Say it with flowers: the Dutch capital teems with colourful blooms in springtime.It's low season in Amsterdam right now, and that means affordable flights and good deals in hotels. And even though it can still be a bit damp and chilly, the city's cafes offer the perfect refuge. Here's the Crafty Traveller's guide to the best-value hotels, and tips on how to save time and money getting around and sightseeing. There's also a selection of great places to eat and drink - where you may well be the only tourist...
Where to stayRates given here are the cheapest available in March for a double room, including the five per cent city tax. Use the hotels' websites to find the best deals.
Indulgent: Banks Mansion (00 31 20 420 0055, www.banksmansion.nl). An impressive amount of extras are included in the standard rates of this smart conversion of an early 20th Century bank, on one of the city's grandest canals. As well as breakfast, the rate includes unlimited access to the mini-bar and drinks decanters in your room, daytime and evening snacks and drinks at any time from the bar in the lobby.
From £166.
Awash with culture: The famed canal of PrinsengrachtMid-range: Estherea (00 31 20 624 5146, www.estherea.nl). A classic, canal-side hotel, run by the same family since the Forties, it has characterful bedrooms and plush, relaxing lounges. Rooms from as little as £92 on Sundays and £101 on weekdays. The excellent breakfast costs £14 per person extra.
Budget: Hotel V Frederiksplein (00 31 20 662 3233, www.hotelv.nl). Trendy but friendly hotel just off the Canal Ring. The funky open-plan lounge/ breakfast/ bar area (note the cowhide walls) used to be a stationery shop, while the compact bedrooms look slick. Skip the cheapest as they're in the basement and rather dark; others cost from £83, including breakfast
Getting aroundThe quickest and cheapest way from the airport to the city centre is the train £3.50 one way. Buy tickets from machines in the airport baggage reclaim hall.
Best travel passes: Choose from a 24, 48 or 72-hour ticket. They all give you unlimited use of the trams, buses and metro and cost about £6, £10 or £14 respectively. There are usually queues to buy the passes from the main GVB transport office outside the Centraal Station, but not from the machines outside the metro below. You can also buy the 24-hour pass on the trams.
Best free ride: One of the ferries that regularly crosses the IJ waterway behind the Centraal Station. Take the ferry marked IJplein - it's a short walk on the other side to a lovely waterside cafe/ restaurant called Wilhelmina-Dok.
Cheapest bikes: Those with backpedal brakes - initially disconcerting, but easy to get the hang of. They cost £11 for a day, including insurance, from MacBike (www.macbike.nl). By the way, no adults wear helmets but everyone locks up their bikes, even for the briefest of stops.
Masters up close: A visitor inspects a self-portrait of Van GoghSight-seeingBest queue-avoiding tactic: Buy tickets in advance for the most popular museums. Even in the winter months, there can be hour-long waits to enter the Van Gogh Museum, Rijksmuseum and Anne Frank House. But if you buy tickets on the museums' websites (www.vangoghmuseum.nl, www.rijksmuseum.nl, www.annefrank.org), you get to go straight in. With the Anne Frank House, you have to specify the date and time you're going to visit, but with the others you don't. With all three museums, you need to be able to print off your 'e-ticket'. Note that better hotels will help you sort out advance tickets.
Best for evening art: The Van Gogh Museum. It stays open until 10pm on Fridays, and on these evenings there's always some additional entertainment in the main hall such as live music or a video installation, and the atmosphere is like being at a private viewing.
Best exhibition: The Hermitage Amsterdam. From March 6, this major new space for showcasing treasures from St Petersburg's State Hermitage Museum is displaying a world-class collection of early modern art.
Best (and most improbably located) free attraction: The Rijksmuseum's mini-exhibitions - in a specially constructed, raised pod at Schiphol airport. The paintings currently on show are Golden Age renditions of Italian landscapes. It's open daily, 7am-8pm.
Memorial: A statue of Anne Frank stands in the cityWhere to eatBest lunch: De Bakkerswinkel (www.debakkerswinkel.nl), at Warmoesstraat 69. This long, thin bakery-cum-cafe is a breath of health on a rather seedy street just off the red-light district, serving fantastic quiches and fruit shakes.
Best tea: De Taart van m'n Tante (www.detaart.com), at Ferdinand Bolstraat 10. 'The Cake of my Aunt' tearoom is kitsch in the extreme and great fun, with overblown cake displays everywhere, plus mismatched furniture and crockery.
Best affordable dinner: Cafe Loetje (www.cafeloetje.nl), at Johannes Vermeerstraat 52. Under ten minutes' walk from Museumplein but devoid of tourists, this pubby restaurant is invariably packed, due to its fantastic, thick steaks, which cost £19 with chips and a salad. No reservations are taken, so if you don't want a wait, get there early.
NightlifeAmstersdam has all sorts of different places to drink, including brown cafes (something like a very traditional English pub), grand cafes (big, often dramatically designed spaces, with a laid-back atmosphere) and trendy bars.
Best brown cafe: 't Smalle, at Egelantiersgracht 12 in the Jordaan - snug, with a gleaming, low-slung bar, candles on tables and, in the warmer months, a dreamy canal-side terrace.
Best grand cafe: 1e Klas, hidden away on Platform 2B of Centraal Station (no ticket required to reach it). Lavishly decorated with linen-fold panelling and painted ceilings, the cafe was once the station's first-class waiting rooms.
Most unusual bar: MiNiBAR at Prinsengracht 478. You get a key to your own minibar, help yourself to what you want, and mix your own drinks.
Best place for discounted tickets: The Last Minute Ticket Shop on the Leidseplein which, from noon to 7.30pm daily, sells day-of-performance tickets at half price. Performances appropriate for non-Dutch speakers are marked LNP - language no problem.
Best avoidedThe red-light district at night time. If you're curious, go earlier in the day when the atmosphere is less intimidating. I also wouldn't bother with the much-vaunted but soulless flea market on Waterlooplein. The Saturday farmers' market on the Noordermarkt is much more friendly and scenic, and great for picking up Dutch cheeses. And Winkel, the cafe on the corner of the Noordermarkt, serves the best apple pie in town.
Travel factsEasyJet (www.easyjet.com) has the widest choice of low-cost flights to Amsterdam, from eight UK airports. The Amsterdam Tourist Board's website, www.iamsterdam.com, is excellent. For yet more information and advice on Amsterdam, visit www.simonseeks.com.
