3 Hour Layover at schippel, enough time to visit Amsterdam?
 

During March of 01' I'm traveling to Paric with a 3 hour layover at Schippel airport. Is that long enough to go visit Amsterdam. I took the train from Schippel in 87' and I do not remember the time frame from the airport to the city. Any imput would be helpful. <BR>Eric <BR>

Short answer: No. <BR> <BR>Long answer: It all depends on what you want to do. Catch a buzz at a coffee shop? Yeah, there's time. <BR>Take a canalboat tour? No. <BR>Museums? No. <BR>An Indonesian meal? Cutting it very close. <BR>A quick peek at the RLD? Sure.

Trains from Schiphol Airport to Amsterdam Central Station take 20 minutes and leave every 12 minutes. If you have 3 hours, it is possible to do a very quick tour of Amsterdam.

I'd agree with Bill and Sjoerd: you *could* do it, but it would have to be *veeery* quick. It would also depend a great deal on on how long it takes you to clear customs at Schiphol, etc. If you're flying in from the U.S., which I'm assuming you are if you're connecting in Amsterdam to get to Paris, it may well take you a good hour or more to get through customs. Schiphol isn't nearly as chaotic as, say, Heathrow, but it can get very busy. You might want to check out the airport information on the site at www.schiphol.nl. The "practical info" section has a nice map generator that can give you an advance idea of walking routes and how long it might take you to get through the airport. <BR> <BR>I would say you'd be cutting it fairly close; I can't imagine you'd have more than an hour in A'dam. (I've never yet deplaned, gotten to customs, cleared, etc., and made it out of an airport on an international flight less than one hour after I was scheduled to arrive.) But if all things are going smoothly, you might be able to snatch that hour.

Thank you for your input concerning my layover.

Gina, Eric will have his luggage through-checked to Paris, so he doesn't need to wait for his bags. I have arrived at Schiphol more than 100 times, and immigration + customs has never taken more than 10 minutes. So Eric could be at the railway station 15 minutes after landing.

Eric, are you sure you will be in the mood for some instant sightseeing after a lengthy trip (one assumes) from the US?

Sjoerd--15 minutes for immigration and customs? Wow! I'm impressed. I seem to recall its having taken us longer to get through, but your 100 experiences at Schiphol definitely trumps my 2. Perhaps I'm just overcautious based on some horrendous line experiences at Heathrow over the years.

I would echo Sjoerd, at least on getting out of the airport upon arrival. Getting through immigration/customs was a breeze, though our fist trip through Schiphol it took us time to figure out how to get to immigration/customs and exit the airport. Once through, there is the train station downstairs (I believe) and you are on your way. BUT, I would question how long it would take to reenter and get to his gate for the next leg. That is the part I would be concerned with and would make sure I made it back to the airport in good time. In all, I'm thinking that in 3 hours, you will have approximately 1 actually in A'dam. <BR>

If you do make it to the coffee shop(s) then the other leg of your journey won't seem as long...you'll be flying high as a kite...and that's before you get on the plane.

I spent a little over three hours in Schiphol airport last September. The airport is MUCH cleaner than Charles de Gaulle in Paris and has many beautiful gift shops. I also had an excellent meal in a very reasonablly priced restaurant. I would not try what you are thinking. I feel you can make good use of your time in the airport.

Randy raises a good point: If you are so inclined, Schiphol is one of the best airports for duty free shops in Europe. I forget which items are particularly attractively priced, but Sjoerd could probably help there.

I tried it with 7 hrs and that was about the minimum I would recommended. The problems are:
1-Transportation into city - it's not next door and if you can be familliar with where you specifically want to go; I burned 10 min figuring out how the transportation system works, where it goes and how to access the line you want. Although superb, it is comprehensive and therefore complex
2-Getting a taxi at their "Grand Central Station" to go anywhere took over 1/2 hr standing in line and this was not a rush hour and it's not laid out or organized poorly (except there was only ONE line) there were just that many people
3-If you are on any kind of a budget, this may break it. EVERYTHING is most expensive!!!
4-Skip taxi to check out station - was not an option for me, nothing of note there - you really NEED to see Amsterdam. That you will not soon forget!
Next time, do as I do - purposely schedule as long a lay-over as possible there. for your luggage. If your destination is Europe, this is where you will clear customs so you'll have your luggage with you (this was in '06)usually, you would just check it through after customs, but with 7 hrs, I had to take possession. Security does not take all that long to clear and they have ample human attended storage space available (which is a bit tricky to figure out where it is. Downstairs in a corner - best ask). Store it, safe until you return on your memorable excursion. If you can, bridge those hours from daytime into night. Both times of day are fascinating and completely different atmospheres. If you're going to stay overnight and are going single, you may enjoy the Hotel Nicolaas Witsen. If memory serves, it was the original location of the Heineken brewery and is very quaint. Very cramped but Americans ought to get used to that REAL fast for all rooms in Europe are tiny by our standards, expensive and uncomfortable single beds, or should I say cots. Anyway, I said there on another trip and had a gas!

I'm sorry but "all the rooms in Europe" are NOT small by "our" standards..the ones I stay in are plenty large. Perhaps what you REALLY mean is the rooms that are fairly CHEAP are small..you get what you PAY for, even in Europe.

I hear this same refrain, usually about Paris and how all the rooms are small, etc., etc. they aren't

Two comments:

On this thread and others, people keep mentioning long periods of time to clear Customs within Europe. I guess never say never but I have never seen a line for customs clearance in a western European country. The time it takes is the time it will take you to walk through the nothing to declare lane.

You would have to be extremely unlucky to be singled out for a spot check, particularly if your luggage is checked through.

Immigration is another matter.

You will not get rock bottom prices in duty free shops if on an intra-EU flight. The shops at Schipol are still quite good and there are occasional bargains and sales. You can buy Dutch bulbs, for example, in small amounts and in packets which have been approved for US import.

This thread is over 10 years old...

jjurkins registered to top this nearly ELEVEN year old thread??? And of course now it will have a new life. (A hint - when the author's name is not 'clickable' --i.e. is gray-the thread is from before registration. You can see that w/o even opening the thread . . .)

Sorry, didn't see the OP date. Ten+ years ago you could buy duty free on intra- EU flights!