Getting There · Amsterdam
One airport, two cruise terminals. Schiphol is about 13.0 road miles (21.0 km) from Passenger Terminal Amsterdam by our routing. It’s about 19.9 to the Felison terminal at IJmuiden — where some lines’ “Amsterdam” sailings actually leave. Read the port on your booking before you choose the train.
Put in your landing and the ship’s departure. We’ll hold them against our own margins — no line publishes a landing cut-off here.
Fly into Schiphol — every line and the terminal itself point you there. For a ship at Passenger Terminal Amsterdam, take the train to Centraal and walk about 15 minutes. Trains run eight an hour and take 14 to 17 minutes, per Schiphol. A metered taxi covers about 13.0 road miles by our routing.
A taxi has no fixed fare from the airport. The 2026 legal maximum caps a four-seat car to PTA at about €84 (about US$95) on our routing, our arithmetic — Holland America estimates about €45 (about US$50).
If your documents say IJmuiden, forget the train. The Felison terminal is about 19.9 road miles from Schiphol and the town has no station, per an IJmuiden information site. It’s a road trip, not a rail one.
Booking.com lists airport taxis you can book ahead. Check the pickup point, the price and the cancellation terms before you book.
Booking.com links are affiliate links: Seabound Journeys may earn a commission if you book, at no extra cost to you. It doesn’t change what we recommend. Affiliate disclosure.
Most ships leave from PTA, on the IJ east of Centraal. Some leave from the Felison Cruise Terminal at IJmuiden, on the North Sea coast, about 19.0 road miles (30.6 km) from PTA by our routing. MSC’s “Rotterdam (Amsterdam)” is in another city altogether. This is how each line’s own pages put it when we read them on October 3–4, 2026.
| Line | Terminal | What its pages say | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Celebrity | PTA | “Passenger Terminal Amsterdam (PTA)” on its port page; Celebrity Eclipse is on the terminal’s 2026 calendar 11 times, 06:00 to 17:00 | celebritycruises.com; cruiseportamsterdam.com |
| Holland America | PTA | Cruise Port Amsterdam, Piet Heinkade 27, on its departure-port page; it sells transfers to Rotterdam and IJmuiden as well | hollandamerica.com |
| Regent Seven Seas | Both | “Amsterdam, Netherlands” for PTA; “Amsterdam (Ijmuiden)” where Seven Seas Mariner ends a Copenhagen voyage on June 30, 2027 | rssc.com |
| Silversea | IJmuiden | “Ijmuiden (Amsterdam)” in its 2026 voyage titles to and from Southampton — seen in search results | silversea.com (search results) |
| Princess | IJmuiden | “Amsterdam (IJmuiden)”, with “a scenic 28-mile coach ride from port to the city”; the voyages we saw only call here | princess.com |
| MSC Cruises | Neither | “Rotterdam (Amsterdam)” — the terminal is Wilhelminakade 699, Rotterdam | msccruisesusa.com |
The terminal calendar lists calls without saying which start or end a cruise — read your own booking. A few lines run both ways: Regent uses PTA for some voyages and IJmuiden for others, and Princess warns that “the port location is subject to change.”
Sailing from Rotterdam instead? It’s a separate port with its own guide, Cruises From Rotterdam, and Schiphol serves it too. For the IJmuiden drive in detail, see Amsterdam to the IJmuiden terminal by car.
Schiphol sits south-west of the city. PTA is on the IJ, about 0.8 miles on foot east of Centraal by our routing. The Felison terminal is out at IJmuiden, where the North Sea Canal meets the sea.
We didn’t find a line that points cruisers to Rotterdam The Hague or Eindhoven airports for an Amsterdam sailing — this page sticks to Schiphol.
Fares and dates are on Booking.com. Land the day before, not the morning you sail.
Booking.com links are affiliate links: Seabound Journeys may earn a commission if you book, at no extra cost to you. It doesn’t change what we recommend. Affiliate disclosure.
The train row is per person and stops at Centraal — the tram or the walk is on top. Both taxi rows are per car, not per person — one is Holland America’s estimate, the other the most the meter may legally reach.
| Train to Centraal, at I amsterdam’s €4.90 (about US$6) | — |
| Taxi, at Holland America’s estimate | — |
| Taxi at the 2026 legal maximum, our arithmetic | — |
One way, in euros, as published on October 3–4, 2026. I amsterdam, the city’s tourism board, prints €4.90 for the train on a page updated in July 2025. Another of its pages says “approximately €5.50 (about US$6)”, and NS’s own fare page didn’t load for us. The legal cap for a car of up to four is €4.31 (about US$5) plus €3.17 (about US$4) a kilometre and €0.52 (about US$0.58) a minute. A van of five to eight may charge €8.77 (about US$10), €4.00 (about US$4) and €0.59 (about US$0.66), per the 2026 tariff. A driver may also agree a fixed price before you set off. The terminal’s own page still quotes €40 to €60 (about US$45–65) from Schiphol, beside a 2022 tunnel notice, so treat it as dated.
Booking ahead? Viator listed private Amsterdam cruise transfers from US$39 and a cruise-port-to-Schiphol car from US$83 when we re-read it on October 4, 2026. Those are a reseller’s “from” prices — check what the car and the bags include. Every rental desk sits in Schiphol Plaza, and Discover Cars showed Schiphol rentals from US$28.78 a day on October 3 — a price that moves daily.
