Getting to Amsterdam: By plane

Full Amsterdam Travel Guide »    Amsterdam Interactive Map »    Print This Article »

Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (IATA: AMS) (ICAO: EHAM) www.schiphol.nl/index_en.html is one of the busiest airports in the world, situated 15 km south-west of the city. Jet2.com www.jet2.com, Easyjet www.easyjet.com, WizzAir www.wizzair.com and other low-cost carriers serve Schiphol, providing a fairly economical way to city-hop to Amsterdam from other spots in Europe. As Amsterdam is a very popular destination, the cheapest tickets may be gone, and in that case a traditional carrier might be cheaper. So it pays to check a number of airlines before booking, to get the best deal. The national carrier for the Netherlands is KLM www.klm.com, now merged with Air France. With partner Delta Air Lines www.delta.com they offer worldwide connections. The US, Asia and Europe are particularly well served at Schiphol.

For very frequent visitors to Amsterdam (6 or more times a year) it may pay to invest in a Privium www.privium.com card. This is available to EU passport holders only, but allows you to cut the queues at passport control. Instead of showing your passport you go to a special lane with an iris scanner, this will save a significant amount of time if the passport lines are long. Cost is currently €119 + €65 for a partner.

When leaving Amsterdam, give yourself enough time to get to your plane and through security (especially when flying to the United States)! Schiphol is a large airport - be there at least one hour in advance. If you have time to kill, drop into the Rijksmuseum's Schiphol branch, between E and F Pier (non-Schengen area airside), which is free and open 7AM-11PM daily.

From Schiphol there is a direct train www.ns.nl/cs/Satellite/travellers to Amsterdam Central Station, for €3.80 (or €7.00 for same-day return), in 20 minutes. Buy the ticket from the machine (yellow with blue writing); if you purchase your ticket at the counter you will pay €0.50 extra. Not all machines accept credit or debit cards. The train station at Schiphol is located underground, under the main airport hall; trains to Amsterdam Central Station usually run from platform 3.

A new national ticketing system is in the process of being introduced, based on a contactless chipcard, which is currently valid in Amsterdam's public transport system and nationwide in the train. A train journey from Schiphol to Amsterdam is slightly cheaper using this card, €3.50, but it might not be interesting for tourists unless you already own one: a card costs €7.50, and you have to have at least €20 on it to be able to travel by train. The old system will be used in conjunction for the foreseeable future. See the section in the Netherlands article.

There are 4 to 5 trains per hour between Schiphol and Amsterdam in peak times. Trains run all night, although between 1AM and 5AM only once an hour. The price and duration of the journey are the same as during the day.

Watch out for pick-pockets and baggage thieves: a common trick is a knock on your window to distract you, so that an accomplice can steal your luggage or laptop. Another one is to have an accomplice jam the doors and then to steal your luggage. The thief jumps out and the door immediately closes, making it impossible to catch them. However, in recent years, railway police have made a great effort to reduce this sort of crime; nowadays it is at 'normal', big-city like levels.

If you are desperately trying to save money or are staying near Leidseplein, you could use local transport from Schiphol to central Amsterdam, provided that you use a strippenkaart (see below). A trip takes about thirty minutes and leads directly to the south-west of the centre of Amsterdam (namely Museumplein and Leidseplein). The price depends on which bus you take: on local bus 197 the trip would cost you 6 strippen, that's €2.92 on a 15 strippenkaart, or €4.80 on board; on "interliner" bus 370 (an express bus, although in this case the local bus is equally fast) you pay €3.60.

Bus 197 currently runs every 15 minutes for most of the day, daily from 5:01AM till midnight; bus 370 runs every hour during the day and every 30 minutes during peak hours. From midnight till 5AM, night buses run to and from the airport. If you don't want to change buses, take either night bus N97 or N72 (both €3.50). These buses run once an hour, within about 15 minutes of each other unfortunately.

Taxis from Schiphol are expensive and priced unexpectedly. You pay around €7.50 (as of Oct 08) as a minimum charge and that includes the first two kilometers. Then the meter starts racing. The ride costs about €40-50 to go to, say, the Leidseplein. Depending on the time of day and traffic levels, it could take only 25 minutes. If you're unlucky, it could take twice as long. Choose the nicest cab as that driver is more likely to be reputable. You don't have to pick the first taxi in line.

The Connexxion Hotel Shuttle www.schipholhotelshuttle.nl serves over 100 city center hotels, with 8-seater shared van departures about every 30 minutes between 6 AM and 9 PM, cost to most city center destinations €14.50/22.50 one-way/return -- more convenient than the train if you have heavy luggage and still cheaper than a taxi. Buses depart from platform A7 and can be reserved for the trip back from +31-38-3394741.

If you plan to rent a car for the duration of your stay, Schiphol has several car rental companies on site www.schiphol.nl/Transport/AccessibilityTransport/CarRental.htm. Typical opening hours are 06:30 to 23:00 daily (some are open longer, 06:00-23:30). The car rental desk can be found in Schiphol Plaza, on the same level as the arrival halls. The A4 motorway leads straight from Schiphol to the Amsterdam ring road A10, in about 10 minutes.

If you decided to bring your bicycle on the plane with you, there is a 15-kilometer sign-posted bike route from the airport to Amsterdam. Turn right as you leave the airport terminal: the cycle path starts about 200 metres down the road. There is a map of the cycle paths around Schiphol available on this PDF (green lines are cycle paths).

Using airports other than Schiphol could prove cheaper in some cases, as some budget airlines fly to Eindhoven and Rotterdam Airports. Then buses and trains can be used to get to Amsterdam. Renting a car is also an option. A taxi is not advisable, from Rotterdam to Amsterdam a taxi would cost €130, and from Eindhoven even more.

From Eindhoven Airport (IATA: EIN, ICAO: EHEH) www.eindhovenairport.com take a local bus (Hermes bus 401, duration about 25 minutes, frequency about four times per hour, €3.20 on board or €1.95 using a 15 strippenkaart) to the train station, from there take a train to Amsterdam (duration 1:20 hour, frequency four times per hour, single €17.50). Alternatively, take the express bus directly from the airport to Amsterdam central station, which takes 2:15 hours. This service only goes 3 to 4 times per day; see their website for a schedule. The ticket price is €26 for a single or €42 for a return www.airexpressbus.com/index.php?languageid=EN.

From Rotterdam Airport (IATA: RTM, ICAO: EHRD) www.rotterdam-airport.nl/en/Homepage ("Zestienhoven") take a city bus (RET "airport shuttle" bus 33, duration 20 minutes, frequency every 10-20 minutes, €2.40 on board or €1.46 using a 15 strippenkaart) to Rotterdam Centraal train station, from there take a train to Amsterdam (duration about an hour, frequency every 10-20 minutes, single €13.30).

Schiphol airport is 11km from the centre of Amsterdam in a straight line, Rotterdam is 57km and Eindhoven is 107km. Other airports that could possibly be used are:

• Groningen Airport Eelde (142km) (IATA: GRQ, ICAO: EHGG) www.groningenairporteelde.nl/index.cfm?language=en
• Maastricht Aachen Airport (173km) (IATA: MST, ICAO: EHBK) www.maa.nl/en
• Weeze Airport in Germany (121km) (IATA: NRN, ICAO: EDLV) www.airport-weeze.de/index.php?lang=en
• Antwerp International Airport in Belgium (135km) (IATA: ANR, ICAO: EBAW) www.antwerp-airport.be/contentpage_en.php
• Brussels Airport in Belgium (167km) (IATA: BRU, ICAO: EBBR) www.brusselsairport.be/en