Dutch Masters

With its majestic Rijksmuseum and gorgeous Van Gogh depository, Amsterdam is a must on any culture vulture's tour of Europe. But your brush with art needn't end at the museum exits. These days, you can stay in hotels that are part accommodation, part art space.

Occupying a former orphanage on a preserved, 19th century red-brick square, the Hotel Arena was both art center and hostel until it went upmarket some years ago, and six new, mostly duplex suites have been added. These showcase work by the Netherlands' hottest artists and designers, including Piet Hein Eek and Marcel Wanders, and the overall look is conspicuously contemporary. Arena also houses Tonight, the city's nightclub du jour, in an old chapel. tel: (31–20) 850 2420; www.hotelarena.nl

A little more self-consciously arty is the Winston Hotel. Housed in converted terraces in the middle of Amsterdam's gritty red-light district, the Winston boasts an art academy, as well as several twin-bed "art rooms" designed by young, up-and-coming conceptualists. There's everything from the stark sculpture of Nicolas Touron, who has covered the walls of room 407 with 600 kg of "crooked ceramic objects," to the installations of Orna Wertman, whose giant jigsaw puzzles-cum-installations plaster room 503. In hotels like these, life does indeed imitate art. tel: (31–20) 623 1380; www.winston.nl