5 HR layover in Amsterdam
 

5 HR layover in Amsterdam in the middle of the day...
Any suggestions on what to do? Is the airport near anything?
I will definitly need lunch.
HELP!

The champagne bar in the airport had an interesting menu.

If Fodor's indexing were up to date, you could find a number of threads with suggestions for layovers in Amsterdam.

Having only been there once, I'm afraid I can't help.

Do you really have 5 hours or is that the time between your arrival and departure times?

The airport has many shops if you decided not to go into Amsterdam. Here's is the airport website.
http://www.schiphol.nl/home/Index.jsp

You can train into the city in about 15-20 minutes.

We had a 4 hour layover in Amsterdam last month and ended up leaving the airport. This was our second layover on our way to Nuremberg and we had already spent countless hours in airports so we were ready to leave!

The city is a short 15-20 minutes away from the airport via train. The trains come fairly frequently. We had enough time to get off at the main train station in Amsterdam and walk around the canals and Red Light District and took pictures. We then grabbed a couple of coffees at a cafe and headed back to the airport. Everything went very smoothly and I would definitely do it again.

For information on train schedules, view:
http://www.schiphol.nl/_van_naar_sch...=1119012870604

Good luck!
Tracy

There is quite a lot to do within the airport itself. Or the city center is only a ~20 mins. train or taxi ride away.

Depending on your exact arrival and departure flights, suitcase logistics, etc. that might give you time for a quick train ride and bite to eat in town, or might end up being better to stick with staying at the airport.

5 hours airport layover I feel like could go either way. 3 hours I would never leave an airport, 8 hours I definitely would... 5's kinda in the middle. I would *never* want to miss my next flight, whadda hassle.

As some other posters mentioned, you can get to the Central Station from Schipol in about 15-20 minutes. I think it would be fun to get out of the airport and just walk around a little in Amsterdam. We stayed on the edge of the Jordaan and it was maybe a 10-15 minute walk. There are many cafes all over the place. You could stop for a coffee or beer and just soak up the atmosphere for an hour or two.

ttt

Because trains leave from the airport itself into the station near the center of Amsterdam, it's an easy city to manage with a 5 hour time-frame. It's a wonderful city and I'd suggest seeing it for a couple of hours. I will caution that when we recently took the train from Schipol airport into Amsterdam, there was a train derailment that had all the traffic at a standstill. We were in no particular hurry, but something like that would be a problem for you.

Do a search....I just input the words Amsterdam and layover and all KINDS of threads came up.

Carry-on Luggage storage (if you even need it) can be done in lockers or an attended room.

Easy to buy train tickets either at the ticket windows in the "Schiphol Plaza" section of the main terminal or from the machines.

There are at least four trains to Centraal Station every hour.

AVOID the Burger King at Schiphol which is, I think, the worst one on Earth....there are other places to eat.

www.schiphol.nl

Do check at the train station before you buy your tickets to see if there are no problems with the trains. There has been some industrial action recently, as well as a derailment.

THX- those are all really good ideas.
our exact layover is 5 hrs. arriving at 9am. I have never been to EUR before so i would never want to hang at the airport. I will definitly try the train to downtown.
Being an newbie to Int. flights, do you think being back at the airport within an hour of the flight would be sufficient? That would give me 3.5-4hrs away from the airport.

I would allow at least an hour if not more time to be at the airport for the departure..however you do not say what your next destination is. You would need to allow time to get through Security (again), etc.

Make certain the train you take FROM the airport is (eventually) going to Centraal Station and not another station such as the one at the RAI.

I suggest you ask your next departure airline how early they want you back at the airport. Then allow extra time in case anything should go wrong on your return trip from town. Personally I'd feel more comfortable with calling it 2 or 3 hrs away.

When we recently departed the Amsterdam airport, they were pulling a certain 'chosen few' people out of line to VERY thoroughly check their baggage. Our two teens were chosen, in fact. I suppose because of Amsterdam's liberal substance policies, they are careful that people aren't possessing as they leave, too.

Anyway, it caused a fair delay as we checked in for our flight. May not be a problem for you, if you already have your boarding pass and no bags to check, but be aware of it. Also, we had to answer a security interview before getting final clearance to board.

So I'd say you allow as much time as the airline suggests, in light of the additional security there. And keep your bags checked through if possible.

those are good tips.
i am actually flying from rome back to the states w/ the layover in AMST.
we will just have our carryon backpacks or whatever. it is a good idea to ceck w/ the departing airline, and thankfully it is a NWA, a US based airline. i suppose 2 hrs back is fair, and there is always stuff to do in the airport.

Check with your airline, but I think that with transatlantic flights, you need to be at the airport 2 hours prior to departure.

It does not really matter if your flight home to the US is on a US airline such as NW. The Amsterdam airport security people are governed by the laws of the Netherlands. So do check with your airline as to what time you need to be back to the airport to get through security and also what time you need to be at the departure gate. Have a beautiful trip!