Jantien was a great host. She has a beautiful two story flat in the equally beautiful Helmersboort neighbourhood. She had left out various sweets and fruits on our arrival and provided us with a binder full of activities that we could pursue in the city. We immediately felt at home in the flat.

The listing and description grossly understate how pretty this flat is. It looked like it had been professionally designed. After getting an initial tour of the house we decided that we wanted to build one that looked exactly the same, and immediately began looking at Amsterdam real estate.

The neighbourhood itself was pretty, but very quiet. We managed to find a great place for breakfast a short walk away called Staring at Jacob, which serves a pretty eclectic mix of breakfast items (tacos, poached eggs, fresh juices, etc). There are a number of very small and discrete bars in the area as well, and it’s a couple of blocks away from Vondelpark, which is a necessary destination for anyone visiting Amsterdam.