The best thing about Hotel Isis is its location: 7 minutes' walk from the (4-min) ferry to Centrum, and 11 minutes' walk to the nearest Metro station.
Next best is the neighbourhood= safe, mostly quiet, residential.
Next best are the neighbours! There's a very good Turkish restaurant 30m away, an outstanding Indian/Nepalese restaurant 20m away, a fabulous bakery 15m away, and a little grocery store 10m away. The pool club next door sells cheap beer to go (you can reach out in your slippers!).
We must also mention the very friendly and helpful staff, who have good coffee, a smile and a nice cat on the go at all hours. Ragab was delightful.
However, you need to know....
* this is an old building: no elevator; steep (steep!) stairs; thin walls; no space; no luxuries at all. 3 stars in whose mind? Not ours: it's a good 2 star.
* the pool hall next door was noisy just once (in a week) - no music, but much chatting until 2am.
* most folks here are not as friendly as the owners. Expect abrupt - but with a smile reserved just for tourists!
* the streets ain't clean (but sadly, that goes for most of the city).
* cycles - and some cyclists - can kill you: look both ways. Twice.
* sadly, the "pick up after you dog" rule seems to have missed Amsterdam - watch where you step.
On the whole, we loved Amsterdam, but the city's beauty - only just - overcomes it's many unnecessary shortcomings.
