they never can make a decision about ANYTHING. Even going out for lunch is enough to make you crazy because they'll walk miles before they finally settle on somewhere to eat. So when I realised that there was no point at all in consulting them on a possible choice of hotel I decided to take an 'executive decision' (i.e not ask them) and book us three rooms at the Ibis at Amsterdam airport.

At that time I think the Ibis was the cheapest of the Accor group hotels at Schiphol airport. From memory I think we paid about £50 per room including breakfast. Since the transportation to the Floriade all went from the airport and since we could get into the city centre easily on the train from the airport, the location worked out well for us.

It's only fair to say up-front that I generally loathe and detest Ibis hotels. I've had some really miserable stops in French Ibis places that made me so frustrated that I sat on the bed and cried with anger. But on the whole, for what we needed the Ibis served its purpose.

At that time the shuttle buses to the hotel were every 15-20 minutes although I found last year that the service has been cut to only every 45 minutes or so. This is a serious issue as all the convenience of being near the airport is blown away if you have to wait so long for a bus or take your chances with an over-priced taxi. However if you do take the Accor chain shuttle bus, at least the Ibis and Etap are the first stops rather than the last so the journey time is not so bad.

We had prepaid so check in was simple and quick. The lobby is large and brightly coloured and we were soon issued with card-keys. The hotel is large and very basic and the walk to our room was a long one. The rooms were very basic. In order to maintain so many different tiers in their hotel portfolio, Accor have to shave away almost everything from the lower rungs of their ladder so that Ibis and Etap (thankfully I never yet had to stoop quite that low) have very little in the way of extras. You'll get a bed, a desk, a TV, a shower, somewhere to hang up a few clothes but don't expect any 'extras' like nice toiletries - indeed, just don't expect any toiletries at all because you'll have to bring your own. Nobody else in my family spends a lot of time in hotels so I didn't get any grumbles from my folks - they are quite easily pleased and seemed to like the hotel, although we didn't spend much time there at all.

Breakfast in the morning was held in an enormous dining room which was noisy and a bit like a school cafeteria but the food was OK and filled a hole. The thing I liked best about the hotel (and remember most clearly) was the large fish pond in the front, in the area where we had to wait for the shuttle. We'd kept some bread from breakfast to feed the fish and it certainly made the time pass whilst waiting for the bus.

If you don't need much, want to save money and aren't too fussy, this is not a bad choice - it's certainly cheaper than most of the places you'll find in the city but be sure to make some enquiries and check up on the times of the shuttle bus or your 'conveniently located' cheap hotel could prove to be far from convenient.

I was due to attend an all-day meeting at the Sheraton, one of the most expensive of the Amsterdam airport hotels but the price to stay there was just ridiculous. So I did the noble thing and looked for where cheaper, but preferably near enough that I wouldn't need a transfer bus to get there. I found a really good deal on the Hilton at the airport which was about half the price of the Sheraton and not much further away but the good price was dependent on me paying up front. Since there was little or no risk of my meeting getting cancelled, I grabbed the room.

When I say that it wasn't much further away, I'm telling the truth - but only half of the story. It's not far but it can be very confusing to find the Hilton. I arrived, walked through the concourse where all the train tickets are sold and up the moving ramp at the far side towards the car parks, the Sheraton and the Hilton. I knew because I'd checked beforehand that I just had to get to the Sheraton and keep going and I oughtn't to be able to miss it. It's a bit of a trek - as most things are at Schiphol airport. For a small country, the Dutch certainly have a knack for taking up a lot of space where all things aeronautical are concerned.

So I walked, and walked and walked a bit more. I passed the Sheraton and kept going until suddenly I ran out of corridor and still hadn't found the Hilton. With no other visible alternative I took an elevator down to street level and eventually saw the Hilton, hidden away behind some brightly decorated synthetic cows who were 'grazing' on a small roundabout. One was painted Orange - the national colour - and the other in a strange design reminiscent of a Mondrian canvas - he was Dutch, so maybe that's why. In short, you can indeed walk to the hotel but you might wish you hadn't and for anyone who's a bit unsteady on their feet, there is a shuttle bus back at the terminal.

