Amsterdam’s public transportation is run almost entirely by one operator, GVB, and it works the same way everywhere: tap a contactless card to check in, tap again to check out, and you’re billed for exactly the distance you rode. There’s no separate ticket to buy for a normal ride — your bank card is the ticket.
The basics
GVB runs four kinds of transport around the city:
- Metro — 5 lines (50, 51, 52, 53, 54). The Ring Line loops around the edge of the center, the North/South Line (52) cuts straight through via Centraal Station, and two more lines run southeast to Gaasperplas and Gein.
- Trams — around 200 km of track covering the whole city except Amsterdam North and Southeast, where the metro and buses take over instead.
- Buses — a network spread across the city and into the wider region, including a dedicated night bus network for after the trams and metro stop.
- Ferries — free crossings of the IJ (the waterway behind Centraal Station) for pedestrians, cyclists, and mopeds, plus separate paid ferries for vehicles across the North Sea Canal.
For trips beyond Amsterdam — including to and from Schiphol Airport — you’ll use NS, the national railway, which is a separate ticket system from GVB.
How to pay
The standard way to pay is OVpay: tap a contactless debit card, credit card, or your phone/smartwatch on the reader as you board, and tap again as you get off. You’re charged a small base rate plus a per-kilometer rate for the distance you actually traveled — there’s no need to register or download anything first.
A few things to know:
- Always check in and check out, on every mode, every time — trams and buses have card readers by the doors, and metro stations have gates you tap through. Missing either one triggers a default flat charge (refundable if you fix it online).
- Use the same card every time in a single day, so GVB can calculate your fare correctly.
- If you’d rather not use a bank card, GVB sells its own OV-pas (a preloaded travel card, replacing the older OV-chipkaart) at machines and shops.
- If you know you’ll be riding a lot, fixed-price tickets — a 1-hour ticket or a day ticket — are available in the GVB app or at machines and can work out cheaper than pay-per-km.
Fares
| Rate | |
|---|---|
| OVpay / balance (pay-per-km) | €1.16 base + €0.217/km |
| Reduced (ages 4–11, 65+) | €0.77 base + €0.143/km |
| GVB Max (daily cap when paying with OVpay) | €10.50/day |
| GVB 1-hour ticket (unlimited transfers, 1 hour) | €3.40 |
| GVB Day ticket (24 hours, unlimited) | €10.00 |
| Multi-day ticket (2–7 days, unlimited) | €16.00–€43.00 |
| Night bus single ride (1.5 hours) | €5.70 |
However you pay, the GVB Max cap means a full day of OVpay travel never costs more than a day ticket — you don’t have to choose in advance, it’s applied automatically at the end of the day. Day and multi-day tickets cover GVB trams, buses (including night buses), and metro only — they’re not valid on NS trains or on regional operators like EBS or Connexxion.
Getting from the airport
Take the NS train — the station sits directly beneath the Schiphol terminal, a short walk from baggage claim.
- Time: 14–17 minutes to Amsterdam Centraal.
- How often: 8 trains an hour.
- Platform: trains to Amsterdam leave from track 3 at Schiphol.
- How to pay: the same OVpay tap-in/tap-out on your contactless card or phone works on NS trains too, or you can buy an NS ticket at the station.
Apps to download
- GVB app (Gappie) — the official app: plan trips, see live vehicle locations, buy barcode tickets (including day tickets), check which stops are wheelchair-accessible, and get a countdown clock for the ferries.
- 9292 — the national journey planner covering every operator in the Netherlands, useful once you’re heading beyond GVB’s network.
- NS — for train times and tickets, including the Schiphol connection.
When it runs
Trams, buses, and the metro run throughout the day. Once the regular network winds down for the night, a dedicated night bus network — lines prefixed with an “N,” all starting from Centraal Station — takes over and runs on its own separate fare (day tickets and the 1-hour ticket don’t cover it). The free IJ ferries also keep some late service; the Centraal Station–Buiksloterweg route in particular runs into the small hours.
Accessibility
Trams generally board level with the platform or have a ramp, and metro stations have extra-wide gates for wheelchairs and mobility scooters. Stops and stations have tactile guide strips for cane users, and checking in or out gets confirmed with a beep (one beep for check-in, two for check-out) so travelers with visual impairments can tell it registered. The GVB app has a Virtual Stop Assistance feature that plans routes around your specific mobility needs, and the journey planner can be set to route you only via stops marked accessible. Ferries have wide boarding ramps used by everyone, wheelchairs included.
Etiquette & local quirks
- Check out, not just in. Forgetting to tap out is the single most common mistake visitors make — it triggers a flat default charge, though you can request a refund online afterward.
- Fare inspectors are common, in and out of uniform. Riding without a valid check-in risks a €70 fine on top of the fare.
- Bikes only go on the metro or on tram line 26, and only outside rush hour (you’ll need a separate bike ticket).
- Amsterdam is a cycling city first — when you step off a tram or out of a station, look for the bike lane before you look for traffic.
Good to know
- The OV-chipkaart is being phased out. GVB is moving everyone toward OVpay (tap your own bank card) or its replacement, the OV-pas. Either still works today, but OVpay is now the default recommendation for visitors.
- Missed a check-out? You can fix it and get a refund online rather than just eating the flat-rate charge — it’s worth doing if you forget.