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Hotel Review: Lloyd Hotel & Cultural Embassy, Amsterdam

October 9, 2014 By James Clark

Hotel Review: Lloyd Hotel & Cultural Embassy, Amsterdam

Hotel Name: Lloyd Hotel & Cultural Embassy
Address: Oostelijke Handelskade 34, Amsterdam

I stayed at the Lloyd Hotel & Cultural Embassy in Amsterdam. The hotel was originally a hotel built by the shipping line, Royal Holland Lloyd. It then became temporarily housing for immigrants, a prison, an artists’ studios collective, before coming full circle to become a hotel again. The building is a national monument of the Netherlands (and it even has its own Wiki page).

Lloyd Hotel & Cultural Embassy

Lloyd Hotel is an eclectic hotel – even by Dutch standards. It is the worlds first 1-to-5 star hotel, meaning that there are rooms of every class within the building. In keeping with the buildings maritime heritage you could liken this to a passenger ship with its different classes on the same ship. (If you’re looking for a more traditional hostel check out this Amsterdam hostels guide.)

In its restoration back to a hotel many of the original features have been retained and incorporated into the design. I loved the ship chandelier in the entrance foyer.

Ship Chandelier

The tiled hallway on the ground floor.

Tiled Hallway

And the stairwells are also tiled, with historic photos of the building lining the walls.

Stairwell

Rooms range from 1 star bedrooms with shared bathrooms, to designer 5 star rooms. I stayed in one of the 5 star rooms that was in the loft of the building. Using the long and narrow space available, the bedroom, bathroom, toilet, and storage space are all lined against the wall facing the multiple windows. It also featured a big table and a hammock.

Loft Bedroom
[5 Star Loft Bedroom]

I got shown around the hotel to get a feel for the other rooms available.

Room

One of the share bathrooms.

Common Bathroom

I liked this use of space – a public tea and coffee station in the hallway.

Public Tea and Coffee

What I liked about this hotel was the mixing of classes. You could go into the common areas where someone staying in a 1 star room could be dining with someone from a 5 star room.

Lounge and restaurant

There is a nice library/reading room that features specially selected books on history and architecture.

Library

Breakfast is served in the hotel restaurant on the ground floor.

Breakfast

The hotel is in the Eastern Docklands of Amsterdam. The ships have long gone from this area and it is now being redeveloped into a residential area. While it is a bit of a way outside the old city area of Amsterdam there is a tram stop outside the building and regular trams go to Amsterdam Centraal station in around 10 minutes.

Check out more of my photos of the Lloyd hotel in the photo gallery.

Filed Under: Accommodation Tagged With: amsterdam, hotel, netherlands

About James Clark

James Clark is the founder of Nomadic Notes. He has been a digital nomad since 2003, and Nomadic Notes features trip reports, train travel articles, and where to stay guides. He writes about transport and urban development at Future Southeast Asia. Subscribe to the weekly travel newsletter.

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James Clark from Nomadic Notes

Hi, I’m James Clark, and I've been travelling the world since 2003 while running a location independent travel business. Nomadic Notes is a travel blog featuring travel guides and notes from my travels.

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