Andaz Amsterdam Prinsengracht

Andaz Amsterdam Prinsengracht: The Hotel and the Canal

Andaz Amsterdam Prinsengracht is a Hyatt property occupying a row of restored 17th-century canal houses on the Prinsengracht, designed throughout by Marcel Wanders – the Dutch designer known for mixing bold pattern with a sense of wit. The hotel opened in 2012 and reads less like a conventional luxury property than a living design exhibition: oversized library installations, hand-painted tiles, and furniture referencing Dutch Golden Age imagery while feeling contemporary. Whether you consider this excellent or exhausting probably depends on your relationship with maximalism.

The Prinsengracht canal itself is part of the UNESCO-listed canal ring dug in the 17th century as Amsterdam expanded outward. Canal-facing rooms look directly onto the water and change throughout the day with the light. In summer, evening light sits on the water past 9pm. In winter, the amber glow through tall sash windows is a different and equally valid reason to be here.

What to Visit

Anne Frank House: 10 minutes north along the canal. Pre-book timed tickets at annefrank.org – they sell out weeks in advance and walk-up entry is essentially impossible in peak season. The secret annex has been carefully preserved. It is a smaller and more affecting space than most visitors expect.

Rijksmuseum: A short tram ride south on Museumplein. The national museum’s collection of Dutch Golden Age painting includes Rembrandt’s Night Watch and Vermeer’s The Milkmaid in the same building. The Cuypers building was restored and reopened in 2013 after a 10-year renovation.

Van Gogh Museum: On the same Museumplein, the world’s largest collection of Van Gogh’s paintings and drawings, organised chronologically from his dark Dutch period to the luminous Arles and Saint-Remy work.

Jordaan: Immediately west of the Prinsengracht – historically working class, now among the most sought-after neighbourhoods in Amsterdam. Narrow streets, independent galleries, antique dealers, brown cafes. The Saturday Noordermarkt farmers market is worth building a morning around.

Foam Photography Museum: On the Keizersgracht, a short walk from the hotel. Changing programme of photography exhibitions in two canal houses.

Where to Eat

The hotel’s Bluespoon Restaurant does modern Dutch cooking at canal level, well-executed if not adventurous. De Kas in the Frankendael park, housed in a 1926 municipal greenhouse, grows much of its own produce on-site. The daily-changing set menu reflects what was harvested that morning. Book well in advance. Brouwerij ’t IJ, Amsterdam’s best-known independent brewery in a converted windmill, is a straightforward tram or bike ride east. Winkel 43 on the Noordermarkt square is known for its apple cake: dense, warm, worth the Saturday queue.

Practical Notes

Canal-facing rooms at Andaz are worth requesting at booking – they cost more and are consistently in demand. The walk along the Prinsengracht and Keizersgracht at dusk, when canal houses are lit from within and the bridge lights come on, gives a clear sense of why this canal ring has UNESCO status.

Amsterdam’s tram network is efficient. A multi-day OV-chipkaart covers trams, buses, and metro. Bike hire is everywhere and genuinely faster for most inner-city distances than any motorised alternative.

Tulip season (late March to mid-May) brings the bulb fields into bloom south of Haarlem. Direct buses from Amsterdam Centraal to Keukenhof gardens run during the season; the gardens hold millions of bulbs across 32 hectares. Worth the day trip.