Amsterdam Layover: Leaving Schiphol

Hours, fares and access verified by the Amsterdam Layover Tours team — last checked 2026-08-29

There are four ways out of Amsterdam Airport Schiphol and into the city, and one of them costs €4.90. This guide says honestly when that is the right answer and when it is not.

What are your four ways out of the terminal?

A train, a bus, a taxi and a booked car. They are not variations on one theme; they solve different problems and they fail in different ways.

The geography is unusually kind here. The city centre is nine kilometres away and the railway station sits directly beneath Schiphol Plaza, so nobody has to reach a separate building before the journey even starts. The layout in full.

When is the €4.90 train the right answer?

Often, and it deserves saying first. Seventeen minutes to Amsterdam Centraal, eight trains an hour, calling at Sloterdijk, Lelylaan and Hoofddorp. Buy at the yellow machines in the plaza, or simply tap a bank card at the readers by the escalators.

Take the train if your bag is checked through, your connection is comfortable, you are happy on foot, and the canal ring is what you came for. Under those conditions a booked car buys you nothing the train does not already give you, and it costs a great deal more.

What does the airport bus do better than the train?

It goes somewhere else. The Amsterdam Airport Express, lines 397 and N97, leaves from stop B17 and runs to Museumplein and Leidseplein — which is the museum quarter, where the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum are.

Every ten minutes in the daytime, hourly overnight, at €6.50 one way or €11.75 return. If Museumplein is your destination, the bus saves you a change at Centraal and about fifteen minutes.

Is a taxi ever worth €35 to €55?

For two or more people with luggage, yes. Four train tickets cost about twenty euro before you have moved a case, and the taxi puts you at a door rather than at a station. Use the official rank rather than anyone who approaches you in the hall.

For one traveller travelling light, no. And on the return journey a taxi carries a risk the train does not: the ring road is genuinely slow at the end of the working day, and a meter can reach about seventy-five euro.

What does a booked car buy that none of the three do?

Four things, and they are all about risk rather than transport.

A driver who knows your flight number. Several operators track the inbound and adjust; one waits at the meeting point thirty minutes after the aircraft lands.
A boot. Your bags travel with you, so no locker and no case dragged over cobbles.
A route rather than a destination. The car goes where you want it, in the order you want, and stops where the law allows.
A return timed to your gate. Not to a departure board.

None of that matters on a ten-hour connection with hand luggage. All of it matters on a six-hour one with a pushchair.

What does each channel cost, door to door?

	Cost, one way	Time	Luggage	Handles a late inbound
Train	€4.90	17 minutes	with you, on a platform	irrelevant — it just runs
Bus 397	€6.50	—	with you	irrelevant
Taxi	€35–€55	20–35 minutes	in the boot	you simply take a later one
Booked car	from $183 for the whole tour	20–35 minutes	in the boot	the operator adjusts to your flight

Read that table twice. The first three rows are transport. The fourth is a day out with transport attached, which is why comparing the numbers directly tells you almost nothing.

How do the channels compare on luggage?

This is the deciding factor more often than price is. If your bag is checked through to your final destination you are free, and any of the four works. If it is not, you are carrying it.

Lockers at the airport cost €8 per 24 hours and take a case up to 40 by 40 by 70 centimetres. The staffed storage in Arrivals runs €6 to €12 a piece per day. Or you put it in a boot and forget about it.

What happens to each one when your flight is late?

The train and the bus do not care; you simply take a later one and lose the minutes. A taxi is the same. A booked departure is where a delay actually bites — and also where somebody is watching for it on your behalf.

Free cancellation applies up to 24 hours ahead on every departure here, which covers a change of plan the day before and nothing on the day. Giving the operator your flight number is what covers the day. How the common connections behave.

How do you actually pay for the train?

Three ways, and the middle one catches people out.

A paper single from the yellow machines in the plaza. Straightforward, and it takes cards.

Tapping a bank card at the yellow readers by the escalators. This is now the normal way and it is genuinely contactless — but you must tap in and tap out again at the other end, and forgetting the second tap is the mistake that costs money.

A travel card, which is worth nothing on a layover. You will make two journeys, and the card costs more than they do.

Which channel reaches the windmills?

Only the car. There is no direct train from the airport to Zaanse Schans, and public transport asks for two changes and the better part of an hour and a half each way. That single fact is why almost every product going north is a private vehicle.

The same applies to Volendam and Marken, which have no railway at all. The windmills tours, compared.

What about hiring a car, or a bike?

Both come up, and both are worse ideas here than they sound.

A hire car means a desk, a contract, a fuel policy and a return, all inside a window that is already tight. Then it means parking, and Amsterdam has spent two decades making that expensive and scarce on purpose. Unless you are driving on somewhere else entirely, the hire desk costs you more time than the car saves.

A bike is the opposite problem: it is the right way to see this city and the wrong way to arrive in it. You cannot take one on the airport train at peak times without a supplement and a folding frame, hire shops are in the centre rather than at the terminal, and cycling in traffic you have never met, jet-lagged, with a case, is not a relaxing first hour. Hire one on a trip, not on a connection.

How do you get back, and what goes wrong?

The return is where connections are actually lost, and it fails in three predictable ways.

Leaving the centre too late. Set an alarm for the moment you have to start moving and treat it as immovable. The train is every seven or eight minutes, so missing one costs very little — missing the decision costs everything.
Underestimating the road at rush hour. The ring road is genuinely slow from about four in the afternoon. If your departure is in the evening, the train is the more predictable instrument even if the car brought you in.
Forgetting the second border. A non-Schengen departure means passport control again, on top of security, on top of a long walk down a pier.

So which should you pick?

Your situation	Take
Long connection, hand luggage, canal ring only	The train
Heading straight for the museum quarter	Bus 397 from stop B17
Two or more of you with cases, going to one address	A taxi
Tight margin, or bags, or children, or a route rather than a destination	A booked car
Anywhere north of the city	A booked car — nothing else goes

If the answer is a booked car, every private Amsterdam layover tour is compared with the hours it needs and the basis its fare is counted on. If it is the train, you now know everything you need and the fare is under five euro. Either way, the full comparison lives at Amsterdam Layover Tours.

Frequently asked questions

How do I get from Schiphol to Amsterdam?

The train is the default: 17 minutes to Amsterdam Centraal, eight an hour, €4.90 one way, from the station directly beneath Schiphol Plaza. The airport bus and a taxi are the alternatives.

Is there a direct bus from Schiphol to the Rijksmuseum?

Yes — the Amsterdam Airport Express, lines 397 and N97, from stop B17. It runs every ten minutes in the day and serves Museumplein and Leidseplein. €6.50 one way, €11.75 return.

How much is a taxi from Schiphol to the city centre?

Between €35 and €55 for a standard ride, and up to about €75 on the meter depending on distance and time of day. Use the official rank.

Can I get to Zaanse Schans by train from the airport?

Not directly. Public transport needs two changes and takes far longer than the twenty-five to forty minutes a car takes, which is why the windmill products are almost all private vehicles.

Do I need to book train tickets in advance?

No. Buy at the machines or tap a bank card at the yellow readers on the way to the platform. There is no advance fare and no reservation for a journey this short.

Which is better if my inbound flight is delayed?

The train, because it simply runs and you take a later one. If you have booked a car, give the operator your flight number: several track the inbound and one waits thirty minutes after the aircraft lands.