amsterdam airport into the city?

mikeouk

ive been to amsterdam 3 times before but it was a while ago so need some advice.
im flying back from atlanta with klm to manchester and have a 6 hour lay over in amsterdam. Ill have my 8yo son with me, so rather than sit in the airport i thought it would be fun to take him into amsterdam for a few hours. I know theres a train from the airport into the city, but can anyone give me a link to time tables and prices please. Also, how long is the journey, i seem to remember maybe 20mins? any ideas of what to do for a few hours, i was thinking a canal trip? anyone know where i can find details of that?

Tojo_Ralph

The trains run to and from approx every 10 mins, the cost is approx £4 each way and the journey time approx 20 mins.

http://www.ns.nl/cs/Satellite/travellers

isplumm

mikeouk wrote: »

ive been to amsterdam 3 times before but it was a while ago so need some advice.
im flying back from atlanta with klm to manchester and have a 6 hour lay over in amsterdam. Ill have my 8yo son with me, so rather than sit in the airport i thought it would be fun to take him into amsterdam for a few hours. I know theres a train from the airport into the city, but can anyone give me a link to time tables and prices please. Also, how long is the journey, i seem to remember maybe 20mins? any ideas of what to do for a few hours, i was thinking a canal trip? anyone know where i can find details of that?

6 hours is not that long you know .... will you have luggage?

Very tight .... Mark

PBA

Agree with Plum, remember that if you leave the airport you'll have to clear security when you get back, so you'll need to be back at the airport 2 hrs or so before the flight to Manchester. You'll maybe be able to get 3 hours in Amsterdam, if that.

Cumbrian_Male

If you do go then I would recommend Nemo.

Trains are frequent and about €3.60 from memory, was Feb. when I was last over.

BritRael

If you do go (it's very tight), make sure you get on the Amsterdam CS (Central Station) train. You can get a canal trip right ouside CS. There are loads of trains that have 'Amsterdam' on them but are not going where you want to go.

lfc321

Completely disagree with the comments that this is tight. If you have six hours (providing your first plane comes in on time) then you have plenty of time.

You should be at Centraal Station in an hour from the plane door. You'll have 2-3 hours to mooch around and then back on the train to the airport. Certainly beats spending 6 hours in an airport with an 8-year old.

Assuming your luggage is checked through you would be fine getting back to Schipol 90 mins (or even an hour) before your onward flight. No problem.

Voyager2002

I so agree with #7: everything will be very easy. Security is efficient and reasonably fast.

The railway station is attached to the airport: you can buy tickets from a person there, but that costs a little more than buying from a machine. Either way, they accept credit cards.

wontfallforit

In line with what others have said, the train from Schiphol runs frequently into Amsterdam, and takes less than 20 minutes.

HOWEVER, just a little warning. Last time I was in Amsterdam (very recently), there were no trains running from Amsterdam Centraal to Schiphol on our day of return. Rather, we had to take a train to Amsterdam Sloterdijk, and take a bus from there to Schiphol.

There were some kind of engineering works going on, and as all of the signage was in Dutch (unusually, no English equivalents had been posted), I was unable to work out exactly what had happened, or how long it'd last. You don't say when you're travelling? If it's in November, I'd exercise caution, from the little bits of info I could pick up from the Dutch signs.

As with most things in The Netherlands, the whole process was pretty quick and efficient, but nowhere near as easy or comfortable as getting just one train. Also, cramming onto the bus at Sloterdijk was a bit of a free for all!

You can always take a taxi if you really want to kill some time in Amsterdam, but it is fairly expensive (about 35-40 Euros each way, I think).

Canal trips are a good option, you can take a circular trip of the entire city that takes about 60-90 minutes, at the cost of around 9-10 Euros each. No pre-booking is required, you literally hop on a canal (there's a platform and an office just near Centraal Station). I believe that several trips run per hour. Conveniently, you can also get back off at your starting point, i.e. the train station.

As you're probably aware, there aren't many other child-friendly attractions in the immediate vicinity of Centraal Station :rotfl:

Saying that, I don't have kids, so maybe I've not been looking hard enough.

Haarlem

Engineering work affecting Schipol is usually on a Sunday. Ask at the station, plenty of help speaking English

Not all machines take credit cards. It will tell you on the screen. On Dutch Railways only Maestro debit cards are accepted.

The public has access to the roof, which gives a good view of all that is happening on the airport. There is also a cafe up there. Might be an idea to spend an hour if time ends up being tight to get to the city.

dickydonkin

I have used Schipol many times and I have to state that 6 hours can be eaten up very quickly. I am assuming you have a through ticket so luggage is not an issue.

By the time you deplane, go through immigration, get into Amsterdam and return to the airport (approx 1 hour train time for return journey depending on stops) and go through security (can be very very busy at times) the time will be eaten up very quickly. Distances between gates can also be very long.

Bear in mind that you will have to be at your departure gate for the MAN flight in reasonable time before it closes or you will be refused boarding, the 6 hours you have are somewhat reduced - and that is assuming your plane arrrives into AMS on time.

Why not consider paying entry into one of the lounges (Menzies is OK). It will be more relaxing and less hassle I am sure. If you take this option, check that kids are allowed in.