Pestana Amsterdam Riverside

Pestana Amsterdam Riverside is a 154-room five-star hotel at Amsteldijk 67, built into the 1892 Nieuwer-Amstel town hall that held Amsterdam’s municipal archive from 1914 to 2007. It is a Dutch national monument (rijksmonument), not a UNESCO site, and it opened as a hotel in 2018 after Pestana Hotel Group bought the closed building in 2014. Rooms sit across two neo-Dutch Renaissance buildings and two modern wings, with a heated indoor pool, a spa, a gym, the Cotidiano restaurant, and a terrace facing the River Amstel.

Quick facts

Address	Amsteldijk 67, 1074 HZ Amsterdam, on the edge of De Pijp in Amsterdam-Zuid
Building	Former Nieuwer-Amstel town hall (1889–1892) and Amsterdam municipal archive (1914–2007)
Heritage status	Rijksmonument (Dutch national monument), register number 527846
Opened as a hotel	2018, as the first international hotel in the Pestana Collection brand
Rooms	154 rooms, studios and suites, including 22 suites and a presidential suite
Rates	From EUR 179 per night for a Deluxe room; Clock Tower Suite from EUR 377 (Pestana website, September 2026)
Spa and pool	Heated indoor pool and gym 6:00 a.m.–10:00 p.m.; massages 11:00 a.m.–7:00 p.m. by appointment
Restaurant	Cotidiano: breakfast 7:00–10:30 a.m., all-day menu 10:30 a.m.–11:00 p.m.
Parking	Underground valet parking, EUR 65 per night, request at booking
Check-in / check-out	From 3:00 p.m. per the hotel’s own FAQ; several booking sites list 4:00 p.m. Check-out by 11:00 a.m.
Nearest transit	Tram 4 at Lutmastraat, about a 450 m walk; Wibautstraat metro station

From town hall to archive to hotel

The complex was built between 1889 and 1892 as the town hall of Nieuwer-Amstel, the municipality that preceded today’s Amstelveen. It was designed by Roelof Kuipers, then surveyor and municipal architect of Nieuwer-Amstel, in the neo-Dutch Renaissance style. After Kuipers left in July 1889, W.J. de Groot took over construction supervision and developed the design further with August Zinsmeister, head of the building office; Bart van Hove made the sculptural work. The heritage register notes that Kuipers may have drawn on the early-17th-century town hall of Bolsward.

Four years after the building opened, Nieuwer-Amstel was largely annexed by Amsterdam, and the council it was built for moved on. From 1914 the building served as the Amsterdam municipal archive, with a purpose-built archive depot wing added on Tolstraat. The archive moved to the Stadsarchief on Vijzelstraat in 2007 and the building closed. Pestana Hotel Group bought it in 2014; Villanova Architecten handled the transformation of the monument, the glazed conservatory additions and two new buildings, while Studio Linse designed the interiors. The hotel opened in 2018.

Pestana describes the building as having served as the world’s largest city archive for almost a century, storing records of births, deaths, construction, commerce and criminal investigations, including material connected to Rembrandt and Anne Frank. Treat that superlative as the hotel’s own framing rather than an independently verified ranking. What is documented in the national heritage listing is narrower and still substantial: the complex is protected as a well-preserved example of a municipal administration and archive building in a style characteristic of its period, including the south-side gate and railing.

Rooms, and what the Clock Tower Suite actually is

The 154 rooms are split between the monumental building, the former archive building and the newer wings, so the experience varies far more than the star rating suggests. If the heritage is the reason you are booking, the room category matters more than the hotel name: a room in a new wing is a comfortable modern room, not a room inside the 1892 monument.

The Clock Tower Suite occupies the tower that once gave the neighbourhood its time signal, and Pestana lists it as one of the property’s most requested rooms. Preserved elements across the hotel include the monumental staircase, the high ceilings and the tower itself. There is one suite in the tower, so it books out well ahead in summer and over holiday weekends.

Room type	From (per night)	Best for
Deluxe	EUR 179	Lowest entry price, no river view
Superior	EUR 194	A little more space for a small premium
Classic Studio	EUR 197	Longer stays; some studios have a kitchenette
Superior River View	EUR 203	The cheapest reliable Amstel view
Premium Deluxe	EUR 229	Upgraded finish without suite pricing
Premium River View	EUR 233	Two adults plus two children with a view
Loft	EUR 251	Character layouts under the roofline
Superior Terrace	EUR 274	Private outdoor space
Mezzanine Suite	EUR 310	Split-level space for families
Junior Suite River View	EUR 356	Suite space facing the water
Clock Tower Suite	EUR 377	Staying inside the monument’s tower
Presidential and Master Presidential River View	On request	Groups of four to eight

Spa, pool and gym: the hours that matter

Wellness Spa Pestana Amsterdam has a heated indoor pool, a sauna and a treatment menu that includes Swedish and deep-tissue massage and body treatments. The pool and the gym are open to all guests from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., which suits early risers and anyone arriving on a late flight. Treatments run from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and must be booked in advance, so reserve when you reserve the room rather than at check-in.

