The elevated front terrace of this former 19th-century orphanage tumbles onto the green lawns of the Oosterpark, where birdsong mingles with the pop-pop of tennis balls being played in the distance.

The ubiquitous mottos and neon-pink branding hint at the importance of the millennial market to this addition to the Marriott portfolio.

The money keeps rolling into this former bank — and later music college — which has been attracting affluent guests since 2011.

Bringing the tropics to Amsterdam’s windswept Java Island is Hotel Jakarta, an exotic evocation of the Dutch East Indies, packaged sustainably with certified wood, solar panels and water-saving plumbing.

Pushing the rock-star theme so hard that even the bed linen has a guitar pattern woven into it, the rebranded American Hotel is geared to guests with tickets for the nearby gig venues.

If you don’t mind rubbing shoulders with the students housed in one half of this 11-storey building, the recently renovated rooms at Hotel Casa provide fresh, modern accommodation a 15-minute bike ride from the city centre.

Once a 17th-century warehouse, hauling in merchandise from the docks over the road, this small hotel near the Red Light District and Central Station is eager to share its story, and lamps suspended from shipping rope and other clever nautical touches feature throughout the pristine interior.

The four-star Estheréa started life in the 1940s and retains much of that bygone glamour. In the lobby, oversized crystal chandeliers illuminate a decor rich in exotic florals, jungle prints, velvet, mahogany and gold.

Behind a neoclassical archway leading to a paved courtyard, this 40-room boutique hotel with its own garden offers tranquillity within the busy canal belt.

Making eco sexy is one of the hotel’s primary aims, according to its forthright branding, and — true to form — despite being housed in former gas company offices, the ethos of this wind-powered hotel is as green as the parkland surrounding it.

Popular with authors due to its proximity — at one time — to the main publishing houses, this canalside hotel even has its own librarian tending to the 5,000-plus books signed by famous guests such as Salman Rushdie and Günter Grass.

A 14-minute ferry ride from Central Station takes you to an expansive, graffiti-filled wharf dotted with hip cafés and ateliers fashioned from multicoloured shipping containers.

Follow the Amstel river southeast and all that is touristy ebbs away. Lording it over this stretch of water is the imposing five-star Amstel Hotel, a paragon of old-fashioned elegance dating back to 1867, whose slightly off-piste location affords greater privacy than more centrally located heavyweights, but no less luxury.

Few establishments start breakfast with an amuse-bouche, but this five-star boutique hotel straddling two listed canal houses sees no reason why haute cuisine should be saved for later and offers caviar and gold leaf alongside its eggs.

Marketing itself as “lean luxury”, the 20-floor sustainably designed Ruby Emma offers chic rooms at sharp prices due in part to its self-service concept.