What crew need on the ground
The train station is under the terminal and the city is seventeen minutes away, so Amsterdam is one of the few European stops where a short layover is worth leaving for, provided you know which bank card the gates will accept.
Updated information on European Entry-Exit System (EES) (‘Entry requirements’ page).
Read the full advice at UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office →Six hours here genuinely buys you a city, which is rare enough to be the point of Amsterdam.
A proper half day, and enough to cross the city rather than orbit the station.
Everything the city holds, including a night out and a lie-in. The centre's street rules are the only thing likely to catch you.
Where every train from Schiphol puts you down. Functional and crowded, and the shortest walk from the platform to anything worth seeing.
The ring of main canals immediately west and south of Centraal. Flat, quiet, and the fastest way to be somewhere pleasant on foot from the station.
Nine short cross-streets inside the canal belt. Compact enough to be an entire six-hour layover on its own.
Residential grid west of the canal belt. Where you go to eat without being sold a boat trip.
Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh and Stedelijk clustered around one open square. Bus 397 from Schiphol stops at Museumplein and the Rijksmuseum directly.
South of the centre, dense with kitchens and cheap enough to matter on an allowance. Worth the tram on anything over eight hours.
Cannabis is not legal, it is tolerated under conditions, and central Amsterdam's street rules are a separate layer again.
Cannabis is not legal in the Netherlands. The government's position is that possessing, selling or producing drugs is against the law, and that the Public Prosecution Service does not prosecute for possession of small quantities of soft drugs for personal use. The tolerated ceiling is no more than 5 grams. The tolerance is a prosecution policy, not a permission.
Coffee shops sit under the same toleration rather than a licence to sell freely. They may not sell hard drugs, sell to minors, advertise, or sell more than 5 grams in a transaction. Since 2013 national policy limits them to residents of the Netherlands aged 18 or over, checked against identity documents, and municipalities determine whether coffee shops operate within their boundaries at all, and if so how many.
Amsterdam's by-law bans open use separately from national drug law. Article 2.7, paragraph 4 of the Algemene Plaatselijke Verordening prohibits using substances covered by article 3 of the Opium Act, the soft drugs list, or lookalike goods, on or beside the road and in other publicly accessible places within an area designated in the by-law's Annex 1. Paragraph 5 exempts licensed premises that also hold the mayor's toleration declaration for selling soft drugs. Buying inside a coffee shop does not entitle you to smoke it on the pavement outside. Annex 1 is published as a map rather than a street list, so check locally before you assume you are outside it.
Alcohol in public is controlled the same way. You must be 18 to have alcohol with you in the Netherlands. APV article 2.17 makes drinking in public an offence anywhere in the city when it comes with behaviour that disturbs public order, and separately lets the mayor designate roads and stretches of road where drinking, or carrying an opened bottle or can, is prohibited outright. Licensed terraces are carved out of that second ban.
Carry your passport. Police officers, public transport ticket inspectors and special enforcement officers may ask anyone aged 14 or over to identify themselves for traffic management, the maintenance of public order or the investigation of a criminal offence. An EU or EEA passport or identity card counts; a passport from anywhere else must carry a valid residence sticker. The fine at 16 or over is 100 euros, and failing to identify yourself risks being taken to a police station while they establish who you are.
The railway station sits directly beneath the terminal. I amsterdam gives the run to Amsterdam Centraal as 17 minutes, with trains eight times an hour between Schiphol and Centraal, calling at Sloterdijk, Lelylaan and Hoofddorp.
Getting out of the airport in fullOfficial taxis are identified by a blue licence plate and an official sign on the roof. I amsterdam's advice is to take only taxis with a blue plate.
Ride-hailing in fullA SIM from an EU or EEA operator roams in the Netherlands at domestic rates. Calls, texts and data are billed as they are at home.
Staying connected in fullYour Europe, European Commissionchecked Sep 2026
KNMI's 1991 to 2020 normals for the Schiphol station put the annual mean at 10.7C, with a mean daily maximum of 14.3C.
Weather in fullKNMIchecked Sep 2026
Tipping is not mandatory in the Netherlands. Nobody chases you for it and nobody is embarrassed by its absence.
Tipping in fullI amsterdamchecked Sep 2026
The Dutch eat early. Most people sit down at around 18:30, most restaurants are full from that point, and kitchens often close around 22:00. Arriving at nine on a late report narrows your options sharply.
Eating near the crew hotels in fullI amsterdamchecked Sep 2026
Dutch Customs sets a separate, smaller allowance for crew working international traffic including non-EU countries: 40 cigarettes, or 50 grams of smoking tobacco, or 20 cigarillos, or 10 cigars, or a proportional assortment, for your own use, from age 17. Walk off with a passenger-sized carton and you are over it.
What to buy in fullSave the guide and its 8 sections now, and read them on the crew bus before you have a SIM.
Fares, timetables and rules change. Where a figure matters to your plan, the publisher above is the one to check.