The Hilton is not one of the chain's newer hotels which tend to be quite extraordinary in their simplistic style and grace. Not this one! It was a bit dark and dingy but I was only going to be there for a night - as I'm sure most of their guests are - so my needs were fairly simple. I'd prepaid so check-in was a doddle. Looking around me the lobby was small and a bit dated and filled with people who had just arrived on flights or were just about to leave on them. The receptionist told me about the restaurants, the gym and pool and what time breakfast was served but I'd arrived tired and brought my own sandwiches and really just wanted to get to my room, get a shower and a bit of TV and hit the bed.

The room was smaller than most I've stayed in especially for an international chain but somehow despite the small size they seemed to have squeezed a lot into the space. The bed was more comfortable than normal in a land of overly soft beds and was decorated with an utterly functionless dark blue throw edged in deep yellow trim. This almost but not quite went with the blue and yellow striped headboard and matched the blue curtains and upholstery on the desk chair. Actually despite being small, they managed to squeeze in two armchairs and the world's teeniest coffee table. The desk was cluttered up with the tea and coffee tray and the telephone and had to serve as a bedside table too. The other side of the bed had a small side table with a lamp and an alarm clock and then almost everything else - TV, iron, trouser press, minibar, were all squeezed into the wardrobe unit. The bathroom was memorable only for the lovely toiletries which successfully distracted my attention from the rather drab shower and vanity unit.

As an airport hotel you'd expect good soundproofing and the hotel didn't disappoint on that level. I slept soundly despite being able to watch flights taking off through my bedroom window. I hadn't booked breakfast as I knew I'd get fed at my meeting so I happily repacked my things and headed off to the Sheraton the next morning, pausing only to return my room key and pay for my wi-fi access.

I wouldn't choose to spend a long time in this hotel and if I'd been with colleagues I'm sure I'd have spent more time exploring what they had to offer, but for a very convenient location at a more reasonable price than the Sheraton and with a lot less fuss than the hotels that need a shuttle bus, I'd certainly consider it again. And if you want to stay longer and travel into the city, the railway station is on your doorstep and can get you into the city centre in just a few minutes.

As we sat in the car getting lost on the way to the hotel, my colleague Karin entertained me with horror stories about the hotel we were about to visit. Firstly she told me it was 'the one with the big bird outside' which sounded pretty ominous. My mind was filled with Sesame Street images. Next she said that the sales guys from her office claimed the hotel was 'full of prostitutes' especially during trade-shows (we had just been to a trade show of course). Another colleague had allegedly turned up late when all the normal rooms were taken and been given a jungle-themed room with a four-poster bed and plastic palm trees. Apparently that room was normally rented 'by the hour' and the porn channels were second to none (hence the massive 42 inch flat screen TVs). I shuddered at the thought of what sort of place I was heading towards. Would my bed still be warm, I wondered?

To say that my expectations were low would be an understatement. I was expecting a pretty dodgy hotel on the side of the motorway with little to offer anyone not looking for a very specific type of entertainment or a little bit of 'afternoon delight' with someone else's spouse. It didn’t get much better when we pulled up in the car park and Karin proceeded to hide or remove anything even vaguely valuable because she has Belgian number plates and was likely to get robbed. Excellent! You can guess how I was looking forward to my stay. We debated which of the many service station food options we would go for if we didn't fancy the hotel restaurant and I was expecting a pretty rubbish evening.

We trundled our bags through the car park, past some uninspiring looking Toblerone-shaped buildings, up the ramp and into an absolutely unexpectedly posh lobby. This was not the Dutch equivalent of a Travelodge which I'd been expecting. The lobby was massive, with lots of big leather Chesterfield sofas, a large check in desk and a warm and very inviting open fire. Yes, I'll admit there were some very tacky aspects of the place – the giant eagle statue half way down the stairs and the stunning frilly-knickers curtains made of a fabric whose design was based on Delft blue pottery for example – but overall it wasn't at all what I'd expected. In short, it didn't look like a knocking shop.

We were checked in quickly and effectively and I was asked if I wanted to pay then or in the morning. Not knowing what costs I might need to put on my room (i.e. DINNER, not any of the other 'delights' on offer) I opted for the latter and they pre-authorised my card for 150 Euros. I'd been assigned a room at the opposite end of the hotel to Karin and when I commented on that, the receptionist offered to see if she could get us rooms in the same wing and proceeded to put me just a few rooms down from her. Already I was impressed at such service in a Dutch hotel. I should explain at risk of offending any Dutch hotel workers or waiters (and probably all Dutch people) that Dutch hotels and restaurants are the laughing stock of Europe for their typical 'couldn't give a damn' attitude to service.

