CitizenM Amsterdam: Endulge In Uniqueness (And Transparent Toilet Cubicles)

We two have travelled together for over a decade now. What we’ve discovered during those years is that there’s really no better way of getting to know your friend than sitting in a car together and sharing hotel rooms for weeks at a time, several times a year, year after year. But we never expected we’d be ok sharing a room with a semi-transparent toilet cubicle and a full-transparent shower chamber. After sharing a room at CitizenM Amsterdam, that’s what we’ve now come to terms with.

But hang on — this is not a negative review. Just check out all the beautiful design & general awesomeness CitizenM has to offer, and you’ll learn why.

The modern exterior of Citizen M Amsterdam

During our one-night-stop in Amsterdam, we ended up staying with CitizenM and sharing a room. Apart from this place in the Netherland’s capital city, they also have these unique, trendy and modern hotels in New York, London, Glasgow, Paris and Rotterdam.

Red sofas: Tiia’s favorites!

The check-in process is also a modern one: you get to do it yourself on a computer, and in case it gets confusing, there’s always a friendly member of staff hovering somewhere nearby.

And the interior! Full of colour, reflective surfaces, beautiful photographs and paintings and unique pieces of furniture. To a creative person such as myself, it was really inspiring to just look around and feel the creative atmosphere.

We have arrived!

Transparency is key

When we booked the room, we didn’t even think twice about not sharing one as we usually do. We appreciate separate beds, but after staying in dozens of hotels and hostels, we can usually deal with sharing a (kingsize) bed. That was the case here.

But what we didn’t take into account before deciding to share a CitizenM room were the transparent toilet and shower cubicles. I mean, we’re all for modern stuff and quirky design to make a hotel room memorable and fun to stay in, but we weren’t quite expecting to take the morning shower all naked in front of each other.

Loved these! We don’t, however, fight. Not even pillow fight. But it’s nice of them to give us the chance to!

Luckily, we really don’t have anything to hide from each other anymore, so we just laughed it off.

(We may or may not have also sent some photos of Tiia sitting in a transparent cubicle while peeing to all our friends as a virtual greeting card. Because “classy” is the way we roll!)

Privacy or not, the shower turned out to be the best one we’ve had in any hotel room ever: an extra wide showerhead that enveloped the whole body in a hot, super comfortable shower rain. At that point, it didn’t even matter if you were standing naked in front of your friend, soaping yourself up and giggling: it was just heavenly.

The showerhead changes colours! Spot the excited photographer…

What made the room even more fun is the fact that we could control everything with an iPad (provided by the hotel). Clickety-swipe, close the curtains. Swipety-click, change the colours and lights in the whole room. Clickety-click, put on some background music, suitable for working or relaxing or partying.

Loving the advice on the telly. That’s how the world should work!

CitizenM Amsterdam — a tram ride away!

The location of CitizenM is quite convenient even though it’s a bit of a tram ride away from downtown Amsterdam. We purchased day tickets to the tram system, and got to the city and back pretty quickly and comfortably during our stay.

Also (to our very happy surprise) the Amsterdam-Zuid train station was just a stone’s throw away from CitizenM, so we just walked there and hopped on a train on our last day to catch our flight.

Another colourful detail from CitizenM’s lobby.

Another thing we loved were our easy visits to the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum: they were right along the tram route we took to the city. We ended up hopping off there two separate times for photos and general Van Gogh fangirling.

The iAmsterdam sign, a popular photo spot in the city.

One of the most popular sights in the city, the iAmsterdam sign, resides in the square next to the Rijksmuseum and the museum shops. We spent at least an hour there, just enjoying the chilly but beautiful evening and doing some people-watching.

People climbing on top of the sign for better photos

The sunset was an amazing one. We were originally just going to the Rijskmuseum to do some sceneframing for The Fault In Our Stars, but just happened to be there at the perfect moment.

Super beautiful tulips and the sunset at the iAmsterdam sign

CitizenM Amsterdam: the ideal working environment

The CitizenM breakfast was served by the bar in the lobby, so we headed down on our first (well, our only) morning in Amsterdam and stuffed our tummies full of sandwiches, yogurt with muesli, freshly squeezed orange juice and of course, some super delicious latte.

Lots of space for lounging, working and meeting up with friends or business companions

Looking around in the vast lobby with dozens of cozy nooks and design furniture, along with bookshelves full of travel guides, art and design books and other interesting things, I couldn’t help but think that it might be fun to stay a little longer and get some writing done in this space.

I’ve actually been wondering for a long time now how I could make a writing trip happen. The idea is simple but requires some planning: I’d love to stay in a few hotels, in a few different cities and get some writing done in comfy lounges and coffeeshops. CitizenM Amsterdam is the perfect example of what I’ve had in mind all this time!

Wouldn’t mind working here!

So, even though our visit to Amsterdam and our stay in CitizenM was a short one, we can warmly recommend it to anyone who’s into design hotels and beautiful interior design, with friendly staff and modern technology to support it.

But, if you’re not into nakedness in front of your friends… do book your own rooms!

Check out CitizenM’s website for more information and booking!