7 hour layover in Amsterdam. What can you do?

Hatteras Jim

On our return from K & T, we have a 7 hour layover in Amsterdam. Just wondering if there is anything that you can do besides the obvious sitting and reading. Anyone leave the terminal to check things out?

Thanks

jim K & T 16th Feb start date

BKMD

There's a train from Schipol to Centraal Station (about 20 minutes).
http://www.cityblog.amsterdam/2015/11/02/10-things-to-do-in-walking-distance-from-amsterdam-central-station/

Claudia Sails

Just be sure to allow plenty of time for clearing passport control on arrival and security upon return. We once had a 2 hour layover there arriving from Switzerland and then flying to Atlanta. It took the full 2 hours just to get to our departure gate.

They recommend people arrive at the airport 3 hours before departing flights to the U.S. And customs clearance to leave the airport could take half an hour plus time to walk, hit the restrooms, find a luggage locker if needed, etc. That leaves you about 3 hours to ride into and return from the city.

British

Yes, I would not risk it. Too late now, but an extra night in Amsterdam night have been nice and given you well over 24 hours to explore. We have had twelve hour unavoidable layovers, they soon pass. Good book, looking at the Tauck forum, taking a shower, browsing the stores, taking a nap, eating.

AnneTonisson

Amsterdam airport is very nice with lots of designer shops .Could be an expensive stop. Don't know which airline you are flying but it may come with a lounge pass or one can be purchased. See you in Arusha on the 16th!

AlanS

You can kill an hour +/- (?) by touring the Rijksmuseum branch at Schiphol Airport. Passengers arriving, departing or transferring at Schiphol Airport can visit the museum for free all day and all night. It contains a permanent exhibition of ten works by Dutch masters of the Golden Age from the main Rijksmuseum collection. There is also a temporary exhibition which changes a number of times each year. The museum is located between lounge 2 and 3 on the so-called Holland Boulevard. Right next to the museum there is a small shop that sells souvenirs from the major art museums in the Netherlands.

Here is a link to a TripAdvisor article about other things to do (e.g. Yotel sleep pods, massage, etc.) and instructions on how to get to and from the city and the time involved (for customs, immigration, purchasing train ticket, etc.) if you have a long layover. The info is two years old.

Here is a link to a slightly older article about what to do on a layover.

Claudia Sails

Now if someone would come up with some ideas for a 7 hour layover in Salt Lake City. Original itinerary gave us about an hour and a half then Delta moved up the Amsterdam departure and the layover became 45 minutes. Great on the Schipol end where we have to transfer. A bit too narrow on the SLC end. Moved up our flight from home to the only option and now have a long day trying to keep occupied. Arg!

AlanS

Claudia Sails wrote:

Now if someone would come up with some ideas for a 7 hour layover in Salt Lake City. Original itinerary gave us about an hour and a half then Delta moved up the Amsterdam departure and the layover became 45 minutes. Great on the Schipol end where we have to transfer. A bit too narrow on the SLC end. Moved up our flight from home to the only option and now have a long day trying to keep occupied. Arg!

That often happens if we try to fly Delta from our closest feeder to Atlanta. It is only a 45 min., easy drive from home. Sometimes it works out fine, other times it can result in a 6 - 7 hour layover in Atlanta on the return. That's not happening!!! For that reason and because there are more flight options, we usually drive 2 hours and fly out of Raleigh-Durham. We decided to accept a 2+ hr layover coming back from Africa in June but it has now changed to a 3+ hr layover, but it is too late to change now and the price for a flight from RDU would be $1000 per ticket higher.

Sealord

Airport hotels often have a ‘day room’ rate that does not include an overnight stay. We have done that at the Sofitel in terminal five at Heathrow. Returning from our next trip to the Panama Canal the airline changed our two hour layover to a twelve hour layover, so we are staying at the MIA Hotel in the Miami airport.

Schiphol is probably the nicest ‘big’ terminal in the world. It was even nicer thirty years ago before it got “big”. On our last visit the only problem we found was that the Starbucks is in the Domestic terminal, so every time you wanted a cup of coffee you had to go through imigration and get your passport stamped. In any case a day away from Heathrow is a day well spent. Actually, I discovered last year tht terminal 2 at Heathrow is quite nice. But Terminal 5 is awful ... in my humble opinion.

Claudia Sails

Was doing some more reading and found a website called layoverguide.com that has a lot of useful info on this for airports world wide. It pointed me to something I'd missed on the SLC airport website -that there is a light rail from the airport into town. Sadly no luggage lockers so we'll have to decide whether seeing temple square is worth toting our extra carryon luggage around.

Amsterdam actually is a pretty good place for a long layover. Lots more to do at the airport.

AlanS

Claudia Sails wrote:

Was doing some more reading and found a website called layoverguide.com that has a lot of useful info on this for airports world wide.

That was where my second link above pointed to : )

BKMD

Taking this thread on a tangent (as many threads go...)