Our rooms were downstairs from the lobby but not, thankfully, underground. If I'd wanted a lift, one was available but I didn't use it. When I reached my room it was spacious but the colour scheme in shades of brown and ginger was a bit drab. Being on the ground floor, I had a door onto a small terrace and the garden although the weather wasn't likely to make sitting out very viable. The room was furnished in mid-brown wood furniture with a very large bed (two full singles pushed together), a narrow desk and drawers and the biggest TV I can ever recall seeing in a hotel. All the better for viewing the 'extra' channels available for a supplement from reception. Dutch TV can be a bit racy at the best of times – my modest and puritanical upbringing means I'm trying not to even think about what smut you can get for a few extra euros.

Two narrow wardrobes were available – one with shelves and a safe, the other with long hanging space – and there was a suitcase stand between with a mirror above. The bathroom was clean and basic with a separate shower hidden behind the door and a large bath. I can't tell you if there was a hair-dryer as I tend not to notice unless it's located somewhere really obvious. The toiletries provided were basic but adequate. Overall, the room scored well on size and not so well on décor, being a few years overdue for a bit of a refurb if the cigarette burns on the carpet were anything to go by. My husband rang to tell me that I'd once again forgotten my alarm clock but the phone system had an easy to set alarm system so I didn't need to worry.

The weather was cold, we'd had a long day and we didn't fancy going out to look for somewhere to eat so we headed up to the restaurant. I was amazed at the size of the place and can't recall when I've ever seen such a huge hotel restaurant before. The hotel was busy because of the trade show and many of the tables were set for large groups of 20 or 30 people but fortunately, they still found space to squeeze us in. Like the UK, Holland's not a country greatly renowned for its cuisine so we were expecting the menu to be rather basic but we were very wrong.

Because I don't eat meat it's usually quite easy to choose from a menu because there aren't that many suitable dishes but this time I had to really think hard about what to have because there were so many dishes to choose from including a lot of different dishes based on fish we don't see so often in the UK, such as panga. Karin was also struggling to make a decision and we were on our second drinks before we'd come to a firm conclusion. For starters I ordered scallop and salmon sashimi and she had an oriental chicken dish. For mains I wanted a field mushroom dish that wasn't available and settled instead for grilled barramundi, whilst Karin chose some kind of meat dish.

Waiting for the starters, we tucked into hot, fresh bread and when the starters arrived the portions were generous. Mine had about 8 thick slices of raw scallop and salmon laid across a shredded lettuce mound with little dots of wasabi to decorate the plate and a bamboo tube of soy sauce. Chopsticks were provided so I used them. Karin was oohing with delight over her chicken.

My main course was even more enormous – two large pieces of juicy barramundi lying across a heap of vegetables. One piece would have easily been enough but it was so good that I polished off both. When reading the menu, we hadn't been too sure what the vegetable was supposed to be but I think that it should have been a bed of samphire, which to be honest, I don't really like. Fortunately there was no sign of samphire and I found bits of asparagus instead. The mains were served with three bowls of vegetables – mixed boiled veg, small roast potatoes and crispy chips. Despite the hotel being ridiculously busy, nobody hurried us on our way and we spent another 45 minutes or so talking long after the food was finished and the plates taken away. My dinner came to about 37 Euros which would have been pretty good value if the pound hadn't collapsed in recent weeks.

Next morning we met for breakfast and nobody moved us on even though we stayed for about 3 hours covering off things we needed to do for work. We popped back and forth for more coffees and eventually left at around 11 am.

Check out was a nice surprise – my room had cost just 79 Euros including breakfast – a rate so good that I commented on the price to the receptionist who said my company had certainly done well to get such a good rate. Before we left I sent Karin downstairs to check out the outrageously glamorous bright pink ladies toilets. Not something you could live with long term, but impressive for a few minutes.

We both left the hotel feeling much more impressed than we'd expected and I'd certainly consider staying here again. The airport was a five minute drive from the hotel and served by a shuttle bus. Compared to other Schiphol airport hotels, this one beat all the others that I've tried including the Hilton, the Mercure and the Ibis.

