GETTING AROUND

Getting around in the Netherlands is quite simple, the road networks are good and the public transportation, including airports, is excellent. All you need to know is how the system works. This chapter points out some of the idiosyncrasies of Dutch drivers, the public transportation system, how to get a Dutch driver’s license, the system of vehicle approval, whether or not you should buy a car here, the fact that you have to pay road tax, the Dutch automobile association and last but definitely not least, the Dutch airports.

Schiphol
After Frankfurt, London and Paris, Schiphol occupies a strong fourth place in terms of passenger totals, freight traffic and commercial traffic. It offers direct connections to over 200 destinations in almost 100 countries.

Schiphol is centrally-located for connections within Europe and there is a train station located right underneath the Arrivals hall, through which the Intercity and high speed-line from Amsterdam to Paris (through Rotterdam, Antwerp and Brussels) runs.

Regional Airports
The Netherlands also boasts many regional airports, such as Eindhoven, Groningen, Maastricht, Rotterdam, Enschede and Lelystad, which offer both direct flights abroad, as well as flights to Schiphol airport.

Train Travel
This country has a dense railway network that offers frequent service, as well as the quickest way to travel between city centers. The carriages are modern and clean and, although many Dutch people complain about delays, the trains usually run on time.

Taxis 
Taxis
You cannot hail taxis on the street here as you can in many parts of the world. You must either telephone (look in the Yellow Pages or the telephone book under Taxi), or go to a taxi-stand where taxis wait. All major railway stations have a taxi-stand. Hotels and restaurants are always happy to call a taxi for you if you ask.

There is a great variety of taxi services in the Netherlands, including to and from Schiphol Airport. For more information, call 0900 873 46 82 or 0900 9292.

Buses and Trams
If you are looking to make your way through the larger cities, or from one town to the next, the Dutch transportation companies provide frequent services on buses and trams. Amsterdam and Rotterdam also have subways (called the metro). Rural communities are linked by bus.

The Strip Ticket – Strippenkaart
You can use the same ticket in all of the buses, trams and subways throughout the country. It is called a strippenkaart, or strip ticket. The entire country has been divided into public transportation zones, and the fare you pay depends on the number of zones you travel through. A stamp on a strip cancels that strip and all those above it. A journey will cost you one strip plus the number of zones you will travel through.
2009 saw the introduction of the OV-chipkaart (public transportation card), which you ‘load up’ using a special automat, for instance at the supermarket. It is a plastic credit-card shaped public transportation card with your photograph that contains information on the amount of credit it still has on it, on whether you have a right to certain reductions, and on whether you are traveling on the basis of a public transportation ‘subscription’, or pass. When entering the bus, tram or metro, you enter it into the card reader and then, upon leaving, you enter it again; when traveling by train, you enter the OV-chipkaart in the card reader on the platform or when entering the train station, doing the same as you get off.

Passes
For train travelers, there is a wide variety of passes and special tickets that can save you money.

Public Transportation Bicycle
One final way to get to your destination once you have arrived somewhere by train is by Public Transportation Bicycle. These are available in approximately 70 different towns/cities in the Netherlands, and at various locations within the bigger cities of Amsterdam, The Hague and Rotterdam.
More than 100 train stations also offer the possibility of renting a bicycle, on a non-public transportation basis.

Driving Your Car
Once you plan on owning a car, you must have a valid driver’s license (an accelerated test, however, is no longer possible, though special rules apply to those who benefit from the 30%-ruling as well as those who have been accorded consular or diplomatic status), know the rules of the road and have the registration certificate (containing the technical information of your car and proof of ownership) of the car transferred to your name. Furthermore, you must remember to take out car and liability insurance.

All car owners owe road tax from the time their name is transferred to the vehicle registration certificate, regardless of whether they are temporarily unable or unwilling to use their vehicle.

Should You Keep Your Car?
In the Netherlands the taxes involved are the Value Added Tax (VAT/BTW), the Bijzondere Verbruiksbelasting van Personenauto’s (BPM – due by the first person to register a car of motorcycle in the Netherlands) and import duties.

If goods are imported into an EU-member state, customs duties are due. However, for your household effects – that includes cars – there can be an exemption from customs duties. Some of the conditions to be met are that you must have lived in a non EU-member state for a period of at least twelve months and that you must have had the car in your possession for at least six months.

If you move here from an EU-member state, there are no special requirements for bringing your old car. However, in order to avoid paying additional VAT/BTW here, make sure your car is older than six months or has more than 6,000 km on the odometer.

The Bicycle
As a cyclist, you too must obey the traffic signs and rules, and stay in the bicycle lanes marked on the street. As a rule, cars that are turning across your path are supposed to stop for you but it is wise to watch out. You should also signal with your arm if you are planning to turn. You can be fined for riding at night without lights, and for drunken cycling. Contrary to the situation in many countries, you may not ride your bicycle on the sidewalk.

Being a Pedestrian
Tourists have been known to take a seat in the window of a café at a busy Amsterdam intersection just to watch the show of Dutch traffic interaction. All pedestrians jaywalk, none of the bicycle riders pay any attention to the color of their traffic light, trams trundle along and stop within an inch of all cars’ lives (be they Mercedes or Toyota), buses wheeze their asthmatic way through this all with an inch to spare, and cars … well, cars take whatever space everybody else deigns to grant them.
In all this mess, being a pedestrian is by far the most convenient. Riding a bike is faster, but pedestrians can squeeze through, around or over any obstacle and, if it starts to rain, they can hop on a tram or bus and get out of there in nothing flat.
For useful addresses and websites, please use the info-link button at the top of this page

More on these subjects can be found in The Holland Handbook 2010 - 2011