Hotel De L’Europe, Amsterdam.

Walking up the red carpet outside the entrance to Hotel De L’Europe, often referred to as the ‘Royal Palace of Amsterdam’ we certainly felt like Royalty and our greeting inside to follow certainly kept this feeling up too!  Staff were at our beckon call, wanting to help with bags, showing you to your room and explaining how the room itself works.

With a room looking over the canal and Amsterdam’s town hall we didn’t want to leave the room, we simply wanted to use the rooms iPad filled with information on the hotel to tell us more about what we could see and what the hotel could offer us.  The humongous bed was also far too comfortable to leave for the cold February weather outside.

Once we had prised ourselves away from our delightful room, the concierge was more than happy to tell us the secrets of the city, mark them on a map and send us on our way to take in the beautiful sights of central Amsterdam with the long canals, tiny streets and squares filled with divine food and drink.

On returning to the hotel, we were warmly welcomed yet again, and couldn’t wait to try out the luxurious bath in our marble clad bathroom.  The bathroom was stocked to the brim with all of the finest Blaise Mautin products, including body milk, shampoos and bath salts, which made our bathroom experience that much more enjoyable.  The his and hers sinks certainly helped too!

After a divine nights sleep, we wandered down the stairs to take ourselves to breakfast in the Hoofdstad Brasserie, and my, were we spoilt for choice.  A continental breakfast with the largest selection of homemade pastries, with an incredible selection of cold meats, cheeses and cereals.  The fruit display was out of this world.  And to top it off the Eggs Benedict we ordered were the best I had ever tasted, paired with smoked salmon, this made for the perfect breakfast.  I knew for certain I’d be ordering the full English to give that a try the following day!

We took a short wander around the hotel to take in the atmosphere and we felt so at home, the interior was exquisite, the spa well under way to being superb when it opens fully later in the year, and Freddy’s being the perfect place to grab a few drinks before a night on the town.  If Freddy Heineken would drink there, it’s certainly good enough for us!

We then dined back in Hoofdstad Brasserie, but this time it was for lunch. The menu covered all aspects of lunch but we dived in with the fish special of the day, Sea Bream with Orzo, and their famous steak!  We were paired up with the perfect wines from the Sommelier, and left to enjoy our delights.  We were disappointed when our plates come to an end, the food was incredible.  My palette was thoroughly pleased with the flavours the meal had to offer.

On returning to our hotel one evening after sneaking out to watch the football, we were shocked to find out we were sharing a hotel with Richard Gere.   Hotel De L’Europe has been a firm favourite of many stars and starred in many films itself, and lucky for them they can now add us to their list of residents.

Disclaimer: This was offered to me by their lovely PR team.