Hotel airports are a drag. Hardly anyone really wants to stay in them and they never seem to try very hard to keep their clients happy because most don't come back very often. To me they are just a 'necessary evil' in the process of travel rather than places I'd actually choose to spend time (or for that matter money).

When I needed a room for an overnight stop at Amsterdam airport and the two hotels at the airport came back with ridiculous prices in the £250-350 per room range, our secretary put her foot down and booked me into the Mercure Amsterdam Airport at a price of Euro135 for the night. My first reaction was horror - but I calmed down once I realised I was confusing the Mercure with the Ibis (another in the Accor hotel chain) where I'd once spent a very noisy and uncomfortable night. Once I knew it wasn't the Ibis, I was fine and quite happy to save a load of money on the cost of a hotel closer to the airport.

===Getting There===
When I arrived on Thursday evening I hunted down the bus stop for the free hotel shuttle bus and found that it would be a 45 minute wait for the next bus so I decided to take a taxi. The driver clearly didn't want to take me and told me there was a shuttle. "Yes, I know" I told him, but it won't be here for 45 minutes and I'm not willing to wait. He swore blind the shuttle was every 10 minutes and he only gave up the fight when I insisted that if he didn't want to take me, I'd speak to the taxi supervisor and find someone who would. Sadly, this is pretty typical of the attitude of Amsterdam airport taxi drivers - if they aren't getting a high value fare, they just don't want to bother.

After my battle with the driver, I expected that it would be only a short distance to the hotel but it was not far short of a 10 minute drive along the motorway before we arrived and I was charged a shocking 17 Euros which made me wonder why the driver had been so reluctant - "money for old rope" was the thought that went through my mind. However, I was still glad to be there and not to have had to wait for the bus.

==Checking In===
I was dropped by the security barrier and headed through the car park to the reception area and on entering my first impressions were quite positive. The public areas - restaurant, bar, seating areas - all looked clean and bright and the receptionist was very jolly and pleasant. She asked me to fill in some details, took my credit card, gave me a timetable for the shuttle bus for the next day. She pointed me in the direction of my room which was down a very long corridor to a lift that had seen better days and really did look more like a goods elevator than one for passengers. I think it's also worth commenting that the corridor had the ugliest carpet that I've seen in a long time. I actually raised it with the receptionist the next day and she rolled her eyes and said "Everybody says that" - so it's not just me being picky. Apparently it had only been in place for about 3 months and had made a big but very negative impact.

===The Room===
My room was fine - not the biggest I've been in but totally adequate for a short stay and let's be honest, you aren't going to book an airport hotel for a long stay, are you? The room was clean, quite bright and had good lighting and a window that actually opened. Looking out as I opened the window, there were rabbits playing on the grass outside - you could almost imagine you were in the countryside. I got a warm and fuzzy glow of pleasure watching these little furry critters bounding around on the grass.

In addition to a large bed with a really ugly green and blue chequered bed cover with an insert of yellow, blue and read tartan, there were bedside tables on either side, an armchair and coffee table, a desk, a TV table and a large wardrobe with spare pillows and blankets, a safe and a mini-bar inside. There was a wall-mounted trouser press as well. The carpet was in poor faded condition with a pattern of red dots on a dark (but fading) blue background. The curtains - as is essential in an airport hotel - had black-out linings.

In the bathroom I found the standard curved Accor-hotels sink unit, a bath with shower over and a loo. The towel supply was a bit mean and I had to raid the wardrobe for another towel but the toiletries were plentiful and of good quality. The water was hot and the pressure was fine. The TV had a good selection of stations - which in my book means both BBC1 and BBC2; always a bonus when you go to Holland although I have no idea why the news came with the local news from Belfast.

Noise from outside was minimal but I was disturbed in the night by rowdy guests in the corridors. When I mentioned it to the receptionist, she said they had a few large parties in and those tend to be the worst offenders in that respect. I guess that makes sense - travelers on their own have nobody to shout at.

