Hilton Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. Perfect For Restful Overnight

Anthea Gerrie reviews Hilton Amsterdam Airport Schiphol

Airport hotels were once the preserve of business visitors looking for the nearest berth to their meetings and plane home, but Hilton is looking to change all that with its dramatic new Schiphol hotel.
You can walk straight through Arrivals to the Hilton Amsterdam Airport Schiphol which replaces Amsterdam’s old airport Hilton, but you might miss the stunning architecture which can only be fully appreciated from outside. So as soon as you check in, step out the door to admire the sleek lines awash in diamond-shaped windows – this super-streamlined building looks ready to take flight itself.

These diamond panes are beautiful to live with as well as look at, as all those who bag an outside room will find out. They provide a new and lovely way of looking out at the world, especially if you get a view of the adjacent World Trade Center. Inside rooms mimic a nightclub with beds, looking out as they do on a startling neon-lit atrium by night – though the bright lights can be screened out when it’s time to sleep.

The huge atrium is the glory of the Hilton Amsterdam Airport Schiphol stretching a dizzying 42 metres from lobby to glass roof, offering the spectacular view of tiers of floor balconies with pleasingly rounded corners. Natural light floods in by day to a lobby with a large but intimate bar at its heart, while at night it’s all about mood lighting designed to subtly change colour.

Rooms are as comfortable as you’d expect from a Hilton, and more excitement than you’d usually expect from an airport hotel is offered by the Bowery restaurant. Enhanced by the buzz of an open kitchens, it’s staffed by waiters with a brief to positively engage customers, particularly over their wine and cheese choices. Excellent Dutch and Asian cuisine is complemented by a wide range of local cheeses, good when so few foreign visitors arrive realising there’s so much more to what this country’s artisan dairies produce than Edam and Gouda.

There is a full-service spa and a 24-hour fitness centre for those who are planning to stay put for a while, but most leisure visitors will want to take advantage of fast rail links to Amsterdam. Both the city centre and hip, close-in southern neighbourhoods are less than half an hour away, making the keenly-priced Hilton Amsterdam Airport Schiphol a viable and enjoyable base for a full stay.