The Waldorf Astoria occupies six canal palaces on the Herengracht, on the edge of the Golden Bend, where Amsterdam’s richest families built when the city was the richest in Europe. Our guides are Amsterdammers, and a tour from here begins with the building itself. Rembrandtplein and Museum Willet-Holthuysen are three minutes away, Dam Square and the Rijksmuseum fifteen on foot, and for anything further we bring a car to the door.
The hotel is made up of Herengracht 542 to 556, a row of houses most of which date from the 1660s to the 1680s, built for merchants and mayors of Amsterdam. The Sautijn family kept number 546 for some three hundred years. Number 556 was rebuilt in the eighteenth century for the merchant James Loten. The staircase is attributed to Daniel Marot, the French-born architect who worked for William III.
In the twentieth century the houses became offices for shipping and insurance companies, and a bank vault in the basement is now the hotel’s Vault Bar. The Waldorf Astoria opened here on 1 May 2014, with the gardens behind the houses restored as one of the largest private canal gardens in the city, by the hotel’s own account, complete with a baroque tea house.
Inside, the stucco is the thing to look for: lions, medallions and a laurelled emperor above a doorway in number 548, all recorded by the national heritage agency. Few canal houses of this rank can be walked into at all, which is why our architecture guides like to begin in your lobby.
Further along the same canal, at Herengracht 605, is Museum Willet-Holthuysen, a canal house of around 1685 with a formal French-style garden. Louisa Holthuysen left it to the city in 1895 and it opened as a museum the following year. It shows the same kind of house as your hotel, still furnished as a family lived in it, and it pairs perfectly with a walk round the Golden Bend.
Round the corner on Rembrandtplein stands the statue of Rembrandt by Louis Royer, unveiled in 1852 and the oldest public statue in Amsterdam. The bronze Night Watch figures that once surrounded it left in 2020 and are not coming back, so do not go looking for them.
Most of these sit on the route of our Private Architecture Tour Amsterdam, and the Private Rijksmuseum Tour goes past the others. Tell us which ones matter to you and we plan the day around them.
Six more we suggest from the Waldorf Astoria. The Anne Frank and Jewish history tour follows the Herengracht north, and the Van Gogh tour pairs with the Rijksmuseum for a museum morning. The food tour and Brews and T’Ales both start within easy reach of Rembrandtplein, and the photo tour makes the most of the canal views from the Reguliersgracht. Zaanse Schans is the classic windmill day by car.
Private Anne Frank and Jewish History Walking TourFrom 515 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 a day in the countryside your guide collects you from the Herengracht in a car or a small van and brings you back before dinner. Heavy coaches are banned inside the ring, so we keep to vehicles that can reach the door. Zaanse Schans and Volendam, Keukenhof in spring, Delft and The Hague, or Utrecht all fit into a day, and every option is listed on our private driving tours page.
We agree the pick-up with you and the concierge in advance, because the Herengracht is narrow and busy with cyclists.
Advisors booking the Waldorf Astoria usually want a tour to match the setting, so we choose the guide for the client and brief them on the hotel before the first meeting. One contact on our side from enquiry to farewell, a written itinerary before arrival, and a call to your clients before each tour. Commission terms are on our travel advisor page.
Guests who prefer to go through the hotel can ask the concierge, who can book with us directly.
Walks begin at the hotel entrance on the Herengracht. For driving tours we bring a car or small van to the door at a time agreed with you and the concierge, and confirm it the day before.
Yes. Museum Willet-Holthuysen is three minutes along the Herengracht and is furnished as a family home of the period. Our architecture tour can combine it with the Golden Bend and the stucco inside your own hotel.
Fifteen minutes on foot, or about thirteen by car. Our private Rijksmuseum tour with an art historian can start at the hotel.
Just. The Golden Bend is strictly the stretch of the Herengracht between the Leidsestraat and the Vijzelstraat, and the hotel stands on the next stretch east. Our guides start the VIP tour by walking you through it.
Yes. The Waldorf Astoria concierge can book with us for you, or you can get in touch yourself. Either way we confirm the details with you personally.
A few weeks ahead gives the most choice of guides, but tours for the next day are often possible and sometimes the same day too. Our contact page or a phone call is quickest.
