Amsterdam Marriott Hotel Review: Best for Walking Tours

If you’re traveling to Amsterdam, the Marriott is a great choice for a centrally located hotel on the southern ring. We spent a few nights there recently, and here’s our Amsterdam Marriott Hotel review.

We flew to Amsterdam two days early for our recent Baltics cruise, allowing ourselves a day and a half to explore the city. Wanting a hotel near the city’s must-see sites, we booked a room at the Amsterdam Marriott in the Museum Quarter months ahead of the trip, taking advantage of advance pricing. The most popular museums are just a short walk away, and a canal is right across the street.

As American Express Platinum Card holders, which gives us Gold status with Marriott, and as Marriott Bonvoy Card holders, we tend to stick with the Marriott brand for our accommodations when we travel, knowing we’ll always have a quality experience at their hotels.

When we arrived at the hotel at 2:30 p.m., the helpful gentleman at the front desk upgraded us from a deluxe room to a larger family room. He also set us up with access to the M Club (Marriott’s club lounge with beverages, breakfast, and snacks) for €90 per night, but it did include a full breakfast and more. Everything in Amsterdam is expensive, so we agreed to the additional charge. It turned out to be a smart move for us.

The Room

Our room turned out to be spacious as promised at 300 square feet, about 75 square feet larger than the deluxe guest room we’d booked, with two comfortable double beds and a small but serviceable bathroom with a tub/shower combination. The beds were made with double pillows for each person and a duvet. We didn’t have much of a view from our room, but truthfully, we didn’t spend much time in it. There is too much to see in Amsterdam to hang out in your hotel room.

In the photo below, the cabinet to the left contained a small refreshment center with a tea kettle as well as coffee and tea setups. Rather than a closet, a railing for hanging clothes is to the left of the room’s door, across from the bathroom.

Hotel Amenities

The Amsterdam Marriott has been recently renovated, so it feels new and contemporary inside. In addition to the M Club, the hotel has two restaurants, the Midtown Grill, an upscale steakhouse, and Sorel’s Bar and Lounge, which specializes in bourbon and serves cocktails and light bites. Aside from breakfast and evening bites in the M Club, which was much better than expected, we only ate two meals outside the hotel. The hotel also has a well-equipped fitness center.

Nearby Attractions

As promised, there was much to see and do within walking distance of the Amsterdam Marriott, located on the southern side of the canal ring. Some of the nearby attractions within walking distance that we took advantage of were:

Blue Boat Canal Cruises

One of our must-dos in Amsterdam was to take a canal cruise, so we were pleased to find a canal cruise operator, Blue Boat, just past the pancake house. For €20 each, we had a wonderful 45-minute small-boat cruise with a delightful guide, who filled us in on the history as we moved slowly through the canals. 

Vondelpark

On our walkabout, the first site we came to was the Vondelpark, which reminds me of Central Park in New York City. A beautiful green area of about 120 acres, it’s bustling with people strolling or riding bikes, enjoying the beautiful weather.

Rijksmuseum

The Museum Quarter isn’t far from the Marriott, giving you many choices of museums to explore. The first we encountered was the Rijksmuseum, which featured the Vermeer exhibit at the time. Not realizing how popular the exhibit was, we were disappointed to learn that all tickets were sold out before the day had hardly even started. Next time, we’ll plan better.

Van Gogh Museum

Also in the Museum Quarter is the Van Gogh Museum, another must-see in Amsterdam. Unfortunately, we had the same problem with sold-out tickets.

The Heineken Experience

A little further down the street from the Museum Quarter is the Heineken Experience, a must-do for many. We’re not big beer drinkers, so we passed on the opportunity.

Nearby Dining

There are many restaurants and cafes within walking distance of the Marriott, of all different nationalities. You can find everything from Chinese to Greek cuisine, and if you look hard enough, you’ll find traditional Dutch cuisine as well. After a less-than-stellar dining experience at a tiny Greek restaurant a few blocks away from the Amsterdam Marriott, we’d recommend that you focus on the larger restaurants or eat at the hotel.

However, when in Amsterdam, you must try Dutch pancakes. A cute little pancake house is conveniently just across the street from the Marriott, so we stopped in for a quick bite after exploring the city on foot. We tried their lemon pancake and a savory ham-and-cheese pancake, and we enjoyed both very much. Delicious!

Tips For Exploring Amsterdam

Amsterdam is a safe, friendly, walkable city. Here are a few tips based on our experience there:

Summary of Amsterdam Marriott Hotel Review

The Amsterdam Marriott Hotel exceeded our expectations, being the perfect hotel for us to stay in to explore as much of Amsterdam on foot in a day as possible. We saw many of the items on our must-see list, and enjoyed a fabulous canal cruise as well. When we go back to Amsterdam, we’ll definitely stay at the Amsterdam Marriott again.

Happy traveling!