Amsterdam in 24 hours

alex397 · 21 Jul 2018

I've travelling to Amsterdam on Monday on Eurostar, and flying back the following day with BA to Gatwick.

I was wondering what the best things for me to focus my time on in Amsterdam in such a short period.
I will definitely be looking around Centraal, have a tram ride, and the free ferry. Is there anything I should try and see while i'm there? Any interesting tram lines, metro lines, short rail trips? Or even anything interesting with buses?
I usually try and find old rolling stock, or unique infrastructure, interesting routes etc. My guess is that Amsterdam has a very modern transport system!

Thanks

RailUK Forums

route101 · 21 Jul 2018

There line 51 of the metro which runs on tram tracks in the southern part . The trams use the lower platforms and the metro the higher ones.

MisterT · 21 Jul 2018

Not old, but the new North - South metro line has officially been opened this morning and will be in service from tomorrow. Might be worth a ride.

InterCity:125 · 21 Jul 2018

You could try this website, I can’t find the English version though.

https://www.snerttram.nl/

gazthomas · 21 Jul 2018

Non rail related but the Anne Frank and Heineken museums are worth visiting. Go in that order!

ASharpe · 21 Jul 2018

Not really transport related and might not be your thing but when me and the wife had 24 hours in Amsterdam while inter-railing we went to Zaanse Schans and was one of our favourite parts of the trip. Get the train to Zaandijk and it's about a 30 minute walk.

farci · 21 Jul 2018

gazthomas said:
Non rail related but the Anne Frank and Heineken museums are worth visiting. Go in that order!

...but buy your tickets online to avoid the queues

Gadget88 · 22 Jul 2018

I did Amsterdam in day seen the central square and Madame Tussauds and walked round all the cancels and went to see the football stadium.

bnm · 22 Jul 2018

You could start your day in a 'coffeeshop'. Sampling some of the excellent natural products.

Though you may find you lack motivation to do anything else after that. And feel peckish.

InterCity:125 · 22 Jul 2018

Gadget88 said:
I did Amsterdam in day seen the central square and Madame Tussauds and walked round all the cancels and went to see the football stadium.

I’m presuming you mean canals.
Cancellations are what you find at British stations, it’s not worth going to amosterdam for them!

radamfi · 22 Jul 2018

There is some spectacular bus infrastructure in the suburbs of Amsterdam, particularly on the 300 route between Amstelveen and Haarlem, which is the longest dedicated busway in Europe.

The majority of routes serving Schiphol airport are now run by electric artics, charged by pantograph, and you can see the pantograph charging at Schiphol Noord bus station, north of the airport and at P30 south of the airport.

I would recommend the OVinfo app for transport information in the Netherlands.

InterCity:125 · 22 Jul 2018

radamfi said:
The majority of routes serving Schiphol airport are now run by electric artics, charged by pantograph, and you can see the pantograph charging at Schiphol Noord bus station, north of the airport and at P30 south of the airport.

A bit like a trolley bus?

radamfi · 22 Jul 2018

InterCity:125 said:
A bit like a trolley bus?

They are battery powered and stop off for recharging every few hours at certain locations. I filmed the raising and lowering of the pantograph on a recent visit

alex397 · 22 Jul 2018

route101 said:
There line 51 of the metro which runs on tram tracks in the southern part . The trams use the lower platforms and the metro the higher ones.

Thanks for this. I shall give it a go.

MisterT said:
Not old, but the new North - South metro line has officially been opened this morning and will be in service from tomorrow. Might be worth a ride.

Just in time for me! Thanks

InterCity:125 said:
You could try this website, I can’t find the English version though.

https://www.snerttram.nl/

I’ve always wanted to go on one of these private hire trams - look like a great evening out.

gazthomas said:
Non rail related but the Anne Frank and Heineken museums are worth visiting. Go in that order!

