Has anyone here ever used The Holland Pass? or IAmsterdam Card?
 

Hi!

I'll be in Amsterdam for 3 days in April and I'm debating on whether or not I should buy either the Holland Pass or the IAmsterdam Card. The places I plan on going to include: The Anne Frank House (not included by pass), Van Gogh Museum, Amstelkring Museum, Canal Cruise, Red Light District tour, Amsterdam Walking Tour, House of Bols, Zaanse Schans and Keukenhof Gardens.

Do you think it's better or more economical for me to just get a stripenkaart rather than having a day pass? I've heard that most places are within walking distance anyway (within the city), and separate train tickets must be bought to go to Zaanse Schans and Keukenhof. I'm staying near Central Station by the way.

I'd love to hear your opinions, advice or insights.

Thanks!

Remember you have to pay a surcharge for the Van Gogh Museum until June 7 and have to buy a timed entry ticket. See the VGmuseum website for more info and my earlier posting about this.
Amsterdam is very walkable, and strippenkaarten are easy to use. How many of the tours in Amsterdam are covered by the pass? How much do they cost normally?
The card doesn't cover train travel so unless the other tours you want to do are covered by the card and offer you a saving, I wouldn't bother with it.
For Keukenhof buy a combi ticket for the bus and entrance from the tourist information office and either get the bus from Leidseplein and change at Schiphol or get the train out to Schiphol and take the bus from there. Have a look at the keukenhof website for more details.

hetismij,

How do you pronounce Leidseplein and Pijp?

Thanks

Several years ago my husband and I and a friend used the two-day Amsterdam Pass, and found it well worth the money. We visited the van Gogh and the Rijksmuseum, the Rembrandthuis, the Amstelkring, the Oude Kerk, the Resistance Museum, the Amsterdam Historical Museum, the Houseboat Museum and the Theatre Museum, plus took the canal cruise. Some of the museums we might not have visited, except for the fact that they were included in the Pass.

In addition, we liked the unlimited tram use that you get with the pass. While using a Strippenkaart is very easy, it does cost you each time you use it. We found ourselves using the trams just to bop around town, to run errands - like tramming to the flower market to get tulips for our hotel room, and the market to get provisions.

Below is a link to my trip report, which has our Amsterdam adventures included (Day 4-6). Maybe there's some additional information there that would be of help to you.

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...luxembourg.cfm

Enjoy your visit in Amsterdam.

Robyn :)>-

Pijp is approximately pipe.

Leidseplein is lie-dse-pline (rhymes with pine) near enough. You will be understood if you say it that way!

My aunt once managed to find her way to us to us buy telling everyone we lived in block-zidge-ill in over-jessel. (Blokzijl in Overijssel), and that in a broad Yorkshire accent. Everyone worked it out and she turned up unexpectedly on our doorstep!
I live somewhere easier to pronounce nowadays!

that is a funny story :)

do you say Jordaan? or dahn

aa is long so ah, a i short. The same with the other vowels too. All very phonetic really.

I concur with Artstuff, we loved our IAmsterdam pass. We were in Amsterdam last February and it was wonderful to find a museum and not think about the cost because it was covered by our pass. We went into far more of the smaller museums just because they were included.

We also loved that the pass included all tram/bus/metro travel. That made it so easy to travel around the city and not have to think about how many Strippenkaarts you have left. We could pop on the tram for a quick 3 stop trip rather than to hoof it at the end of the day when we were tired, without the pass we would have walked because it would cost too much for the tram for such a short distance.

Don't forget that there are also discounts at restaurants and other atractions that are not covered by the pass. We ate every night at one of the restaurants that gave a 25% discount and saved a lot on meals.

We added it up at the end of our trip and found that having the IAmsterdam pass saved a lot of money for us.

What can I say we're cheap.

celticharger,

Did you purchase the pass online, if so, can you please provide link to online purchase of Amsterdam Pass?

thanks

We used the 48 hour Amsterdam pass and thought it was a great value. I'm linking my trip report which has comments about it. The House of Bols is not free but there is a discount. It was fun. That's where we danced in Amsterdam :)

It also gets you into the Casino. If you read through the report Katie posted some links. Have a great time! I loved Amsterdam!

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-home-page.cfm

Thanks for all the helpful info and the trip reports. I'm excited!

How does one know which restaurants are participating in the 25% discount?

Ronalka, they are listed in the book that comes with it.
You can view the book online:
http://tinyurl.com/dg5xbl
Click on the open guide in red, and it will come up as digital book.

Hi,

Holland Pass is 5 free admissions of choice. No extra surecharge for Van Gogh Musem and fast track entrance to all major museums and attractions. For only € 34 a good choice.

Henk, at the time of replying to the OP you did have to pay a surcharge for the Van Gogh museum due to the extra exhibition "Colours of the Night" (which was excellent btw).