T
hankfully, you are in one of those cities where it is better to walk and see the most of it. The air is fresh and salty, marking Amsterdam as a port city. With some cold weather it has this sting there, that makes you wish for something warm even in warm months of the year.
But there will be no outstanding and breath-taking views without these canals. And where there is a lot of water there is some humidity.
Most of the attractions are situated in the old parts of the town. When you look at the map you can see a fan-shaped part of the city, made of semi-circular lines of the canals. This is where all the good stuff is. This is where the first village was situated and from where it started to grow. On the outskirts of this fan there is the rest – like the Van Gogh Museum or the Albert’s Market.
But as you get there, your problems with “getting somewhere” vanish.
The old Amsterdam is no place for public transport – the tram lines go only at certain streets. So, you have your feet there, cars and bicycles – do not forget you are in a bicycle city. No problems with renting one.
As soon as you get out of the old quarters you start to see buses and more trams. Let us not forget the metro, which is not giant but very useful.
So basically, you have feet (/tram) area, which has buses and trams stops at the outskirts. They will take you further away to your hotel or to the metro/train lines. And they will take you away from Amsterdam. Perfect balance.
We will go through all the options one by one, but we have to start with the ticket options.
Amsterdam All-in-one Card
The absolute must-know here is the Amsterdam Travel Ticket. It is one of these one-card-many-possibilities things. In Amsterdam in serves to use the public transport within the city (GVB) – metro, buses and transport to/from the airport. It may be useful for you if you want everything contained in one object and not too many papers to look after.
It is worth noting that having it allows you to use the Sprinter out and in tot the airport on your way back, as well as the Connexxion busses. This means that as you arrive there and buy this card you get the full deal.
You can buy it for various periods of time.
The fares are as follows
1 day – 17 €
2 day – 22,50 €
3 days – 28 €
Since a one-way ticket to/from the airport is around 5,50€ and a single fare for a bus/metro/tram is 3,20€ you can see, that the price is quite good.
Where do you get them?
At the airport – look for the yellow ticket machines in the lobby, information desks or small shops with newspapers there. If you bought it online – direct yourself wherever it is you were told, but it should be somewhere close to the main arrivals hall of the airport.
Lastly, there are little things to remember:
- You must always check-in/out of the vehicle, touching a special device designed for that.
- The ticket is for the day it is started to be used – not for 24 hours! A day starts at midnight and ends at 4 AM the next day (28 hours).
Our personal example was a two day trip to the city.
First time we took the train to Centraal, walked around (we were packed lightly), and we returned to our hotel in the evening. No public transport was used.
The second time was the same only we bought the ATT and used some trams and buses. We were returning on Monday – being still able to use the Amsterdam Travel Ticket since the flight was early in the morning.
As you can see you may need it or not, so make some plan.
The other ticket option is the single or day ticket from the Amsterdam Public Transport Company. They come second because you need to distinguish between different busses here.
Your new best friend will be the GVB ticket (OV chip card disposable ticket) – this is how the most common ticket in Amsterdam is called. GVB is the name for the public transport of this city, which includes busses, trams, and metro. You can use everything and switch between them as you like since the ticket is for a period of time and not for a specific number of a vehicle.
The exception in prices are:
- busses from Conexxion company or EBS company
- getting to the airport is possible only with GVB bus number 69. Neither metro nor tram goes there. Other options to get there can be found here.
Standard fares (GVB only):
Single ticket (60 minutes, GVB))– 3,20€
Single (90 minutes, GVB with Conexxion) – 6,50€
24 hours – 8€
48 hours – 13,50€
72 hours – 19€
96 hours – 24,50€
The children (4-11 years old) pay half price. Younger children travel free.
Important – this is a 1 hour, 90 minutes, 24 hours, etc period! If you scan your 1-day ticket at 2 PM it is valid until the next day, at the same time. Remember about scanning the chip as you enter or exit a vehicle. Even when you change from one to another.
A map should also be of use. Mine (below) shows only the lines within the city – here you have a link to a handy plan of all the public transport of Amsterdam.
