Escorts in Rotterdam

The Erasmusbrug crosses the Maas in one white sweep and divides the city into two moods. North of it is the centre, with Rotterdam Centraal and its folded steel roof, the Markthal, the Cube Houses, the Meent for shopping and the Witte de Withstraat for everything after dark. South of it is the Kop van Zuid and the Wilhelminapier, old harbour ground now stacked with towers, the departure quay of a hundred years of ocean liners turned into restaurants and hotel floors. The Euromast stands west of both and still gives the best view in the city.

Two obvious quarters. The Wilhelminapier holds the tower hotels, high floors, river views, lifts that run all night and lobbies with the scale of a terminal building. The centre around Weena and Rotterdam Centraal holds the business hotels, efficient and close to everything. A smaller group sits near the Witte de Withstraat and the museum quarter, more design led and more personal.

All of them are easy to arrive at quietly. Rotterdam hotels run on a business rhythm, people come and go at every hour, and a guest crossing a lobby at eleven at night is the least interesting thing happening in the building.

Den Haag is twenty five minutes north by train. Schiphol is about twenty six minutes on the fast line, making a night here and a morning flight entirely practical. Utrecht is roughly forty minutes east, and Amsterdam Centrum forty minutes on the fast service, where the shortest notice period on the map applies.