Amsterdam
Canals, bikes and easy evenings. Stay near Centraal for the connections, base your nights around De Pijp - dense with bars and cafés, market stalls by day - and don't over-plan the rest. It's a city that rewards wandering over scheduling. Just like London and Milan, it pays to get out of the tourist-heavy middle - get the metro and explore the other districts.
6 recs
A lovely, quirky hotel near Centraal - art everywhere and personality to spare. I hear the food is good too.
Right by Centraal and well connected for everything, with a very nice rooftop bar to end the night on. An easy, reliable base.
Raw-interior brasserie doing serious grilled meat. Been to both the Lange Niezel and Handboogstraat branches and would happily walk into either again.
Delicious - but sometimes slammed, with an impossibly long queue. If the line looks reasonable, take your chance.
Does what the name promises - meat, done properly. Come hungry.
The neighbourhood to base an evening in - dense with bars and cafés, market stalls by day. Don't plan it; just wander.
Know somewhere in Amsterdam I should go? .