Few hotels in Amsterdam have a better starting point than the Krasnapolsky. You step out onto Dam Square with the Royal Palace across the cobbles and the Nieuwe Kerk beside it, and the oldest streets of the city begin just behind the hotel. Most of our walks from here need no car at all: the Anne Frank House is thirteen minutes away, and the canal ring is closer still.
In 1865 Adolph Wilhelm Krasnapolsky, a tailor born in Poland, bought a modest building on the Warmoesstraat side of the Dam and opened it as a café restaurant the following year. The café did well, and he kept buying the houses next door.
Around 1880 he added a Winter Garden designed by G.B. Salm: palms under a roof of iron and glass, lit by electric light, then still a novelty. For the International Colonial Exhibition of 1883 the business became a hotel with 125 rooms.
The hotel kept growing towards the Pijlsteeg after the First World War. NH Hotel Group took it over in 2000, and on 20 April 2022 it reopened under the Anantara name. Breakfast is still served beneath Salm’s glass roof, which is reason enough to linger before your tour.
Six minutes from the hotel, on the Oudezijds Voorburgwal, is one of the least expected places in the city. From the canal it looks like an ordinary merchant’s house. Climb the steep stairs and you find Our Lord in the Attic, a complete Catholic church built across the top floors of three houses in the 1660s, when Catholics could worship only out of sight.
It is now a museum, with the altar, the organ and the priest’s box bed still in place. Our guides like to combine it with the Oude Kerk nearby, so you see how the city handled faith in public and in private within a few hundred metres.
The Rijksmuseum is a 25 minute walk, eighteen minutes by tram, or about the same by car once the traffic around the Dam is counted.
Most of these sit on the route of our Amsterdam City Highlights Private Tour, and the Private Around the Red Light District Tour goes past the others. Tell us which ones matter to you and we plan the day around them.
The museums sit on the far side of the canal ring, so the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh tours often start with a short tram ride or a car. The food tour and Brews and T’Ales both stay close to the hotel, and the photo tour makes good use of the early light on the canals before the square fills up. For a day outside the city, Zaanse Schans is the windmill trip.
Private Rijksmuseum TourFrom 360 euroView this tour
Private Van Gogh Museum TourFrom 325 euroView this tour
Private Dutch Food Tour, Eat Like a LocalFrom 445 euroView this tour
Brews and T’Ales, Private Craft Beer TourFrom 500 euroView this tour
Private Photo Tour AmsterdamFrom 400 euroView this tour
Private Zaanse Schans Windmill and Dutch Villages TourFrom 1,100 euroView this tourSee all our private tours from Amsterdam about Private Tours Amsterdam
For days in the countryside we collect you as close to the hotel as the traffic allows. The Dam itself is shared by trams, cyclists and crowds, so we agree the exact meeting point with you and the hotel the evening before. Volendam, Edam, Haarlem, Delft and Keukenhof in spring are all within easy reach, and our private driving tours page lists the rest.
With more than four hundred rooms, the Krasnapolsky hosts families, couples and groups alike, and each needs a different guide. Tell us who is travelling and we match the guide to them, send an itinerary in writing and stay the one contact until the last day. We also contact the guests directly before the tour. Our terms for advisors are on the travel advisor page.
The hotel’s concierge team is welcome to book on behalf of a guest too.
Walking tours start at the hotel entrance on Dam Square. For driving tours we pick a nearby spot the car can reach and confirm it with you the evening before.
Yes, it is the closest part of the old city to the hotel. Our Red Light District tour covers the history of the quarter, its churches and its hidden courtyards with a private guide.
It is a 25 minute walk through the canal ring, or a short tram or car ride. Our private Rijksmuseum tour can begin with the guide collecting you at the hotel.
The Winter Garden belongs to the hotel, so ask reception about access. Our guides tell its story on the square outside, as part of the City Highlights tour.
Yes. The concierge can make the booking for you, or you can contact us yourself. In both cases we speak with you before the tour to plan the details.
Often later than you would expect. More notice gives more choice of guide, but tours for the next day are regularly possible. Try our contact page or give us a call.
