Hotels are usually places to stay when you're travelling. But sometimes they can become the attractions. Louise Williamsvisits two boldly designed Netherlands spots
HUNDREDS OF thousands of migrants passed through the Dutch ports of Amsterdam and Rotterdam on their way to the Americas during the late 19th century and first part of the 20th century. Administrative buildings sprung up around the harbour to cater to the migrants, but with the advent of air travel these buildings were abandoned. Now luxurious hotels have taken over where migration left off, and two of them offer pretty bold takes on design.
A chandelier in the shape of a ship hangs in the lobby of Amsterdam's Lloyd Hotel, the light above it picking out the glass beads that form its many sails. On the walls are tiles in institutional shades of mottled grey and green and a few framed posters; "To South America," they proclaim in Dutch and Russian.
Up the stairs is a touch of 21st-century Dutch design - a shiny yellow plastic cube inside which receptionists are waiting to check you in to one of the 117 rooms, from basement to sixth floor, of Lloyd Hotel Cultural Embassy.
It is a plush and funky space on Amsterdam's eastern harbour, an unusual cross between gloomy early 20th-century institutional architecture and adventurous 21st-century Dutch design.
The building started out as a hostel for migrants heading from eastern Europe to the Americas; it was built by the shipping company Royal Dutch Lloyd. Completed in 1921, it is fairly functional in style, with some pretty stained-glass art-deco windows, and vast dining rooms, which catered for about 350 guests at a time in one kitchen, while the kosher kitchen next door fed up to 50 Jewish guests.
Thousands of emigrants would get medical check-ups and be disinfected here before returning to the harbour to take another steamboat onwards.
Lloyd went bankrupt in 1935, and during the German occupation of The Netherlands the name took on an ominous meaning, as members of the Resistance as well as criminals were held here.
In the 1960s it became a youth detention centre, and in the 1980s its huge spaces were converted into artists' studios. In 1997 the city council approved plans to turn it into a hotel and cultural centre, the bars were taken off the windows, and it opened its doors in 2004.
Each room is unique: colourful, funky, playful or just plain odd. They range from one to five stars: the simplest have a shared bathroom and look more like offices; the most luxurious have huge amounts of space and are mostly in the beautiful loft. Every room has been put together by a different Dutch designer.
It was hard to spot the bathroom in my perfectly ordinary (three-star) rectangular hotel room. Along one wall was a very large box, about five metres by two. Eventually I figured out that one side of the box was a door that swings out to reveal a toilet.
You swing out the other section of the box's front, about three metres wide, to create a divide across your hotel room. You are now free to take a shower, right in the middle of your hotel pad. The water drains through slats in the floorboards below the shower head, and once you've finished washing you close the space up, leaving just the sink free for access through an opening.
I got chatting to the chambermaid, and she offered to show me a few rooms. Next door had a similar bathroom box to mine, although it was a more conventional walk-in version, with a glass door at one end. Across the corridor was a lovely room with a mirrored wall at one end and a bath right in the middle, a metre from the bed.
The maid also took me for a sneaky peek into the Classical Music room, one of the hotel's grandest. A grand piano stands in front of fantastically long windows; lush red stairs wind up to a mezzanine where there is a bed for eight people.
I loved the Lloyd, but if all the quirkiness is putting you off, don't worry, there is serious luxury here: great-quality bedding, pristine rooms, beautiful views; you're really well looked after.
For entertainment within the building, the Snel (fast) restaurant is the original dining room, complete with ceilings that reach the full height of the building. Food ranges from classic Dutch mackerel dishes to calf's liver and coq au vin. Tables are white, chairs are multicoloured and there are several sofas.
You should leave yourself time to wander through the hotel's many communal spaces, from the library to the exhibition spaces.
A permanent exhibition documenting the history of the building climbs one of the art-deco stairwells, and Monday night is culture night, with live music or shows.
Don't expect quaint canal views from Lloyd: it's in the harbour area of the city and, this being The Netherlands, land has been reclaimed from the water opposite the hotel to build two new islands that house 20,000 people.
Lloyd rents out bikes - €12 a day, including lock - which is a great opportunity to get on two wheels, but watch out for slightly more aggressive cycling manners than at home.
ROTTERDAM IS NOT a conventional tourist destination, but Hotel New York, the former headquarters of the Holland America shipping line, will charm the most jaded traveller.
The two green towers of the building would have been the last memory of The Netherlands for European migrants on their way to New York. It was constructed between 1901 and 1917, a dark brick building right on the harbour.
Once air travel came in, the Holland America line moved into cruise ships, eventually shifting its headquarters to Seattle in 1977. The Rotterdam offices were sold in 1984. In the early 1990s the city council decided to make something of the building and Hotel New York was born.
Ceilings are high and views are expansive, with some fancy details, such as the art-nouveau wrought-iron staircase that winds through the middle of the building. Its colourful awnings, large terraces and bright flags make for a cheery landmark.
The hotel's four stories are dwarfed by skyscrapers on either side: the World Port Centre and its 32 stories on one side; Montevideo, The Netherlands' tallest residential tower, with 43 floors, on the other.
The best way to arrive is by water taxi. You can spot "Holland-Amerika" in gold at the top of the building as you approach.
In the reception area old metal suitcases are used as display units in the bookshop, evoking the shipping-company era. Where Amsterdam's Lloyd is sleek, Hotel New York is quaint and elegant, with paintings of boats on the walls and maps scattered around the hotel.
But it's the rooms that really impress. They are enormous. I stayed in two. The first had a huge window of almost floor-to-ceiling height, its own large sitting area, a vast bed and a bathroom that was beyond roomy. In the walk-in shower it took several paces to get from the taps to the shower head.
But it was the second room that took my heart, the "tower room de luxe". When I unlocked my door I was faced with 20 or so stairs up to a bedroom with a built-in ship-style bed and an enormous bathroom with separate bath and shower.
From the middle of the room a spiral staircase led up, up, up - into one of the hotel's towers. You can stand, inside or out, and take in a 360-degree view of the harbour. It's breathtaking: your own personal tower with a jaw-dropping view.
Downstairs are a 1930s-style barber shop and a restaurant looking over the water. It boasts an extensive oyster menu, great fish and afternoon tea.
• Lloyd Hotel Cultural Embassy, Oostelijke Handelskade 34, Amsterdam, 00-31-20- 5613636, www.lloydhotel.com. One-star rooms from €90, two-star €150, three-star €220, four-star €270, five-star €350
• Hotel New York, Koninginnehoofd 1, Rotterdam, 00-31-10-4390500, www.hotelnewyork.nl. Ordinary room €110, balcony room €200, tower room de luxe €200
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Aer Lingus (www.aerlingus. com) flies to Amsterdam Schiphol from Dublin, Cork and Belfast.