Luxury Suites Amsterdam sits on the Oudeschans, the old city moat, with the Montelbaanstoren at the end of the canal and Rembrandt’s house around the corner. We are a private tour company based here in Amsterdam, and this quiet corner of the old centre is one of our favourite places to begin: the Jewish Quarter, the Nieuwmarkt and the Red Light District are all within ten minutes, and almost every tour we run can start at your door.
Luxury Suites Amsterdam has no standard rooms at all: twenty five suites, each between fifty and ninety square metres, on the Oudeschans in the quiet eastern part of the old centre. It is a five-star house with a bar and smokers’ lounge, a golden-key concierge, and a Schiphol transfer included, which tells you most of what you need to know about who it is built for.
The address is the interesting part. The Oudeschans was dug in the early sixteenth century as a defensive moat on the city’s eastern edge, and the warehouses along it, many now converted, are what is left of the maritime trade that paid for everything else you will see in Amsterdam.
At the end of the Oudeschans stands the Montelbaanstoren. It went up in 1516 as a watchtower, after raiders from Guelders burned the shipyards here in 1512. In 1606 the city added the octagonal top and the spire, usually credited to Hendrick de Keyser, and by 1610 the extra weight had the whole tower leaning towards the water. It was hauled back upright with poles, ropes and winches, the foundations were rebuilt, and afterwards its clock and bells behaved so erratically that Amsterdammers nicknamed it Malle Jaap: Crazy Jacob.
Rembrandt drew it around 1654 and left the spire off entirely, perhaps because he preferred the sturdy old tower underneath. The drawing is now in the collection of the Rembrandt House, five minutes from your suite.
Rembrandt lived and worked on the Jodenbreestraat, around the corner from the hotel, and the house is now the Rembrandt House museum. The Waag on the Nieuwmarkt, five minutes the other way, was built in 1488 as a city gate called the Sint Antoniespoort and later became the weigh house. Its upper floor belonged to the Surgeons’ Guild, and it was there in 1632 that Rembrandt painted The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp, the picture that made his name.
The same streets were the heart of Jewish Amsterdam for three centuries. It is a neighbourhood that rewards a guide more than almost any other in the city, because so much of what matters here is no longer visible from the pavement.
These are the places our guides work into a morning on foot. The Private Anne Frank and Jewish History Walking Tour and the Private Around the Red Light District Tour both take them in, and the six tours further down cover the rest of the city.
Six more we suggest from the Oudeschans. The architecture tour starts on your doorstep with the Montelbaanstoren, and the photo tour works the same stretch of water in the early light. The food tour and Brews and T’Ales both begin around the Nieuwmarkt, a few minutes’ walk away. The Rijksmuseum tour heads south with our art historian, and Amsterdam in a Day covers the whole city in one unhurried go.
Private Rijksmuseum TourFrom 360 euroView this tour
Private Architecture Tour AmsterdamFrom 400 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
The Ultimate Amsterdam in a Day TourFrom 990 euroView this tourSee all our private tours from Amsterdam about Private Tours Amsterdam
For the countryside we pick you up with a car and a private guide and return you to the Oudeschans at the end of the day. The windmills of Zaanse Schans, Keukenhof and the bulb fields in spring, the cheese towns of Alkmaar and Edam, Delft and The Hague or Giethoorn. Every option is listed on our private driving tours page.
The hotel offers valet parking, so a car can reach it more easily than most addresses in the old centre. We agree the exact pick-up spot and time and confirm it with you directly the evening before.
The hotel has a golden-key concierge, and we try to work the way a good concierge does: one contact, no surprises. Advisors get a written itinerary to pass on before their clients travel, guides turn up early, and we speak to the guests directly the evening before the tour. Our travel advisor page has commission terms and a direct number.
If the concierge prefers to make the booking on the guests’ behalf, that suits us just as well.
Yes. Walking tours start at the hotel, and for driving tours we agree a pick-up point at or right by the hotel. We confirm it with you directly the day before.
Very. The Jewish Cultural Quarter, with the Portuguese Synagogue, the Jewish Museum and the National Holocaust Museum, is about six minutes on foot. Our Anne Frank and Jewish History tour starts on these streets.
The Montelbaanstoren, built in 1516 as a watchtower. It began to lean in 1610 after a spire was added, was pulled straight with ropes and winches, and earned the nickname Crazy Jacob when its bells misbehaved afterwards. Rembrandt drew it without the spire.
Zaanse Schans is roughly half an hour by car and Keukenhof around forty minutes. We collect you at the hotel and bring you back. See our private driving tours page.
Yes. It is about five minutes from the hotel on the Jodenbreestraat, and a guide can build it into a walk through Rembrandt’s neighbourhood, from his house to the Waag where he painted The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Tulp. See our private museum tours.
Usually, yes. Booking a couple of weeks ahead gives you the most choice, and spring and the Anne Frank tours get busy, but short-notice tours are routine for us. Get in touch through the contact page or by phone.
