Amsterdam has twelve hotels with an official five-star rating, and several of its most celebrated addresses sit outside the rating system altogether. We are a private tour company based in the city, and we collect guests from all of them. This page lists every 5-star hotel in Amsterdam, explains what the stars mean here and abroad, and shows the tours we would suggest from each hotel door.
Dutch hotels are graded under the Hotelstars Benelux system, run here with the hospitality association Koninklijke Horeca Nederland, and every classified hotel appears in the public register at hotelsterren.nl. Five stars is the top grade. A hotel that meets every requirement for its grade and adds extra quality on top can carry the word Superior, which is the highest mark a Dutch hotel can hold.
Classification is voluntary, so a handful of the city’s best known luxury hotels are not in the register at all. The lists below follow the register as it stood in September 2026, with the unclassified luxury hotels in a section of their own.
Within Europe, largely yes. The Netherlands is one of 21 countries in the Hotelstars Union, which uses one shared catalogue of criteria, so a Dutch five-star hotel is measured against the same checklist as one in Germany, Austria or Sweden, and hotels in the three, four and five-star grades are visited by mystery guests.
Outside Europe there is no shared standard at all. In the United States the government awards nothing: Forbes Travel Guide gives its own stars and the AAA gives diamonds. Many countries leave the rating to the hotel itself, and the stars shown on booking sites are often self-declared. It is worth remembering that stars measure facilities and service standards rather than charm, so a small canal house hotel with four stars can feel more special than a large five-star one.
Since 2024 the MICHELIN Guide has also awarded Keys to hotels, in the same way it awards stars to restaurants. Amsterdam does well: De L’Europe holds three Keys, the highest grade, with two Keys for Rosewood and Hotel TwentySeven, and one each for The Dylan, the Pulitzer and Soho House.
Twelve hotels in Amsterdam hold five stars, ten of them with the Superior mark. Each card opens the story of the building and the tours we suggest from its door.
InterContinental AmstelAmstel riverfront, 5 stars SuperiorPrivate tours from this hotelRecommended
Mandarin Oriental ConservatoriumMuseumplein, 5 stars SuperiorPrivate tours from this hotel
Sofitel Legend The GrandOld centre, 5 stars SuperiorPrivate tours from this hotel
Hotel OkuraDe Pijp, 5 stars SuperiorPrivate tours from this hotelRecommended
Pulitzer AmsterdamPrinsengracht, 5 stars SuperiorPrivate tours from this hotel
Anantara Grand Hotel KrasnapolskyDam Square, 5 stars SuperiorPrivate tours from this hotelRecommended
Andaz Amsterdam PrinsengrachtCanal ring, 5 stars SuperiorPrivate tours from this hotel
Grand Hotel AmrâthPrins Hendrikkade, 5 stars SuperiorPrivate tours from this hotel
NH Collection Barbizon PalaceOpposite Centraal station, 5 stars SuperiorPrivate tours from this hotelRecommended
Hotel TwentySevenDam Square, 5 stars SuperiorPrivate tours from this hotel
The College HotelOud-Zuid, 5 starsPrivate tours from this hotel
Bilderberg Garden HotelAmsterdam Zuid, 5 starsPrivate tours from this hotelHotels marked Recommended are the ones we and the advisors we work with send guests to most often.
Some of the most celebrated hotels in the city are not in the Dutch register, because taking part is voluntary. You will often see them described as five-star plus, or even as six-star hotels, which is how the travel press writes about the Waldorf Astoria and Rosewood in particular. No rating body anywhere awards a sixth star, so the phrase is marketing rather than a grade, but the hotels behind it do hold the top honours other systems give out.
The Waldorf Astoria on the Herengracht is the only hotel in the Netherlands with a Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star rating, the top grade in the American system. Rosewood, in the old Palace of Justice on the Prinsengracht, holds two MICHELIN Keys, and De L’Europe is the one hotel in the country with three.
Hotel De L’EuropeAmstel, three MICHELIN KeysPrivate tours from this hotelRecommended
Waldorf AstoriaHerengracht, Forbes Five-StarPrivate tours from this hotel
Rosewood AmsterdamPrinsengracht, two MICHELIN KeysPrivate tours from this hotelRecommended
The DylanKeizersgracht, one MICHELIN KeyPrivate tours from this hotel
W AmsterdamSpuistraat, behind the Royal PalacePrivate tours from this hotel
Pestana Amsterdam RiversideAmstel, De PijpPrivate tours from this hotel
Luxury Suites AmsterdamOudeschansPrivate tours from this hotel
Soho House AmsterdamSpui, one MICHELIN KeyPrivate tours from this hotelHotels marked Recommended are the ones we and the advisors we work with send guests to most often.
These six are the tours guests of these hotels ask for most often. The first three are walking tours that begin at the hotel entrance. The last three are days out by car, with a driver guide who collects you and brings you back.
