Review of Bilderberg Hotel Jan Luyken, by Andrew Mueller

The fortuitous setting of the Bilderberg Jan Luyken means that it overcomes the usual annoying paradox of hotels in major cities: the ones close to everything are too noisy, and the ones quiet enough to permit sleep are miles from anywhere. The Bilderberg Jan Luyken is a matter of metres away from the Van Gogh Museum and the Rijksmuseum, around the corner from the upmarket shopping on PC Hooftstraat, very close to Vondel Park, and barely a five-minute walk from Leidseplein - but it is situated in a quiet, leafy residential street.

The facilities

The Jan Luyken is spread across three 19th-century townhouses, built in the Jugendstil style. It has a reasonably priced bar called Wines & Bites, though not a full-service restaurant: it serves decent snacks and, mindful of the solo business traveller, makes a point of its impressive range of half-bottles of wine. The subterranean breakfast room has its own chef, which makes a pleasant change from the usual DIY buffet of stale croissants and tired fruit salad.

The rooms

The 62 rooms share a modern boutique style of subtle brown, maroon and beige furnishings, but all the rooms are different, to accomodate the architectural oddities of the old building. There is some imaginative use of space; the trouser-presses are secreted in hidden cupboards behind the wall mirrors.

There are four classes of room available: single, standard, business and superior. All the rooms have electronic safes, air conditioning, coffee-and-tea-making facilities, mini bars, wireless internet, televisions and stereos, and the hotel also has a small library of CDs and books from which guests can order. The bathrooms are tiled, and notably spacious, and if they're not enough, the hotel has its own health centre, containing a jacuzzi, a solarium, a steam-bath and a massage chair.