The best luxury hotels in Amsterdam

This literary hotel arranged across ten canal houses is the place to bump in to your favourite author. Staff are discreet and attentive, and rooms - which stretch from single to suite to apartment - are decorated in Louis Quatorze style.

A stone’s throw from Amsterdam’s central Museumplein is this grand hotel. Occupying the site of a former music school (hence its name), the Conservatorium is part of The Set group of high-end lodgings.

A dazzling art nouveau hotel that's looking extra spruce now that a fountain has been added to its terrace, the public areas here - like the magnificently buttressed Café Americain - are all eye-pleasers.

Steeped in centuries of history, this hotel began life as a staging post for royals in the Golden Age, and has also been Amsterdam's town hall. Near the epicentre of the Red Light District, guests nevertheless feel like they've been whisked a million miles away from the risqué surroundings the moment they step into the luxurious courtyard.

This multi-storey, multi-tasking and very smart business-class stopover (the choice of Japan Airlines) has everything captains of industry need: a top-floor, top-of-the-range French restaurant, Le Ciel Bleu; a full-size pool and health club (open to non-guests); state-of-the-art conference facilities; and sushi bars.

The Grand Hotel Amrâth Amsterdam occupies the fabulous structure on Prins Hendrikkade known locally as the Scheepvaarthuis or 'Maritime House'. It was on this building that many of the greatest names in Dutch modernism cut their teeth, and from which the signature flowing lines of the architectural style gained a named: the Amsterdam School.