Private Anne Frank and Jewish History Walking TourFrom 515 euroView this tour
Amsterdam City Highlights Private TourFrom 400 euroView this tour
Private Rijksmuseum TourFrom 360 euroView this tour
Private All Year Round Flowers and Windmills TourFrom 1,100 euroView this tour
Private Zaanse Schans Windmill and Dutch Villages TourFrom 1,100 euroView this tour
Private Delft and The Hague Day TripFrom 1,150 euroView this tourSee all our private tours from Amsterdam about Private Tours Amsterdam
Walking tours start in the lobby or at the front door, at the time we agree with you. Most of the five-star hotels sit inside the canal ring, so the old centre, the Jordaan and the Nine Streets are on the doorstep. Your guide plans the route around your hotel, which means no transfer at the start and none at the end. Distances are short: from almost every hotel on this page the Anne Frank House, Dam Square or the Museumplein is inside half an hour on foot.
Driving tours use a car or a small van with a driver guide, because coaches are no longer allowed inside the ring. We agree the exact pick-up point with you and the hotel in advance, since several of these hotels stand on narrow canal streets where a car can only stop briefly. Hotels such as the Amstel, the Okura, the Garden Hotel, The College Hotel and the Pestana have space at the door, so the car can wait; on the Keizersgracht, the Prinsengracht and the Spuistraat we pick a spot round the corner and confirm it with you personally the evening before. The concierge is always told where and when, so the desk can point you the right way.
A driving day is usually seven or eight hours door to door, which is enough for the windmills of Zaanse Schans and a fishing village, for Delft and The Hague, or for the flower fields. Inside the city the two can be combined: your guide walks the centre with you in the morning and a car takes you to the Museumplein after lunch.
The canal ring. From the Pulitzer, The Dylan, Rosewood, the Waldorf Astoria, the Andaz and W Amsterdam you can walk to the Anne Frank House in five to twenty-five minutes, which makes our Anne Frank and Jewish history tour and our architecture tour natural first choices.
The old centre and Dam Square. The Grand, the Krasnapolsky, TwentySeven, the Barbizon Palace, the Amrâth, Soho House and Luxury Suites stand in or beside the medieval heart of the city, where City Highlights and our history-led Red Light District tour begin almost at the door.
The Museumplein and Zuid. Guests at the Conservatorium, The College Hotel and the Bilderberg Garden Hotel are close to the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum, so our private Rijksmuseum tour with an art historian is the obvious start.
The Amstel and De Pijp. From the Amstel Hotel, De L’Europe, the Okura and the Pestana, the markets and Amsterdam School streets of De Pijp are close by, and our Dutch food tour is a good way to see them.
If you book clients into any of these hotels, we can take care of their time in the city: one contact from first enquiry to last day, a written itinerary before arrival, and guides chosen for the client. We also contact the guests directly before each tour. Commission terms are on our travel advisor page.
Concierge teams at these hotels are equally welcome to book with us for a guest.
Twelve. In September 2026 the official Dutch register at hotelsterren.nl listed twelve five-star hotels in Amsterdam, ten of them five stars Superior. A further group of luxury hotels, including De L’Europe, the Waldorf Astoria, The Dylan and Rosewood, is not in the register, because classification is voluntary.
Inside Europe, largely yes. The Netherlands is one of 21 countries in the Hotelstars Union, which uses one shared list of criteria and sends mystery guests to hotels in the higher grades. Outside Europe there is no shared standard, and in many countries the stars you see online are chosen by the hotel itself.
Superior is added when a hotel meets every requirement for its grade and offers extra quality on top. It is the highest mark a Dutch hotel can hold, and ten of Amsterdam’s twelve five-star hotels have it.
De L’Europe holds three MICHELIN Keys, the only hotel in the Netherlands to do so. Rosewood and Hotel TwentySeven hold two, and The Dylan, the Pulitzer and Soho House one each. The Waldorf Astoria is the only Dutch hotel with a Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star rating.
The InterContinental Amstel opened in 1867 and is the oldest of the classified hotels that was purpose-built as a hotel. Sofitel Legend The Grand occupies far older buildings, parts of which go back to a fifteenth-century convent.
The Mandarin Oriental Conservatorium on the Museumplein. The Van Gogh Museum is a few steps away and the Rijksmuseum six minutes on foot, which suits our private Rijksmuseum tour and our private Van Gogh Museum tour.
Walking tours start at your hotel entrance. For tours by car we agree a pick-up point with you and the hotel in advance, because coaches cannot enter the ring and several canal streets are too narrow to wait in. We collect guests from every hotel on this page and from any other address in the city.
Private walking tours in the city start at around 285 euro for the group, museum tours from 325 euro, and a full day outside Amsterdam with a driver guide from about 1,000 euro. Prices are per tour, not per person, and museum entry is quoted separately. Every tour on this page shows its starting price.
Yes. Concierge teams at many of these hotels book with us on behalf of their guests, and travel advisors do the same. You can also contact us directly. Either way we confirm the details with you in person before the day.
Often, yes. A few weeks ahead gives the widest choice of guides, and tickets for the Anne Frank House and the museums are released online in advance, so early dates help. Tours for the next day are regularly possible. Use our contact page or give us a call.
