To be honest, Rotterdam has so much more to offer than Amsterdam. Of all Dutch cities, Rotterdam is truly our favourite. Oops did we say the wrong thing Dutchies? So when we had the opportunity to spend a night in the tallest building of Rotterdam, we didn't have to think long and were on our way to nhow Rotterdam.
Nhow is different… It's part of a building called ‘De Rotterdam' by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas / OMA. The hotel is supposedly the first European architecture hotel, a hotel that combines art and design together with luxury. nhow Rotterdam is a 4-star hotel on the banks of river Maas.
Getting to the nhow Rotterdam hotel
The nhow hotel is located at the “Zuidas” in Rotterdam, an in recent years developed area that is modern and houses some amazing architectural highlights like the Erasmus bridge. In previous years this part of Rotterdam housed many manufacturing plants and companies. Now it's all transformed in an area filled with hip hotels, restaurants, and nightclubs while keeping the industrial look and feel. Love it.
Getting to the nhow Rotterdam hotel is easy. At Rotterdam central train station you simply hop onto the metro line with the big D on it. They have kept things simple in Rotterdam: there are four metro lines and they are called A, B, C, and D. Easy as.
First impression of nhow Rotterdam
From the metro stop “Wilhelminaplein” it's just a 2-minutes walk to the nhow hotel. The hotel is easy to spot as it's the tallest building in Rotterdam, it's greenish, and has a big red N near the entrance.
As soon as you walk into the lobby of the hotel, don't be alarmed. It's a design hotel so the lobby is supposed to look that empty. 🙂
The staff at the reception is super friendly and check-in is relatively fast and almost without issues (there are still some hick-ups, they've only been open since January 2014). The reception lady then walks you to your room and explains how things work.
Apparently, they don't have many travelling geeks as guests as there's nothing in the room that needs explaining. We've all used cards to open the door and smart-TVs. But hey, we're not complaining, it's called service.
Design room with a view
When booking the room we opted for the sunrise room… Oh, that's something we still need to explain. At nhow Rotterdam, there are four types of rooms: urban (standard room), sunrise room, sunset room, and horizon suite. Well, the words sunrise and sunset in the name says it all: from these rooms, you can watch the sunrise or sunset.
All these rooms (except for urban) have these huge windows (top to floor) so you'll have an amazing view over Rotterdam. Our sunrise room was located on the 21st floor and wow the view is AMAZING.
The room itself is relatively small yet long, making it a spacious room of 30 m². As it's a “design” room the look and feel is modern and awesome. The smart TV is built into the mirror opposite of the bed. You have your own Nespresso machine, but only three capsules to enjoy and two of them are decaffeinated (aaaarrgghhhh). And the bathroom is entirely made out of glass and stocked with thick fluffy towels.
The bed is firm and covered with fluffy pillows… You just need to make one small adjustment to enjoy the room and its awesome view even better. Unlock the wheels of the bed and push it towards the windows. That way you can enjoy the view when falling asleep and waking up. Awesome. And of course, we rolled the bed back into place, no worries nhow Rotterdam.
Photos of nhow Rotterdam
Note: This blog post was posted between 2010 and 2015 when we were called DIY-OE. As we’re still happy with the quality, it was published again on our new blog Travel.Geek.NZ
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