On August 14 I'll be returning from Poland with a layover in Amsterdam. My flight out of Amsterdam is at 2:55pm. In the past I have twice visited the Amsterdam during layovers such as this and am planning on doing this again. My question is, should I fly from Krakow to Amsterdam on the evening of the 13th? It would put me into AMS around 7:00 and give me the evening and then the next morning. Or I could just get an early morning flight get into AMS around 9:30. Is there any great advantage to having an evening in Amsterdam. I will be traveling by myself and am not looking to do any big partying all night long or anything like that (although I am curious to just see the red light district at night rather than in the middle of the afternoon).

We all have our favorites and preferences. My preference given the choice would be one last evening in Krakow vs. an evening in Amsterdam.

But, you've been to Amsterdam so you know what it's like at night, right? It's not my favorite place. I did an overnight layover in Amsterdam a couple of years ago to avoid a 6AM flight out of Milan - and I kind of wished I'd stayed in Haarlem instead and will next time I need to layover overnight at AMS. Haarlem seems to have good train connections to AMS.

Getting into AMS at 9:30 and flying out at 14:55 doesn't give you a whole lot of time in Amsterdam, though, either.

You will need to be back at Schiphol by about 13.00 since the gate for a non Schengen flight closes especially early, with US flights needing even more time. Security is done at the gate and takes quite a time.

If you really want to go into Amsterdam then arrive the night before. Otherwise arrive on the day of your homeward flight and just relax at the airport.

You will need to be back at Schiphol by about 13.00 since the gate for a non Schengen flight closes especially early, with US flights needing even more time. Security is done at the gate and takes quite a time.

If you really want to go into Amsterdam then arrive the night before. Otherwise arrive on the day of your homeward flight and just relax at the airport.

Wow, sorry for the double post. No idea how that happened.

thanks for the input - appreciated!

If you fly into AMS in the morning, I would suggest a quick bus ride to Haarlem.

It's a town well worth seeing, and quite close to the airport.

Pretty much all the info you need is here.

http://www.visithaarlem.org/sightssounds.html