In the morning I skipped breakfast so I can't tell you if it was good or not. I'd arranged to meet someone at the hotel for a meeting and this seems to be pretty typical of the way in which people use the Mercure; in fact, they've even set up a 'Meeting Point' system with desks, power supplies and some refreshments. Since I couldn't work out if this was something I had to book or pay for, we had our meeting in the bar with a few coffees instead and we had the place to ourselves. After my guest left, I had another coffee, sat out on the terrace by the garden and made the most of a rare sunny day before checking out and taking the shuttle to the airport.

===Check-out===
My check-out was a bit muddled because I'd not been charged for all the coffees, despite having asked the guy to make sure it went through quickly. Instead I got billed for an orange juice I hadn't had so it took a few minutes to sort out the muddle but the receptionist was pleasant throughout - probably amazed that someone complained they hadn't been charged enough! Whilst we were waiting for the bill to be fixed, two ladies came to check in and I overheard the receptionist telling them that on weekends, the hotel runs a shuttle service to the centre of Amsterdam for just 4 euros - which seemed like a bargain compared to my taxi ride.

===Getting back to the airport===
The ten minute taxi drive of the night before metamorphosed into a half hour magical mystery tour in the shuttle bus as the driver wound his way round all the other hotels in the Accor chain - off to the Novotel, the Ibis, the Etap as well as a miscellaneous stop at a bus stop in the middle of nowhere where a policewoman got on. As the bus goes only every hour and takes half an hour to get to the airport, make sure you build this into your calculations for getting your flight on time. I'm still glad that despite the cost of the taxi, I didn't waste all my evening getting to the hotel when I arrived.

===Summary===
I have mixed feelings about the hotel. On the positive side, the price was OK, the staff nice, the room fine, the gardens were pretty on a sunny day and it was a good, convenient place to have a meeting. On the negative side, the distance from the airport made it either very expensive or very time consuming to get back and forth, the shuttle service was infrequent and if you had an early flight or were pushed for time, it wouldn't be suitable. There's also really not much to do in the area if you don't have transport. But on balance, I wouldn't be horrified if I had to stay there again.

When I found myself in this dreadful Dutch hotel the only bright side I could find was knowing that it was only for one night. I was there for a futile and predictably pointless business meeting but I thought the least they could have done was book a nice hotel.

===Where?===

To be honest, I don't actually know. I'm told Zaandam is just north of Amsterdam. Someone else said it's about 15 minutes and 4.5 Euros from Amsterdam Airport on the train but if you made the mistake of getting a taxi from the airport you can kiss goodbye to 40 minutes and a massive 70 Euros. There must be hotels of better quality at cheaper prices and nearer to the airport.

===Arriving===

I arrived in a taxi with Helen, a diva-colleague with a taste for the good things in life. "Where the Hell are we?" she asked as we drew up to this unprepossessing ugly little hotel. "Who on earth picked this place?" she continued. Another pair of colleagues reported that their reaction was 'Can we go and find a proper hotel instead?' After flexing my plastic with the taxi driver we entered the dingy gloomy lobby of a hotel that had seen better days. The receptionist started to check us in, asking - ridiculously - for not only our addresses but our passport numbers. Helen objected on the grounds that she wasn't willing to give out info that "could be used for identity fraud" but the receptionist said it was "the law". The receptionist then proudly announced "I have two smoking rooms for you" - arghhhhh - where did that idea come from. We both asked for non-smoking rooms "ideally quiet ones" and she claimed "well, we don't really have any quiet rooms" and our faces fell. We headed to the lift which had seen better days and climbed to the second and fourth floors. Opening the door my room was exactly what I'd expected - dull, dated and small with a spectacular view out over a major building site on the other side of the six-lane road. Yippee, I'm going to sleep so well especially as the bed is characteristically Dutch-soft.

===The Room===

The room was dominated by the bed which comprised two overly soft singles squashed together. There were bedside lamps on either side, a small desk a reading lamp and a mini-bar under it. There was a small armchair and coffee table and a wall-mounted small TV. The coffee and tea tray had also been wall mounted - recognising clearly that there wasn't enough room to actually move around the room and not bump into things. By contrast to the room itself, the bathroom wasn't too bad. Nice red granite flooring which would have been expensive if the floor space had been more than a couple of square feet. The sink unit was nicely finished with a wooden fascia but the enamel of the sink itself was chipped. The bath was a bit poky with a shower over it.