I Amsterdam city card
I must note here one crucial thing. There exists in Amsterdam something called I Amsterdam City Card. You buy it for a period between 24 and 120 hours and it provides you with GVB (only) unlimited travel and access to 44 museums and attractions in Amsterdam. You can read more about it here, but for the purpose of this article you have the prices below:
Prices
24 hours – 65€
48 hours – 85€
72 hours – 105€
TIP As usual – plan a little before you go somewhere. At least in the “basics” limits – is it a leisure stroll or do you want to see some paying attractions.
Buses
As was stated – the local public transport is called GVB. They also provide the trams and metro in the city and a ticket provides you access to all of it.
There are numerous sites and apps to choose from if you are looking for some sort of a planner. Below you have some that I have found very useful:
- This link will get you a great map of GVB and Conexxion lines.
- You can also get a paper map at the airport or around Amsterdam.
- The recommended apps may be GVB app (the official one) or 9292ov (this one is for the Netherlands and not only Amsterdam).
Connexxion is another bus company, with more strategic locations and faster transportation. They mainly travel away from the city center – being a preferred means of transportation within the suburbs.
Their main ports of business are Amsterdam Centraal and Amsterdam Zuid stations. From there they go in different directions.
Unfortunately, there is no connection between Centraal and Schiphol, but the ones there suffice.
- 142, 170 and 172 go directly to Amsterdam Centraal station, but the other end is the Amstelveen region. They pass through Amsterdam Zuid.
- 142, 170 and 172 go directly to Amsterdam Centraal station, but the other end is the Amstelveen region. They pass through Amsterdam Zuid.- 397 and 341 starts at Schiphol. The first one stops not far from the Rijksmuseum and the second one finishes at Amsterdam Zuid.
Connexxion is slightly more expensive but has a handy connection with GVB busses in the form of a 90-minute single ticket. For any other distance, it is better to buy a ticket online, directly with them, under this link.
Tram lines
Trams are a definite winner if you want to choose your favorite public transport in Amsterdam. The connection is very good – they cover most of the city, they are quite fast, very nostalgic (for me at least) and they travel the roads that the bus or metro cannot.
Only from/to Amsterdam Centraal and passing through the old town you have:
- 13, 17 going through Jordaan
- 1, 2, 5 going in the direction of Rijaksmuseum and further
- 16, 24 takes you to Albertcuyp and you do not have to cross the no man’s land as I call it (this nice, but not an entertaining piece of the old town where there is absolutely nothing)
- 9 goes through the former Jewish quarter or the East part of the town
- 14 passes through from East to West, no Centraal
- And there is more, just check the map (link above)
In the subject of the hotel/hostel locations, you may really like tram 16, 1, and 2 passing close to Vondelpark. They travel to the West and the proximity of the Metro/Sprinter lines. There are some nice hostels there if you want a good connection to the airport.
7, 12, 13, 14, 17 do the same but slightly more to the North than Vondelpark. It all depends on where you have rented your room.
Metro lines
There are 5 lines in Amsterdam – word of notice is that none of them goes to Schiphol yet.
Metro circles the old town in some distance. The stations of interest for you may be Amsterdam Zuid (orange, green, blue) and Centraal (orange, blue, yellow, red). The closest you can get to the old town with the metro are the stations – Centraal, Rokin (blue) and Nieuwmarkt (orange, yellow, red).
You can see it more clearly on this schematic map above or in the Info Sheet.
You must remember
- You must always check-in/out of the vehicle, touching a special device designed for that. The tickets have a chip which provides information for any controller that may want to talk to you
- You can buy most of the tickets on-site, but you can always buy them online. The most popular means to pay on-site is the credit card. Normally you do not buy a ticket with the bus drivers.
- Tickets are for a specific period of time except for the Amsterdam Travel Card, which is for a period of day midnight – 4 AM the next day
- Children between 4-11 normally have a 50% discount. Under this age, they do not pay at all
- You cannot rent a bike with public transport tickets. For this, there are special companies or the I Amsterdam Card