Discover Benelux | Highlights | Oud-West & Bos en Lommer
The hotel of the future
CityHub Amsterdam is a hotel like no other. Offering a revolutionary travel experience for a new generation of explorers, it combines the comfort of a high-end hotel with the affordable prices and community feeling of a hostel. There is a new kind of traveller these days. This new traveller does not care for luxury hotels and is not interested in the typical and mostly crowded tourist spots. On the contrary, the new traveller wants to explore undiscovered hotspots and mingle with locals. But the
TEXT: ELLA PUT | PHOTOS: CITYHUB AMSTERDAM
question is: where to find a hotel that is fully equipped yet affordable? And how does one explore a city that they do not know? CityHub is the answer. With its top location in the up-and-coming Bellamy neighbourhood in Amsterdam, 50 private sleeping units (so called Hubs) with comfortable king-size beds, its own app and self-service bar, this place promises to be the hotel of the future. To ensure a local experience, you are welcomed to CityHub by one of the CityHosts. They are available 24/7 to provide you with the best local tips. Even better, if a spontaneous question comes up as you stroll around the city, just hit CityHub’s mobile app for advice. All of this comes without unwanted data roaming costs because CityHub offers its guest a MiFi Hotspot (mobile router) providing free internet across the whole country! CityHub is a concept that is taking the Netherlands by storm. The innovative and creative hotel is opening a new location in Rotterdam next year. With plans to open locations in London, Paris and Barcelona, CityHub promises to
be a universal key to a successful visit in the world’s best cities. www.cityhub.com
Sleeping in a colourful antique shop TEXT: ELLA PUT | PHOTOS: COLOURFUL BED & BREAKFAST
There might be many bed and breakfasts in the capital of the Netherlands, but none are as vibrant or comfortable as the Colourful Bed & Breakfast. Situated in the centre of Amsterdam, this is the perfect place to stay and explore the city. As an interior stylist, the owner of the Colourful Bed & Breakfast Tanja de Vries has styled a great deal of the city’s bed and breakfasts. “I had so much fun styling accommodations, that I decided to start a bed and breakfast myself,” she says. Her own colourful style and personal twist became a unique selling point for the very popular accommodation, which is situated in a beautiful old mansion on a quiet street in the centre of Amsterdam. “I didn’t want to have IKEA furniture and make it look like any other place. I combined my own taste and experience as an interior designer. My aim was to amaze the guest in every
corner of the room, whether they went to the bathroom or opened the kitchen cabinets. It needed to give them a ‘wow’ feeling.” The very charming bed and breakfast consists of two different rooms, each with a private bathroom, kitchen and a balcony overlooking the picturesque street. The Leidseplein and other sites, such as the Rijksmuseum, are just a stone’s throw away.
De Vries personally welcomes her visitors, who travel from all over the world and often describe their stay as a ‘sleepover in an antique shop’. “I consider that as a compliment,” smiles De Vries. “It’s something different to other accommodations and that is exactly what makes this place special” www.colourfulbedandbreakfast.nl
Issue 35 | November 2016 | 39