Families should note the age rule: children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult and may use the spa facilities only from 9:00 a.m. to noon and from 3:00 to 7:00 p.m. Several booking platforms also list a hammam or Turkish steam bath here; the hotel’s own facility pages currently describe a sauna rather than a hammam, so confirm with the front desk if that specific facility is the reason you are booking. Guest reviews on Pestana’s own page repeatedly describe the pool and sauna area as small, and the property averages 4.4 from roughly 1,100 reviews on the hotel site, with a 4 out of 5 rating across about 986 Tripadvisor reviews.

Eating in: Cotidiano, not ARCHIVE

The hotel restaurant is Cotidiano, built around an all-day, seasonal brunch menu served from 10:30 a.m. to 11:00 p.m., with breakfast from 7:00 to 10:30 a.m. and an international buffet that can be taken on the terrace. Many third-party listings and older articles still refer to the restaurant as ARCHIVE by Pestana, the name used earlier in the hotel’s life. If you are quoting a menu or booking a table from a directory listing, check the current name before you arrive. Room service and an in-room minibar cover late arrivals.

Where it sits, and how to reach it

The hotel faces the River Amstel on Amsteldijk, on the eastern edge of De Pijp in Amsterdam-Zuid. That position is the trade-off worth understanding before booking: you get a quiet dike-side frontage and a river terrace, but you are a walk away from the busiest part of De Pijp rather than inside it. The Albert Cuyp Market, the Netherlands’ largest daily street market, runs along Albert Cuypstraat and trades Monday to Saturday, roughly 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., closed Sundays. Museumplein, with the Rijksmuseum and Stedelijk, is about 1.7 km away, and the historic centre is roughly 2.4 km, a 30-minute walk or a short tram ride.

Route	How	Notes
Schiphol to hotel by train and tram	Train to Amsterdam Centraal, then tram 4 towards Station RAI to Lutmastraat	About a 7-minute walk (450 m) from the tram stop
Schiphol to hotel, southern approach	Train to Amsterdam RAI, then tram 4 towards Centraal to Lutmastraat	Often quicker outside peak hours
Schiphol by taxi or ride-hail	Direct	Roughly 20–30 minutes depending on traffic
Metro	Wibautstraat station	Useful for Amsterdam-Oost and the east ring
Driving	Hotel underground car park with valet	EUR 65 per night; request when booking

For planning around the hotel, see our guides to the best things to do in Amsterdam, where to stay in Amsterdam by neighbourhood and a two-day Amsterdam itinerary.

Meetings, weddings and the Town Hall Ballroom

Pestana currently lists 11 event spaces in total. Seven private meeting rooms sit on the ground floor in neutral finishes with natural light, configurable for up to 160 guests. The signature space is the Town Hall Ballroom on the first floor of one of the historic buildings, facing the Amstel, used for banquets, private events and weddings. Group enquiries go to the hotel’s dedicated groups address rather than the general reservations line, and the venue is also listed through the Amsterdam convention bureau’s venue finder.

Who it suits, and who should book elsewhere

• Book it if you want a genuine monument stay with a pool, a quiet river frontage, De Pijp dining within walking distance, and a car you need to park.
• Book it if you are travelling as a family or staying a week: the studios with kitchenettes and the mezzanine suites are more practical than most central Amsterdam five-star rooms.
• Look elsewhere if you want to step out of the lobby into the canal ring; the walk to Dam Square is roughly half an hour.
• Look elsewhere if a large spa is central to the trip. The wellness area is compact, and guest reviews say so consistently.
• Look elsewhere if a river-facing window is non-negotiable and you do not want to pay for it; the entry-level categories do not face the Amstel.

Five things to check before you book

1. Confirm your check-in time. The hotel’s FAQ says from 3:00 p.m., while Booking.com and HRS list 4:00 p.m. Ask directly if you have a morning arrival.
2. Specify the building, not just the room type, if the heritage is the point. Ask for the monumental building or the former archive rather than a new wing.
3. Book spa treatments in advance. Walk-in massages are not available; the treatment window is 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
4. Declare a dog at booking. Only dogs are accepted, for a fee, and only in specific room types.
5. Add parking to the reservation. The underground valet car park is EUR 65 per night and is requested at the time of booking, not on arrival.

Rates, room categories and opening hours in this article were checked against the hotel’s official pages in September 2026; the heritage details come from the Dutch national monuments register entry for Amsteldijk 67. Verify current pricing on the official Pestana Amsterdam Riverside page before you book, and read the listing itself in the rijksmonument record for the former Nieuwer-Amstel town hall if the architecture is what brought you here.

Frequently asked questions