Yes I’ve considered this, particularly Anne Franks house as I’m very into that period of history.

asharpe said:
Not really transport related and might not be your thing but when me and the wife had 24 hours in Amsterdam while inter-railing we went to Zaanse Schans and was one of our favourite parts of the trip. Get the train to Zaandijk and it's about a 30 minute walk.

Just looked that up online - looks beautiful. I might do that if I have enough time.

farci said:
...but buy your tickets online to avoid the queues

Thanks for your tip! I’ve heard Anne Franks house get some 1000 visitors a day!

bnm said:
You could start your day in a 'coffeeshop'. Sampling some of the excellent natural products.

Though you may find you lack motivation to do anything else after that. And feel peckish.

Haha, it is tempting, but I don’t really want to go through airport security with a stench of cannabis .

radamfi said:
There is some spectacular bus infrastructure in the suburbs of Amsterdam, particularly on the 300 route between Amstelveen and Haarlem, which is the longest dedicated busway in Europe.

The majority of routes serving Schiphol airport are now run by electric artics, charged by pantograph, and you can see the pantograph charging at Schiphol Noord bus station, north of the airport and at P30 south of the airport.

I would recommend the OVinfo app for transport information in the Netherlands.

I shall try and track that route down , and download that app. Thanks!

TheAlbanach_ · 23 Jul 2018

Oh and for stuff to do, if you like beer visit Brouwerij 't Ij, it's in a windmill and does really good beer, you can get a wee tester of each too in small glasses, I reccomemd that! Take a boat trip around the canals, I use Rederij Kooij which is at Oude Turfmarkt, it's only 11€ for a tour (think that's the cheapest one there is). Or if you would like to explore the canals at your own pace, hire a boat from Sloepdelen. They have electric boats that are really easy to use, and it's very enjoyable to just sail about for a couple hours. As others have said, the Heineken Experience is a must do too! Hope you enjoy it when you're there!

radamfi · 23 Jul 2018

It might be worth mentioning that the Amsterdam public transport network has been changed since yesterday when the new metro line opened. For example, GVB no longer run a direct bus from north of the river to the city centre and you now have to change at one of the new metro stations, although some longer distance EBS buses to towns north of Amsterdam will still run through the tunnel to Centraal Station.

If this happened in Britain, people would be in uproar and some people on here would call that "enforced interchange" and point to a similar policy in north east England a long time ago where buses were terminated at Gateshead and people wanting Newcastle city centre had to change onto the newly opened Tyne & Wear Metro. Hopefully Amsterdammers understand the bigger picture and don't have a problem with changing onto the metro.

AlexNL · 23 Jul 2018

There are plenty of Amsterdammers who complain about the loss of "their" direct tram or direct bus route to the city centre. Give it some time, they'll have to embrace the metro.

ChiefPlanner · 23 Jul 2018

There is plenty of superb walking you can do around the Jordaan area - the 7 Bridges , the Browersgracht etc which is uplifting.

The developing dockland areas - the parks , the Botanic Garden , the Museuem of the Resistance. etc

Just a bit hard on the feet , so wear proper shoes !

alex397 · 24 Jul 2018

Have now got back from my 27 hour visit to Amsterdam.

An excellent city, if rather seedy. It's not common to see such a well preserved city centre on that scale, and the countless canals and green streets really add well to the atmosphere. Plenty of excellent traditional and also modern pubs too. Went to the Amsterdam City Museum which was excellent. Also the ferry to the north side. Did lots of walking in the city, and had a canal cruise which is a really laid back way to see the city.

In terms of the transport, the city network was clean, efficient, frequent, and easy to understand the routes. Interesting to note that such a modern transport network still produce paper network maps, including buses, which I made the most of.
The tickets could possibly have been made clearer, and I did forget to 'tap out' with my day chipkaarte a few times. I'm also stil not sure if I can use that ticket on the other companies bus routes in the city. I should point out that I am confused easily, and the heat probably didn't help!

