The Vibe: Happening

The Area: Hip Oost (East), on the Oosterpark. The city centre can be reached in a 15-minute walk or by using the nearby tram and metro stops.

The DNA: Set in a historic building from 1886 that once functioned as a girls orphanage, hostel and party palace, Hotel Arena now features a tranquil, pristine white Dutch minimalist design meeting 1970s retro, with occasional period touches (grand wrought-iron stairways, remnants of 19th-century patterned wall paintings) and illuminating vintage and bespoke furnishings, including pieces by Zuiver, Moooi, HK living, Ferm Living, and Kave Home. A glass-walled café-restaurant offers imaginative, healthy and regionally sourced meals and a superb breakfast. Bicycle rental and yoga lessons in the park.

Suite-Me-Up: Rooms continue the minimalist white style of the main areas, with snow-drifts of linen, milky walls, pale-wood laminate floors and frosted glass around the bathrooms (some of which are all-black, for the hell of it). Sixties- and Seventies-style chairs offer hip contrast. Some rooms are natty duplexes with tall windows and separate sleeping and seating areas looking onto the park, and others to garden courtyards.

✅ free Wi-Fi • size matters: 140 rooms & suites (25-60m2) (269-646 sq ft) • hotel opened: 2017 • architecture: Team V Architectuur • interior design: TANK • on-site parking (charged) • no pets allowed • 24-hour front desk • wheelchair accessible