Budget Traveller

Flying to Holland? Ready to go? Reading this post before departure!

About the Airport – Schiphol (AMS)

Holland is a small country, it has only one international airport, Schiphol in Amsterdam, this one here is the main gateway to and from the Netherlands, it is also one of the Europe’s busiest airports.

Schiphol airport consists of three parts. The Airport Plaza - Schiphol Plaza, Arrival Hall and the Departure Hall

Schiphol Plaza, not only a range of shopping centres, a wide range of cafes, fast food, snack shops and lots of flower shops. Please Note that Schiphol Plaza is an indoor square, there is an outdoor plaza after this one, where the airport buses (mainly to the outskirts of Amsterdam and other cities, towns band bus), hotel Shuttle Bus, Taxis.

Arrival Hall consists of three parts; Arrival 1 to for the flights from Schengen states, there is no Passport Control. Arrival 2 and 3 are for the flights from non-Schengen area, Arrival 2 mainly for European’s Non-Schengen arrived (e.g. UK), and Arrival 3 is for the major international arrival areas. Each of the arrival halls has the transfer desks, which is very convenient for you to make the transfer procedures, and you will be told which departure hall you will need to go.

Departure Hall also consists of three parts, generally with the Arrival Hall of the district should be relative. In addition to the major airlines Check in counters, almost all the airlines are equipped with ticketing counters next to their check in desks. Netherlands and many European travel agencies counters can also be found here. Through security checks, you are now in a massive duty-free shopping area, See by Fly the airport duty-free shops often have special offers for sale, try your luck there!

Airport traffic

Schiphol to the centre of Amsterdam and other Dutch towns is very convenient; the most rapid means of public transport is the train. You can find the timetables and fares for all domestic trains and international train services at http://www.ns.nl/,

You can purchase the tickets at the self-ticket machines or at counters (0.50 Euro fee) by cards or cash. Remember to buy tickets before you travel, the fine for travelling without a valid tickets is 35 Euro.

Netherlands Taxis are very expensive, from the airport to the centre of Amsterdam, a short 20-minute journey costs at least 40 Euros.

Luggage storage

There are automatic luggage storage in each lounge in the airport and next to the exit of Arrival 3, the prices are vary between 4-9 Euro for every 24 hours, depending on the size of storage shelves.