Amsterdam Information

 Welcome to Amsterdam!

Schiphol is the name of the Amsterdam Airport. It is some 20 minutes from Amsterdam Centre by train. The best way of getting to Amsterdam from the airport is by train. There is a train station located at the airport Schiphol. There are luggage carriers, lifts and escalators all over the place. From the airport terminal exit you can get to the train station with a maximum of 10 minutes walk. Ask for the train Station or the Meeting Point (huge Red and White Cubes) which is located at the main Train Station hall. The Meeting Point is also the place to be if somebody is expecting you up at the airport.

There are several easy to operate Machines (English) to buy your train ticket to Amsterdam. But you can always go to the ticket sale point around the Meeting Point to buy your tickets. The machines probably accept credit cards, but make sure you have some Euros just in case. A one way Second Class ticket to Amsterdam Central Station costs around 4:00 Euros.

Note that there are several train stations in Amsterdam. Make sure you take the train to Amsterdam Central Station (CS) unless you have directions from your hotel site that suggest your get there through another train station. From Amsterdam Central Station follow the directions of the hotel. There is a sophisticated network of Busses, Streetcars (Tram) and Metro in Amsterdam. You can buy your tickets from the bus/tram driver but if you are staying for a couple of days, you better buy a “Strippen-Card” which is valid for all public transports in Holland. A normal size “Strippen Card” has 15 Strips and is good for some 7 public Transport journeys and costs around 7 Euros.

Of course there are also lots of cabs available.

Useful Websites:

• http://www.schiphol.nl (Amsterdam Airport)
• http://www.ns.nl (Trains in Holland)
• http://www.gvb.nl (Public Transport Network of Amsterdam)

Where to sleep?

I have chosen a few hotels, which are in the centre of Amsterdam, close to the Amsterdam Central Station, the Dam, and Rembrand Square and not far from each other so that people staying in different hotels can visit Amsterdam together.

StayOkay Amsterddam Doelen (**)
http://www.stayokay.com/index.php?pageID=3207&hostelID=356017

Hotel Le Coin (***)
Rooms have kitchen.   http://www.lecoin.nl/frames/index.html

Albus Grand Hotel Amsterdam (***)
http://www.albusgrandhotel.com/?l1=home&la=nl

Hotel Jolly (****)
http://www.jollyhotels.nl/index.php?lang=EN&PHPSESSID=ac0de135426574d3d221695a5213fe0f

Hotel de L’Europe (****)
http://www.leurope.nl/

More hotels in the center of Amsterdam:
This page is in Dutch, but if you click on the hotel websites you will get English Information:
http://www.detelefoongids.nl/bg/pc-1012/kw-hotel/1/

What to visit

You can go for a sight seeing in Amsterdam or take an excursion to The Hague and Delft.

In Amsterdam you can book a guided tour from Asia Compass (http://www.asiacompass.nl) that will take you to the following spots:

Other tours are also available on the site.

More tourist information to be found in http://www.iamsterdam.nl (Tourist Card for Public Transport, Museums, etc.)

The Hague is the Government and the Queen Seat city in Holland.  Highlights are the Government building, Piece Palace, Modurodam (miniatures of all famous buildings in Holland) and a nice beach resort with a cosy boulevard (like San Sebastian) and lots of restaurants.  There is a small museum on Escher in The Hague too.  Please click here to know more about this museum.

Delft is a small touristy city famous for its Potteries (Delft Blue) and cosy city centre. The city is also famous for its wildly known technical university. The university is among others famous for its civil department that provides engineers and techniques to help several countries in water and land battles.

This is a typical excursion to these two cities (The Escher Museum is not included):

10:00               Depart from Amsterdam Centre towards Delft
11:00               Visit Delft Blue Pottery Factory
12:30               Visit delft centre and lunch
14:00               Depart from Delft to The Hague
18:00               Visiting Scheveningen Boulevard and dining
21:00               Depart from The Hague to Amsterdam

Except for the visit of Escher museum in The Hague, all other visits belong to standard tours of Asia Compass operator.

Complete overview of these tours and other alternatives can be seen here:

http://www.asiacompass.nl/default.asp?country=UK&spcat=1
http://www.denhaag.nl
http://www.delft.nl

From Amsterdam to Leeuwarden

The distance between Amsterdam and Leeuwarden is 140 Kilometres. With the Train it takes some 2.5 hours. You probably need to change train either in Amersfoort or Hilversum cities. Complete schedules are available at http://www.ns.nl (English). This is an example of a journey and some alternative departure times on 22 July 2008.