Two of these rows are our own margins, not rules. The third is Holland America’s 1:30 pm meeting time, less an hour we allow for bags and passport control. Enter the landing time and the sailing time printed on your cruise documents.
The terminal says check-in time varies by ship, so your line’s time is the one that counts. Celebrity has you pick an arrival window at online check-in; Norwegian sells transfers only up to 4 days before sailing.
We ranked thirteen hotels for an Amsterdam cruise, eight of them in the city between about 0.2 and 1.3 miles on foot from PTA. Send the flight number and the ship, and we’ll match a night to your landing.
The terminal says disembarkation at PTA comes in phases, so it won't promise a time. Schiphol is about 25 minutes away by our routing with no traffic, and Holland America's last-day airport tour only takes flights after 3 pm. Put in your flight and when you expect to be off, and this works out the ride and the wait.
Partner links (transfers, rental cars, luggage storage) may earn Seabound Journeys a commission at no extra cost to you. They don't change the plan, which is built only from what each company publishes.
The station is under the terminal at Schiphol, and Schiphol says trains for Centraal always leave from track 3. Tap in and out with a contactless bank card or phone — no ticket machine needed. Machines by the baggage belts sell single tickets and one- to three-day passes if you’d rather.
From Centraal, the terminal says it’s about a 15-minute walk; our walking route gives 0.8 miles (1.3 km). Tram 26 toward IJburg runs every few minutes by day, and the first stop, Muziekgebouw / Bimhuis, is opposite the terminal. Amsterdam’s trams take no cash.
At PTA, Holland America lists 24-hour lockers at €4 (about US$4) small and €6 (about US$7) large, coins only. Bounce lists a storage point at Piet Heinkade 11 for €3.50 (about US$4) a bag a day, open 7am to 10:30pm. Nothing like that is published for IJmuiden, where Holland America says the pier has no luggage storage.
Your hotel adds Amsterdam’s tourist tax. We couldn’t read the rate on amsterdam.nl — KHN, the Dutch hospitality association, reports 12.5% of the room price for 2026, so check your booking. A night by the airport falls under Haarlemmermeer instead, whose rate we didn’t research. Our Amsterdam cruise guide covers the terminals and the lines in full.
Landing the day before turns sail morning into a short walk, not a race from Schiphol. It also lets you see which terminal you’re really sailing from, and sleep near it.
None of our thirteen runs an airport shuttle. The closest is citizenM, which says it’s a 4-minute walk from Arrivals. The Hampton in Hoofddorp is about 4.7 road miles away by our routing — a short taxi, not a shuttle ride. Hotel Jakarta suggests a taxi booked ahead through AMS Holland, with no fare printed.
The six we rank highest, each with its road miles from Schiphol by our routing. All thirteen are on the hotels page.
What each of our thirteen says about getting from Schiphol to its door. For a grander night, our splurge picks run from the canal belt to the Dam.
All thirteen, with what each says about Schiphol, are in the ride table on the hotels page.
Schiphol (AMS) — it's the only airport the lines and the terminal point you to. Our routing puts it about 13.0 road miles (21.0 km) and 25 minutes from Passenger Terminal Amsterdam with no traffic. Holland America says 15 miles and 30 minutes, depending on traffic — the terminal's own site says a twenty-minute drive.
There's no fixed fare. Schiphol's taxis run on the meter. The 2026 national maximum for a car of up to four is €4.31 to start, €3.17 a kilometre and €0.52 a minute. On our routing that caps the ride to PTA at about €84, our arithmetic. Holland America estimates about €45, well under that cap.
To Centraal, yes: eight trains an hour from the station under the terminal, 14 to 17 minutes, per Schiphol. From Centraal, PTA is about a 15-minute walk, per the terminal (0.8 miles by our walking route), or one stop on tram 26 to Muziekgebouw / Bimhuis. No train goes anywhere near the IJmuiden terminal.
By road. Our routing puts the Felison Cruise Terminal about 19.9 miles (32.0 km) and 31 minutes from Schiphol with no traffic. An IJmuiden information site says the town no longer has a train station, so it's a taxi, a booked transfer or your line's coach. Holland America sells transfers from Schiphol to IJmuiden.
Yes. Schiphol has a dedicated app pick-up point with free Wi-Fi for Uber and Bolt, and Holland America says both are readily available in Amsterdam. The app quotes the fare before you book, not at the curb.
No. That's how MSC sells Rotterdam, not Amsterdam, and its terminal is at Wilhelminakade 699 in Rotterdam. Holland America's main Northern Europe homeport is Rotterdam too. Schiphol still works for both — check the port on your booking before you plan the ride.
Yes, through SMS International Shore Operations; representatives meet guests after customs. Its Amsterdam page says to meet them no later than 1:30 pm on embarkation day, and its blog lists transfers to Rotterdam and IJmuiden too. No price shows on the pages we read.
All of them are collected at the Car Rental and Service Desk in Schiphol Plaza, the main foyer, per the airport. It lists Avis Budget, Enterprise, Europcar, Hertz and Sixt, most opening at 06:00 or 06:30 and closing at 23:00 — Hertz stays to 23:30.
At PTA, yes: Holland America lists 24-hour lockers at €4 for a small unit and €6 for a large one. At the Felison terminal in IJmuiden, Holland America says there's no luggage storage at the pier, so keep bags with your hotel until you head out.
Send your home airport, your line and the sail date. An advisor confirms which terminal you sail from, then puts the flight, the hotel night and the ride together. No obligation.
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