===Helen's Room===

Underwhelmed by my room, I headed down two flights of very steep stairs to meet Helen and do a bit of work. She was throwing a fit worthy of Mariah Carey and stropping about her view of a graffiti-covered wall. "This is just SO unacceptable" she said. I calmed her down and told her my room was almost identical so there wasn't a lot of point asking to be moved to another room as they were probably all equally horrid. Slightly mollified, she gave in to my suggestion to go and get a beer and we headed down to the bar where, predictably, another strop kicked in because people were smoking.

===The Bar ===

We found a quiet area and fired up our computers to take advantage of the free Wi-Fi and do a bit of work before dinner. We'd probably been by the bar for an hour before anyone asked if we'd like a drink. Two beers and a very tasty-looking sandwich (for Helen, not for me) and she'd calmed down a bit. We both headed back to our rooms - she to dither, me to write scathing things about the hotel - before going back to the bar before dinner. The barman was a nice guy who'd grown up in Essex and so knew that giving any Brit a beer with 4 inches of head on it would be a big mistake. The bar itself was dark, gloomy and crowded with too many chairs and tables. After about 20 minutes we headed for dinner.

===Dinner===

As we were a large group, the hotel had set a long table for us in their sort-of conservatory/sun-room. This was an oddly bright room stuck on the side of the building with big round sky-lights in the ceiling. The table was beautifully laid out with thick white tablecloths and sparkling glass and silverware. It really did look quite special. To prevent things being too complicated we were offered quite a simple menu. The starters were a choice of a smoked beef carpaccio salad or a watercress and smoked salmon soup. The main courses were pork or something described as a 'panga fillet' which was to be served with 'Asian vegetables'. We were a bit disturbed in case it was a typo and actually a panda fillet (possibly with bamboo shoots!) but since returning I later checked wikipedia and found that a panga is a rather exotic ocean-dwelling fish with strange sexual habits. Pudding was to be a crème brulee.

I ordered the watercress soup without expecting to like it but it was actually really quite nice if a little too salty. There were lots of big chunks of smoked salmon in the bottom which were very tasty. The main courses were 'interestingly' served - the phallic pork dish being accompanied by two 'balls' of mashed potato. The Asian vegetables seemed to comprise mostly of stir fried cucumber. The mains were accompanied by big bowls of salad and some outstanding fat chips. The crème brulee was bland and beige and this was not helped by it being served with whipped cream and a ball of vanilla ice-cream. Coffees and teas were served afterwards and all in all, we'd had quite a nice dinner of fried cucumber and sex-change fish.

===Back to my room===

After dinner I headed back to my room, opened the door and switched the light on - NOTHING! Leaving the door ajar I tried the desk lamp - No action there either. Then the bedside lamp - Zip! Nothing doing with that one either. I switched on the bathroom light, closed the door of the room and fumbled around until I found one standard lamp which worked and then one of the two bedside lamps. I checked the cables to see if they'd been left unplugged but that wasn't the answer. What a joke.

===Breakfast and Lunch ===

After sleeping fairly poorly due to a combination of the soft bed and the noisy heating, I dragged myself down to breakfast which was OK. Nothing memorable but nothing awful either. Lunch was also fine.

===Meeting Facilities===

There were several meeting rooms and the one we had was just about big enough for the number of people at the meeting just so long as they didn't move about too much. The room was right next to the pavement and at times the noise from outside was quite distracting. We were served with enough tea and coffee and jugs of water but anything more came only after we went and asked. Bizarrely they brought an enormous platter of fruit which was placed where nobody could get at it.

===Getting back to the Airport===

The hotel is right next to the railway station so we decided to take the train back and save on the exorbitant taxi fees. Central station is about 15 minutes away and the airport just a few more but be warned - the doors don't stay open for long.

===Do I recommend?===

What do you think? Of course I don't. This was a ridiculous hotel that was poor even by Dutch standards. The price of Euro134 per night was far too high for the standard of rooms available and the location would have been less of an issue if the person who booked the hotel had actually explained how to get there. This hotel needs a major refurb and update to drag it up to date but even that won't make the rooms bigger or the location quieter. If you could get a really good price and there was NOTHING available in Amsterdam that you could afford then it's not a bad commute in daylight but a bit freaky after dark. I really can't see any reason to choose to stay in Zaandam and certainly not at the Golden Tulip.