Child fares in Holland

[DeeGee]

I'm off this weekend with my family, flying into Schiphol and staying overnight, returning the next day.

We'd be looking for the equivalent of a Travelcard I'd imagine, so we can potter about on Trams when we arrive until we leave - we're in town 24 hours.

It seems that there's a €20 ticket which includes rail Schiphol - Centraal and unlimited local transport for 2 days. This works out at 10c more than buying two single tickets and a 2 day pass, I'm happy to pay that for convenience.

Am I right with this summation, or is there a zonal thing like London which could bring costs down?

Also, I can't find any idea of pricing for 5 year olds, other than the fact that the day pass for public transport is €2.50. How much will it be to get the boy into Hamsterjam from the Airport? What's the cheapest way of doing Sat Midday Schiphol - Amsterdam - Unlimited public transport in AMS - Amsterdam - Schiphol Sun Midday?

 

[AlexNL]

Amsterdam does not have a zonal system for travelcards for tourists, zones are only used for season tickets (and are much more complex than the zones you'd find in London or Paris).

For you and your partner: buy a 2 day Amsterdam Travel Ticket. This will cost you € 20 per person, and is the best value you can buy. The ticket includes transfer from Schiphol Airport to Amsterdam and back, as well as use of all GVB operated public transport (buses, trams and subway) in Amsterdam itself.

For your kid: buy him a Railrunner. This is a kids ticket, it costs € 2,50 per child per day. For travel in Amsterdam, GVB sells the GVB day ticket for children which also costs € 2,50 and is valid for 24 hours after first validation.

Remember to touch in and touch out on each journey you make, including buses and trams. Please note that these tickets are only valid on services operated by GVB. Some buses are operated by other operators (such as EBS, Arriva or Connexxion), these operators do not accept those tickets.

 

[DeeGee]

Cheers Alex. That's superb. I don't imagine I can buy any of this online and collect at Schiphol, can I?

 

[AlexNL]

You can't, indeed. However, there's a boatload of ticket vending machines at Schiphol Airport which are very user friendly. You can buy the Amsterdam travel ticket there as well as the Railrunner.

For the GVB kids ticket you'll have to head to the OV-Servicewinkel at Amsterdam Centraal.

 

[DeeGee]

Am I also right in thinking that there's a €1 surcharge for the disposable smartcards? Does that mean? Does that mean the boy will have to have two smartcards?

 

[AlexNL]

You are right in stating that NS levies a € 1 surcharge for disposable smartcards. They say this is to cover "production and distribution costs", but the real reason is, of course, to motivate people to use a regular OV-chipkaart and use Pay-As-You-Go. The surcharge is not charged for Railrunner tickets.

And yes, your kid will get several disposable tickets. He'll get three actually: two from NS (from Schiphol on day 1, back to Schiphol on day 2) and one for GVB. These disposable tickets already can only hold 1 product, which is pre-loaded onto the card when you purchase it.

You can buy an anonymous OV-chipkaart, but I would recommend against it on cost reasons: an anonymous card costs € 7,50, this is non-refundable and the card itself expires after 5 years .

 

[DeeGee]

And yes, your kid will get several disposable tickets. He'll get three actually: two from NS (from Schiphol on day 1, back to Schiphol on day 2) and one for GVB. These disposable tickets already can only hold 1 product, which is pre-loaded onto the card when you purchase it.

You can buy an anonymous OV-chipkaart, but I would recommend against it on cost reasons: an anonymous card costs € 7,50, this is non-refundable and the card itself expires after 5 years .

Cheers,

If I were to be planning on returning anywhere in the Netherlands during that time, though, would I be able to load all normal travel products on it? So six rail journeys would pay for it?

Just thinking...

 

[radamfi]

Cheers,

If I were to be planning on returning anywhere in the Netherlands during that time, though, would I be able to load all normal travel products on it? So six rail journeys would pay for it?

