A maze of fare media ...
 

My wife and I are planning a wonderful 2 week vacation centered in Amsterdam. There appears to be an array of transit options and transit fare media from which to choose.

Assuming that we'll be spending half our time focusing on Amsterdam and the other half flitting (assuming that those in their 60s are still flitable) from city to city, what would be our best fare media strategy for bus and rail?

Several pass options for local transportation:
http://www.gvb.nl/english/travellers...res/index.html
There is a GVB office (w/Tourist Office) across the street from Centraal Station.

Good site for railpass info:
http://www.ricksteves.com/rail/rail_menu.htm

Point-to-point tickets might be cheaper. If you buy a ticket usable for any train that day, you have to stamp/cancel the ticket before boarding.

When are you going?

because in summer only, July and Aug about there is a cheap day rail pass but after that no

then you may consider the Holland Rail Pass at other times of the year or even in summer if doing several day trips - very possible due to the wonderful train system (buses largely go where trains don't) so intercity travel is by frequent trains

Holland Flexipass (Railpass)

3 days/1 mo 1st cl $139 p.p. 2nd $94 p.p.

5 days/1 mo $222 p.p. 1st cl; $149 2nc cl

this is a flexipass - you get 3 or 5 unlimited travel days midnight to midnight valid on all passenger trains in Holland out of a month-long period - days can be consecutive or not - anytime in the month

with pass you just hop on the trains - any train anytime

not sold in Holland i believe - in U.S. Raileurope markets it directly or thru agents - i always recommend calling BETS (www.budgeteuropetravel.com) because they are experts you can actually talk to with any questions - i've used them for a long time and they don't have RailEurope's $18 mailing fee. On their site you can request their free and excellent European Planning & Rail Guide that has a good chapter on Dutch trains and all the various day trips possible by rail. (Delft, Haarlem, Alkmaar, Utrecht, Den Hague and even the Van Gogh Museum at Hooge Veluwe are easy day trips or the fine open-air museum on the Zuider Zee at Enkhuizen)
Pass prices are the same everywhere but mailing and handling fees can be tacked on. That said to determine whether the pass is worth it for you go to www.ns.nl the Dutch Railways web site to get actual prices in euros to compare with the pass.

The GVB gives information for buses, trams and metro in the Amsterdam area. You can buy strippenkaarten for use on any bus, tram or metro in the Netherlands. Buy them in advance rather than on the bus as they are cheaper that way. The driver will stamp the required number of strips. By next April we should have the OV chip card available for more general use, but I'm not sure I would recommend buying those just yet.
You will almost certainly be better off buying train tickets as you need them. You can find the prices of train journeys within Holland at www.ns.nl to decide whether you are better off with a rail pass or not.
PalQ will be able to advise you more on this.

In fact Pal Q beat me to it :)

Dutch trains are super - twice hourly or so practically everywhere

i love Dutch trains and ride them a lot whenever i can - not only to get to some nice city or place but just to people and culture watch on the train

You don't need train schedules in Holland since they run so frequently - show up at station and there will be a train in a few minutes going where you want to

and from the train you see the signature Dutch countryside of polders or below sealevel fields full of cows and also see canals, sluitjes (sp?) drainage ditches partitioning fields - farms, drawbridges, etc.

Thank you. Is 1st class worth the money?

No 1st class isn't worth the money, unless you are travelling on a Friday over any distance. Then the trains are full of students heading home for the weekend. Otherwise 2nd class is very comfortable. You can enjoy the views even more on the top deck of the double decker trains!

Perhaps a naive question. but are double-decker trains common?

A lot of the trains are double deckers, but there is no guatrantee the one you want will be. They are mostly used on the commuter routes. There are also very nice intercity trains which are very comfortable and smaller local trains. Trains from Amsterdam up to Alkmaar are probably double decker. They are out to Amersfoort and to Utrecht, or at least some are - the rest are intercities, so I expect they are to Alkmaar. Haarlem I don't know about - I've never taken the train from Amsterdam to Haarlem.

Many Amsterdam to Haarlem trains i took last winter were double-deckers IF i recall right.

And yes up top is a great view and there is both first and second class seating up top.

Hetismij - any word more on when the new high-speed route Amsterdam-Schiphol-Antwerp-Brussels will open

i asked in Jan at a station and the staff guy just shrugged his shoulders and said nobody really knows

was supposed to open in 2007 and will speed up Thalys times when done and inter-city times for the InterCity Sprinters envisioned for the line

Pal, it has been delayed yet again I believe. They have run trains at speed over the line a few times, and it was due to be high speed from September/October, but I seem to recall there being more problems (apart from the lack of high speed locs to pull the thing) which has delayed it again, probably January. I think it was to do with dirt being sucked into the tunnels making them slippery for the trains, something like that.
The minister responsible refuses to name a date any more.
One of these centuries we hope.

Tunnels under all those mountains?

jess kidding - probably under Antwerp and urban areas

or are there mountains in south Holland and Belgium i don't know about

I hear Breda is a ski centre?

Tot ziens!

Wish i were in Amsterdam this Queen's Day!

Queen's Day tomorrow, annit?

Wish i were in Amsterdam tomorrow

what will you be doing - gardening?