2 Best Hotels in Medieval Center, Amsterdam

This privately owned 19th-century landmark off Dam Square offers basic, no-frills guest rooms (with soundproof windows) in the center of the action. Most rooms include unremarkable yet functional furnishings and subdued lighting; less expensive and less distinguished quarters, including tidy singles, are available as well. The hotel's restaurant, Brasserie De Roode Leeuw, is an institution, serving modernized Dutch cuisine in a handsome room with views of bustling Damrak.

Opposite Amsterdam’s monumental former commodity exchange, close to Centraal Station, three adjoining buildings offer one- to five-star guest rooms designed by students and alumni of the Amsterdam Fashion Institute to “look like models hot off the catwalk.” Views and amenities vary considerably, from lower-price interior-view rooms to bright, spacious units with terraces, but all are unique and funky, with a creative use of specially woven fabrics. The walls of the Eighties Room, for example, are covered with a giant 1980s-style "skirt" and "sweater"; to open the curtains, you zip the sweater upward. Also on the premises is BAR STOCK, known for its all-day breakfast.