Transport and the shape of the city in Amsterdam

Public transport and paying for it

GVB runs the trams, metro and buses in the city, NS runs the trains, and the two are integrated but priced separately. You can tap in and out with a contactless bank card or phone through OVpay, or use an OV-chipkaart, which is still what season tickets and discount subscriptions sit on. Tapping out matters as much as tapping in — forget it and you are charged the maximum fare.

• OVpay works with a contactless card; the anonymous OV-chipkaart is still useful for guests.
• A personal OV-chipkaart is needed for most subscriptions and discount products.
• Employers frequently reimburse commuting costs — ask before buying an annual pass.

Cycling, properly

The bicycle is the default mode, not a lifestyle choice, and the infrastructure assumes competence: signal, keep right, and do not stop in a cycle lane. Bike theft is endemic, so buy second-hand rather than new, use two locks including one through the frame to something fixed, and expect to lose one eventually. Public transport hubs have huge guarded parking facilities, and OV-fiets rental bikes at stations are the cheapest way to cover the last mile out of town.

• Two locks, one of them a chain to a fixed object. A ring lock alone is not enough.
• Lights are legally required after dark and are actively fined.
• OV-fiets hire is linked to a personal OV-chipkaart, so set that up first.

Cars, parking and the low-emission rules

Street parking inside the ring is metered at high hourly rates and resident permits are rationed by waiting list, which in the busiest districts is long. The city also runs an environmental zone that excludes older diesel vehicles and is being tightened on a published schedule. Importing a car means registering it with the RDW and, usually, paying vehicle tax on it — check both before shipping anything.

Schiphol and getting out

Schiphol is fifteen to twenty minutes by direct train from Amsterdam Centraal and also has fast links to the south of the city, which makes living near Zuid or Amstelveen easy for frequent flyers. Intercity trains reach Rotterdam, Utrecht and The Hague in well under an hour, and international services run to Brussels, Paris, London and Germany from Centraal. The airport is busy enough that queues, not travel time, are the variable to plan around.