Vistited the property multiple times. Always I'm asking politely if it is ok to refuse the stroop wafers, because it will save me an hour at the gym. (For a Hampton, they do have real nice Precor equipment, featuring Run TV). Only when there's a totally fresh new agent at the desk, then I just pretend to be happily surprised by the gift. Actually, I think they don't make it as big as a problem as you do.

On my most recent 1-night visit, I parked on the other side of the IJ-river, in a street called Johan van Hasseltweg. From there I took the free ferry Zamenhofstraat - Azartplein. A real nice trip, only taking about 10 minutes. Great views of the Java and KNSM Islands. Then you go straight, across a bridge across another wide canal and then right along the Brasilia warehouse shopping area. It has a two organic-food supermarkets next to each other, two big regular supermarkets and a number of nice local restaurants. But at best, the restaurants are now only offering take-out menus. This area with its wide promenades, plus the islands I mentioned are great for jogging or just strolling along the water. Unfortunately, because almost every store and restaurant is closed due the pandemic, at the moment a lot of 'atmosphere' is missing, but still it is worth it.

Almost every time when I stay there, I get pre-assigned one of their top floor rooms, which have a great distant view of Windmill 'De Gooyer', with underneath it, the Brewery Het IJ, with a great cafe (closed at the moment) with next to it the Brewboys Bar, also closed but offering take-out cans.

There's two ways you can walk towards that windmill, straight from the hotel, through the 'Funenpark' or just to the right of it through Czar Peter Straat, which has a number of nice little local restaurants and shops, like clothing designers, a small roller-skating store, a Whiskey store, Cocoa museum, offering bean-to-bar workshops, a Peanut butter specialty store and a real popular buffet-style vegetarian restaurant. Once again, at the moment the stores and restaurants are offering very little or no service at all, but hopefully in a couple of months everything gets back to normal.

I do prefer the area around this hotel much better than the busy center of Amsterdam.