sGravenmoer,Nederlands

Ganga

paddyrg,the only problem is we live in the North East and are therefor limited to location availability,the nearest destinations are Amsterdam or Rotterdam.The nearest big city/town is Eindhoven and allthough we can get a city break there the flights are about 11 hours ( 1 hur plus to Amsterdam then an 8 hour plus to wait for a connecting flight ) and the same on the return journey.Will check and see if we can do it from another Airport but do not really want to turn this into a long trek if we can help it.

Thanks Ganga

owlet

eDicky wrote: »

The normal OV-chipkaart costs at least €7 for the card itself, non-refundable. It can be reloaded with credit as needed and is valid for several years, so good for future trips, useable by anyone. I'm not sure how the temporary card works.

All ticket machines, signs and information on Dutch public transport have English available, and all operatives speak English, often better than many Brits.

There are two types of OV-Chipkaart - one is personal with photo etc on and the other is anonymous - no personal info.

Hubby & I have anonymous ones. We renewed ours a couple of years ago but can't remember how much they cost. My daughter lived out yhere and has a personal one.

You can top up at the machines or ticket offices at the train stations. We found it easier to use the ticket office.

As previously said, you need a minimum €20 to travel on the train & less for the bus.

You just have to remember to check in at the start of your journey and check out at the end. It's easy on the bus because generally you enter the bus at the front and exit in the middle & the swipe points are obvious.
It's not always so obvious on the trains. The posts to check /out are sometimes at the entrance to the platforms and sometimes on the platforms themselves. Last time we were at Schipol, we went to the platform & the posts had been taken away and moved to the main concourse, so we had to quickly leg it back up - check in- and run back down to the platform again.

Public transport & the Chipkaart really is the most efficient way to get around though.

pogofish

s'Hertogenbosch is a fairly popular holiday town within Holland, so it ought to be possible to get packages there and I've had good value 4-night break packages to Eindhoven before for other events when I didn't want to stay with my relatives.

John259

Ganga wrote: »

then an 8 hour plus to wait for a connecting flight

Wouldn't it be much quicker to get a train from Schiphol, to Breda for example?

Ganga

Wouldn't it be much quicker to get a train from Schiphol, to Breda for example?

If we fly to Amsterdam from Newcastle we can get the train to Breda or to sHergonbosch then a bus to our final destination.
We will have to do a lot of research before we travel as we found a nice hotel in the town but it only does breakfast so we will have to make sure there are restaraunts in the town so we can eat at night.
Thanks to every body who has given information it really helps.

Ganga:T

John259

Ganga wrote: »

we will have to make sure there are restaraunts in the town

Google Maps shows some:
https://goo.gl/maps/UzQXk9KQag92
You can see how many stars they got in reviews, and drop into StreetView mode to look at the buildings and their surroundings.

ps Have you discovered the NS site (Nederlandse Spoorwegen / Dutch Railways)?
http://www.ns.nl/en