Just thinking...

A return still just costs 1 euro more than the normal OV-Chipkaart rate, so you need to be looking at 6 or more singles or returns in 5 years. You also need a minimum balance of 16 euros before starting a train journey.

An OV-Chipkaart is particularly useful if you plan to use a number of bus/tram/metro rides in the next 5 years. You can usually pay the driver but the price is normally considerably higher. For example, a 60 minute ticket from the driver on a GVB bus/tram in Amsterdam would be 2.90 but the OV-Chipkaart fare would be 0.89 + 0.154 x number of km. In Eindhoven, the single ticket you get from the driver costs 3.70 and does not allow interchange, whereas the OV-Chipkaart fare would be 0.89 + 0.145 x number of km, including changes.

However, some places have day tickets which might be cheaper than using the OV-Chipkaart if you are travelling a lot that day.

 

[AlexNL]

If I were to be planning on returning anywhere in the Netherlands during that time, though, would I be able to load all normal travel products on it? So six rail journeys would pay for it?

If you expect to visit the Netherlands more often it might be worthwhile to buy an OV-chipkaart. You could of course always share it with a family member or friend if they ever visit the Netherlands.

Do keep in mind that you'll need to have enough balance on the card to be able to travel. You can't load an individual journey onto the card.

 

[dutchflyer]

And-IFIFIF-you do intend to visit more and also with the boy:
it should be possible to organise a PERSONAL OV-chipcard for him, with foto+name+birthdate, and then load a KidsVRIJ-which is said to be free, but cost an actual 1 ct per year, and then the child can go on TRAINS (=not trams!) with any supervising adult for free by just touching in+out. The catch is that payment is only possible from a Dutch bankaccount, though technically it should accept ALL SEPA/IBAN accounts (and some British banks also support that) by foning the office and giving them the details. This lasts till he reaches 12. The chipcard itself cost the normal 7,50 and lasts for 5 years.
Various buscompanies-but not that much in the major west area of this country, allow kids to go free with paying adults-or for Connexxion its a 1 eur daypass for all Conx-buses. Many tourists prefer to use their line 197 from airport, as it runs right into the area of town where most hotels are-avoiding the need for train+tram. A normal single ticket cost 5 eur=same as train to CS.
Also the real need to use trams/bus in Amsterdam for most tourists is quite limited. The common day-outs to places like Volendam etc or Zaanse schans are not possible by GVB.
There is also a 1-day *24 hrs) onetime chipcard as daypass for extended area: GVB + surrounding companies (NOT trains!) for 13,50, this includes the Conx 197 to airport-and many other too.

 

[DeeGee]

Thanks Dutchflyer.

We would consider retunring to Amsterdam - the boy's identified that he'd like to go to NEMO and on the VOC-ship next time round, at least. Lving where I do it's quicker to get to Schiphol than it is to get to Kings Cross.

As it was, though, the Railrunner cost just €2.50 each way, there was no surcharge, and the kids' 24 hour ticket had no surcharge either.

As for the Amsterdam Travel Ticket, the chip card was actually the front cover of a folding map, so it proved to be really useful.

The only thing that annoyed me was that the Railrunner was available from a ticket manchine (and I guess would have had a "convenience charge" added to it if I had bought it from the counter?) The Amsterdam Travel Ticket was only available from the counter (because a machine wouldn't be able to handle the unusual format of it) and wouldn't have incurred the counter surcharge, and the kids 24 hour ticket was only available from the GVB shop opposite Centraal (so required a long wait with the queuing system for a 30 second transaction)

It's a shame, because it makes things complicated and wastes time during a short visit (arrive 12:30, depart 16:40 the following day)

 

[radamfi]

I thought the GVB day ticket could be bought from the tram conductor?

 

[DeeGee]

It probably could, but I'm so used to buying tram tickets before travel these days that I'd forgotten that there's a little ticket kiosk half way down the tram.