Does anyone know within what time frame airlines tend to change scheduled flights? For example, if I don't book until 3 months before the flight, is it likely that the schedule won't be changed?
And suppose they do change it. Can you ask for a refund and rebook with another airline, if there are better connections?

Claudia Sails

BKMD wrote:

Taking this thread on a tangent (as many threads go...)

Does anyone know within what time frame airlines tend to change scheduled flights? For example, if I don't book until 3 months before the flight, is it likely that the schedule won't be changed?
And suppose they do change it. Can you ask for a refund and rebook with another airline, if there are better connections?

Based on personal experience with Delta, they can make changes whenever they want and they will do rebooking (within Delta) if the changes affect your trip.

In 2017 we had a Tauck European trip sked where for months beforehand they made slight tweeks. Then 2 weeks before departing the return flight SLC to home got completely canceled. Options stunk. Either rerouted thru Atlanta in crappy economy seats or stay overnight in SLC. We opted for the later. They did change is to a morning flight home without a change fee.

Our latest flight changes were also made at no extra charge and occurred 5 months before leaving.

Refund or rebooking on another airline???? Good luck

Claudia Sails

AlanS wrote:

That was where my second link above pointed to : )

I thought you meant an older trip advisor link. Oops????

Ken from Vegas

BKMD wrote:

Taking this thread on a tangent (as many threads go...)

Does anyone know within what time frame airlines tend to change scheduled flights? For example, if I don't book until 3 months before the flight, is it likely that the schedule won't be changed?
And suppose they do change it. Can you ask for a refund and rebook with another airline, if there are better connections?

They can change it at any time. At least these days you can pretty much count on a e-mail informing you of the change. It the change is more drastic than a few minutes, they usually ask you to confirm that you accept the change. Once you do that you're locked in again. If you have a problem with the changes call the airline. At that point, they will usually change you to other flights (if available) at no charge. We've never asked for a refund, but if the changes are bad enough they will probably give you one (or at least a credit towards future travel). However, the reason we've never asked for one is that it's always been close enough to flight time that the alternatives on other airlines are few and expensive.

MCD

I had booked flights on Delta for my trip last fall to Australia and New Zealand many months in advance -- soon after the flights opened They made one or two insignificant changes to the flight times over the intervening months, but the final change they made did not give me what I thought was enough time between connecting flights through SFO on the way home. After stewing about it for several days (and checking other options) I called Delta and told them that I wanted to cancel the reservation, because I would be worried about making that connection all during my vacation. They were very accommodating. I had my credit posted to my credit card within a day. An added bonus was that my new flights (on United) cost $900 less than I had paid to Delta. This all happened about 4 months prior to my leaving the States.

AlanS

MCD wrote:

I had booked flights on Delta for my trip last fall to Australia and New Zealand many months in advance -- soon after the flights opened They made one or two insignificant changes to the flight times over the intervening months, but the final change they made did not give me what I thought was enough time between connecting flights through SFO on the way home. After stewing about it for several days (and checking other options) I called Delta and told them that I wanted to cancel the reservation, because I would be worried about making that connection all during my vacation. They were very accommodating. I had my credit posted to my credit card within a day. An added bonus was that my new flights (on United) cost $900 less than I had paid to Delta. This all happened about 4 months prior to my leaving the States.

I had a similar (at least initially) late change experience with Delta. Rather than call to cancel, I first looked for and luckily found, alternate Delta routing. Actually, the aircraft and schedule were better than I had booked originally (though it was considerably more expensive). I called Delta and told the rep I didn't think I could make the connection with the changes they made. Then I gave her the alternate routing. The rep didn't hesitate and rebooked us on the new flights- no charge.

FYI- we once had to make make a non-mandatory change- Delta charged a change fee, but also refunded the difference because the new flight fare was less expensive.

British

We have had flights changed early, we have had flights changed just before a trip. We have even had one of two flights canceled over a Christmas holiday period and we could not get a second flight because of it being the holiday. We had to cancel that vacation. We always book as soon as flights open up for our Tauck vacations. We would not risk booking as late as three months because of prices and maybe not being able to get a non stop direct flight to our destination which is our preference. Our upcoming trip flight got changed. To earlier and earlier, so now we have to leave for the airport at 3-45am later in the week.

Hatteras Jim

Thanks to all for the information. We checked out the links and will formulate a plan based on how tired we are after arrival. We put an extra day on the front end of the trip but did not consider an extra day in Amsterdam. Maybe next time. Looks like the 7 hours may pass quickly. See you on the trip Anne. Hopefully, the government shutdown will be over by Feb or it may take 7 hours to clear TSA in the USA! Jim and Dianne

mazalea

This is such a fun posting everyone! On our last departure through Amsterdam, we were patted down 3 times, luggage searched, and there was a mess up so no quick skirting of the lines. Alan's suggestion is spot on!

I KNOW this doesn't belong here, but have any of you globe trotters been in Tel Aviv and can you offer suggestions for a few days of early tour arrival time? (That forum isn't very active :-) thanks).