Harm’s apartment was the perfect place to escape the city after a long day of sightseeing.
THE AREA
The apartment is located around 5 minutes from the thriving entertainment centre Leidseplein and the beautiful Vondelpark. If you walk to the end of the apartment’s street and turn to the right and carry on walking around 5 minutes you will be able to see the restaurants and bars of Leidseplein and the gates of Vondelpark to. Although you may not need to walk that far for food as there are many cafes, restaurants and shops surrounding the apartment.
In terms of travel to and from the centre the three main tram lines that travel through the heart of Amsterdam city centre (ending at Central Station) can be found at Leidseplein. You can find yourself from the apartment to central station within 15 minutes.
THE APARTMENT
The apartment was very quiet and undisturbed by the surrounding restaurants and bars. As is the case in every building in Amsterdam the staircases were very steep, but this is definitely not unusual. There are handy railings to help you up the stairs.
We had a very warm welcome to the apartment by Harm, who very kindly let us into the apartment an hour earlier as we had arrived quicker than expected.
After ascending the staircase we were greeted with a small but surprisingly spacious, light and modern apartment. The bathroom and kitchen are modern and were full of essentials (pots, pans, towels, toiletries etc) which was lovely. If you were planning on preparing some of your own meals the kitchen is perfect with a large fridge, all utensils you could require and excellent workspace. There is also a dishwasher, which can come in handy!
The bedroom has large windows, an extremely comfortable bed, a television with many channels (some prominent British/ American) and many lovely books. There is also very comfortable seating/ dining area which was nice to use in the morning when we prepared breakfast and wanted to rest before the day ahead.
As we stayed with Harm during a heat wave we were also grateful that there was a large fan in the bedroom.
THE HOST
We could not have asked for a better host than Harm. He was prompt in meeting us and very kindly offered to help us with our luggage. Whenever we needed to contact him he was quick to reply to us but we also felt like the apartment was our home and that we had more than enough privacy. Harm also prepared a very detailed and useful welcome pack with information about the area (shops, taxi numbers, travel recommendations etc.) and of Amsterdam itself.
We had a very pleasant arrival and a very easy departure from the apartment. We are definitely going to come and stay with Harm again and we would recommend that anyone stay in this AirBnB apartment.