Amsterdam is one of the smallest capital cities in Europe so getting around usually isn’t a problem. Your transport options include trams, metro and bikes. Nearly every sight is no more than a 30 minute walk from Centraal Station, but if you are in a hurry, read on:

Getting to and from Schiphol Airport
The easiest option is to take the train. The journey takes around 17-20 minutes and a single ticket cost €3.60. Buy your ticket from the automatic machines in the station - just follow the instructions in English.
Trains from Centraal Station leave through the night at 00:58, 01:58, 02:58, 03:59, 04:44 and then about every 20 minutes until 05:59. Through the rest of the day trains leave at :05, :14, :29, :35, :44 and :59 past the hour until 00:14.
Heading back costs the same and trains leave at :01, :10, :18, :24, :31, :40 and :48 past the hour until 00:31, then at 01:11, 02:10, 03:10, 04:10, 05:10 then every 30 minutes until 07:10 when regular service resumes.
A taxi will get you door to door service but arrange the price before and expect to pay around €28-35 each way.


Trams
The trams cover pretty much the whole city and are a useful way to get across town in a hurry. Most lines start and finish at the Centraal Station. An individual journey costs €1.60 but it’s a lot cheaper to buy a ‘strippen-kaart’ with 15 strips for €6.90. A normal journey in the city costs 2 strips, more for very long distances. Most tram lines run from 6 am to midnight with a few that run once an hour all night. The old trams you enter in the middle, the new ones at the front or the back. Inside you will find a friendly, English speaking ticket conductor who will sell tickets or stamp your strippenkaart. You can get a strippenkaart in advance from the GVB offices - next to the tourist info, in the white wooden building directly opposite Centraal Station; or from any newsagent or corner shop. If you think you will use the trams a lot then consider a day pass - €6.30 for 1 day, €10 for 2 days, €13 for 3 days. There are also 1, 2 and 3 day passes that also offer reduced museum entry costs - see ‘Museum
Tickets’ for info.

Metro
When the North-South line is finished there will be a fast and convenient link between Centraal Station and the museums. Until then the metro isn’t so useful for visitors with only a couple of downtown stops but if you need to use it you use the same tickets as for the trams.

Bikes
Bike rental places are all over the city and the bench mark is set by MacBike (www.macbike.nl) with a branch next to Centraal Station and in many other places. You’ll see their bright red bikes everywhere. For a slightly less known but less costly option right by Dam Square try Damstraat Rent-A-Bike (www.bikes.nl). Bicycle theft is a huge problem and buying a €10 stolen bike from a junkie in the Red Light District will only make things worse (and give you bad karma). If you do ride around and see the city the way the locals do you’ll find it’s necessary to drive aggressively (but safely) or you’ll get nowhere fast.

Bike taxis
Weird little plastic rickshaws, complete with (usually crazy) driver. Perhaps the cheapest and most fun way to get around costing €1 per adult per 3 minutes.