Trams were very modern, but some older types (step entrance with low floor middle) still work route 24. Metro also very modern, and I sampled the brand new North-South route. Older types can be found on the Snelltram metro route M51.
In the heat, the Metro was a welcome relief to the roasting trams and buses. The trams have few opening windows, and I'm not aware if they have air con or not. The buses mostly had no opening windows, and poor air con. It really wasn't a pleasant experience!

I was also very satisfied with the Eurostar, which ran to time. A smooth quiet comfortable ride on an e320. A much nicer experience than my return BA flight to Gatwick, even if it was run well with good staff. A shame the return journey issue has not been sorted out yet - my train might have been full instead!

Groningen · 25 Jul 2018

https://www.snerttram.nl/ is Rotterdam and not Amsterdam.

mushroomchow · 26 Jul 2018

radamfi said:
They are battery powered and stop off for recharging every few hours at certain locations. I filmed the raising and lowering of the pantograph on a recent visit

That's nifty - IIRC, there are trams using a similar system at tram stops in Sevilla, though their range is shorter between juice stops.

Gadget88 · 27 Jul 2018

I’m surprised many people choose to fly back due to the return leg I’ve travelled Thalys and they are very good so a change of train going home is a perfectly good option.

AlexNL · 27 Jul 2018

Gadget88 said:
I’m surprised many people choose to fly back due to the return leg

But it is still a break of journey, and now you're getting the security hassle halfway through the journey. This costs time and is a disruption of the journey experience itself.

If you're going to have to deal with that security hassle anyway, you might as well take the plane.

Gadget88 · 27 Jul 2018

AlexNL said:
But it is still a break of journey, and now you're getting the security hassle halfway through the journey. This costs time and is a disruption of the journey experience itself.

If you're going to have to deal with that security hassle anyway, you might as well take the plane.

They will still have to go through security at Amsterdam in the future and it’s only one leg the Brussels stop off.

A few years back I would never have thought of swapping trains to get over Europe but I’ve been to a few places with Thalys and found it quite good. I stayed overnight before my connection though.

Gadget88 · 27 Jul 2018

I believe people use to do the change of trains journey in the past I never thought of getting the train to Amsterdam years back but it’s good that it’s a good option now.

Is there no update when the return leg will be sorted?

AlexNL · 28 Jul 2018

Gadget88 said:
They will still have to go through security at Amsterdam in the future and it’s only one leg the Brussels stop off.

Yes, but then it's at the beginning of your journey and not halfway through.

A few years back I would never have thought of swapping trains to get over Europe but I’ve been to a few places with Thalys and found it quite good. I stayed overnight before my connection though.

Gadget88 said:
I believe people use to do the change of trains journey in the past I never thought of getting the train to Amsterdam years back but it’s good that it’s a good option now.

It's also a mindset thing of course.

I think it's good that Eurostar now operate direct services, as this gives them the freedom to set their own prices. You can get London to Amsterdam for as little as EUR 40 on their direct services, but for the return part you'll have to shell out more as Thalys get a part of the ticket price.

Is there no update when the return leg will be sorted?

Mid 2020 as far as I'm aware.

driver9000 · 29 Jul 2018

I did Amsterdam and back in a single day last year and stated in the Amsterdam area. We took a trip out to Zandvoort aan Zee through Haarlem station which I'm told has the longest roof in The Netherlands. Zandvoort services pass the works at Haarlem too. Sloterdijk station has a near constant procession of loco hauled Intercity services (mainly TRAXX locos) and TGV Thalys services. The lower level of Sloterdijk station is also busy. Muiderpoort station was good for ECS services off the Breda/Brussels services going to Watergraafsmeer to turn back formed of NS and SNCB stock and has ICE services to/from Frankfurt passing through.

Definitely worth visiting again to explore Holland more.

Julia · 30 Jul 2018

If you're after the older trams, they're concentrated on lines 16 and 24 (single-ended) and 5 (double-ended).

Groningen · 3 Aug 2018

There seems to be changes to the material of trams on several lines in Amsterdam. You forget that at station Amsterdam Science Park is a major, major railroadyard.

Amsterdam in 24 hours

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