I recently stayed in a hotel from a small chain called Conscious, right by the Concertgebouw/Museumplein. Hotel was small but modern with a really nice bar/garden, free glass of wine and cheese hour between 5-6pm, rooms very clean, eco policies, really nice staff. Bathrooms were kind of open though (closed loo but basin and shower in a kind of cubby open to the room which you may or may not like). I also thought the rooms could have done with a touch more storage. There is no coffee machine or fridge in the room for eco reasons, but they provide some nice complimentary snacks and mini drip coffees which were easily as good as a V60 drip. They also have other hotels in different locations around the city like the Vondelpark, I think. Rooms were about 180+ euros.
The location/area was perfect just there -- really safe, less than 5 mins from all the big museums, and right by both a tram stop for quick trams into the centre of the city, and literally right next to a bus stop for the airport bus (397, takes 30 mins bus ride from Schiphol). Only about 20-25 mins walk to the main canals, too. There’s an Albert Heijn supermarket 2 mins walk away in front of the Concertgebouw and the Stedelijk. It was quiet and nice not to be too close to the centre but also a very walkable distance and not too far out!
For transport (not metro really, but trams/buses etc.) all the trains, buses and trams use a tap in tap out system with your bank card, or you can buy a travel card and load it up at the airport or any reasonably large station. (This works on buses, trains and trams all across the network, but you need at least 4e on the card for it to work on any journey. It’s worth getting the travel card because even though you can just use your bank card I later discovered my bank was charging me an extra transaction fee for each tap in tap out!)
Trams are super quick and if you miss one another will be along within about 5 minutes.
I went with 12 y o DD who likes art, shopping and brunches. We went to the Rijksmuseum, Stedelijk, Van Gogh museum, took a boat ride around the canals (you can catch one from just outside the Rijksmuseum), the Begijnhof and had some walks around the main canals. DD liked the Miffy shop and Hema, and there are loads of the usual brands like Uniqlo, etc. Right by the Van Gogh museum there is a nice cafe called Blushing which DD liked a lot so we went several times — it has a very “now” aesthetic for teen girls (mirrors, neon, gold pugs 😆) and does nice brunches like avocado on toast, salads, croque monsieur, and so on and the staff were lovely. (Everyone speaks fantastic English of course, so you don’t need any Dutch but they do appreciate you knowing how to say do you speak English, please, thanks, etc.)
Eating out is a comparable price to here, so don’t expect it to be cheap. As well as the traditional Dutch dishes everywhere does the kind of stuff that’s fashionable here at the moment — avocado toast, Shakshuka, feta salads, American pancakes etc. etc. It pays off to do a bit of research on tripadvisor, Google and The Fork rankings for places to eat — they have to be a 4+ for me! We went to a nice and very busy place DD liked called Tacos & Tequila where the food was fantastic (if you like mexican! but it was not cheap I gave to say!) But all round there there are lots of not so good restaurants, so be picky and book if you can.
Loads of cafes/restaurants now have a QR code on the table which is how you order your food, so make sure your phone is always charged.
Oh and if you want to go to the Anne Frank Huis book now - the tickets sell out about 6 weeks in advance.
Enjoy!