Need help with trip to Amsterdam

My wife and I stayed in the Hotel Pulitzer in March 2017. I would highly recommend it. It's in the Nine Streets Neighborhood, which I would definitely recommend. Amsterdam is a great city.

Second Jordaan, it's the best neighborhood in Amsterdam IMO. I don't recall a lot of hotels so AirBNB or similar might be your best bet there.

Haarlem is a smaller but sizable city outside of Amsterdam, and the namesake for Harlem in NYC. Only about 30-45 minutes, and it's a pretty charming place that has plenty of shops/bars/restaurants but in a lower key environment. Along with Delft I think they're the easiest places to go to get a little more sense of non-Amsterdam Holland.

We liked the grand Hotel de L'Europe.

Foodhallen was terrific.

Brouwerij 't IJ for beer.

Amsterdam in January will be cold, windy and wet so bikes might not be a great idea. The good thing is you will have the city center mostly to yourself. I usually tell people to get out of the center and see the other hoods such as The Pijp, Oostenburg and Overtoom steet area. We usually stay in airbnb's in the Overtoom area as its more a "locals" area while the city center is full of tourists. The Jordann (the canal zone) as others have said is a very nice area and there are lots of small hotels in that hood but they are hidden and don't have much signage so its easy to not notice them.

Stayed at the Pulitzer and also the Andaz. Loved them both. Super nice hotels and centrally located.

Take the tram if your destination is too far to walk.

Go see the Banksy exhibit at MoCo. Next to the Van Gogh Museum and the rijksmuseum.

Eat pickled herring from a herring stall.

Space cakes are overrated- there must be better edibles. If you smoke, make sure you buy a “pure” joint (not half tobacco).

7 days in Amsterdam in January is probably too much. Strongly recommend some side trips — even a couple of nights in another city. Figure out where you want to go and take a train. Belgium is right next door. Germany, Paris and London are 3-4 hours away. You don’t want to go too far as you will suck up all your time transiting. And these other cities are worth more than a day or two. I’m just saying it’s possible, so worth your while to look for somewhere else close by to check out.