Rotterdam Transportation

From: Rotterdam Travel Guide

water taxi photo

ABOVE: A water taxi on the Nieuwe Maas.

Getting to Rotterdam

Rotterdam is in South Holland, 59 km (37 miles) south of Schiphol Airport and about 77 km (47 miles) from Amsterdam.

NS train Arriving by train. NS, or Netherlands Railways, operates several trains per hour between Amsterdam and Rotterdam. From Amsterdam Centraal Station, travel time to Rotterdam CS averages 59 minutes (or 43 minutes on the high-speed Thalys trains that connect Amsterdam, Schiphol Airport, Brussels, and Paris.) From Schiphol Airport, travel time is 41 minutes on normal direct trains and 26 minutes on Thalys. The NS journey planner has an interactive timetable.

Tips for train travel:

You'll save a little money by buying train tickets from the easy-to-use touch-screen machines in railway stations (including the station at Schiphol Airport) or by ordering tickets online.
Many trains from Amsterdam and Schiphol continue past Rotterdam Centraal to the Rotterdam Blaak station and beyond. (Rotterdam Blaak is close to the Stayokay hostel and is convenient to hotels near the waterfront between the Erasmus and Willems Bridges.)

Rotterdam Airport Arriving by plane. Intercontinental flights and many other international flights use Schiphol Airport near Amsterdam, but Rotterdam The Hague Airport does have direct flights to a number of European destinations--some seasonal, and others year-round.

Hoek van Holland ferries Arriving by ferry: Stena Line operates car-passenger ferries between Harwich, England and the Hook of Holland, which is downriver from Rotterdam. P&O North Sea Ferries operates ferries between Hull and Rotterdam Europoort.

Rotterdam Cruise Terminal sign Arriving by cruise ship: The Rotterdam cruise terminal is on the Holland Amerikakade, across the Erasmus Bridge from the city center. It welcomes about two dozen cruises each year. See the Cruise Terminal Rotterdam page in this guide for more information.

Arriving by car: Several motorways converge on Rotterdam from the north, south, east, and west; you can get free maps and directions from the interactive Via Michelin journey planner.

Local transportation

RET logo RET is the main public-transportation operator in Rotterdam. It was founded in 1878 as a streetcar company (Rotterdamse Elektrische Tram); today, it carries more than 600,000 passengers a day on a multimodal transportation network that includes buses, trams, a metro system, and a new fast ferry.

The RET Web site should answer most of your questions, but if you need help with route planning or other transit matters in Rotterdam, go to any of the RET's Service Pillars and Service Points.

Other local transportation services in Rotterdam include:

Watertaxi Rotterdam sign Watertaxi Rotterdam (click the Web site's Union Jack), which is especially convenient for getting between Leuvehaven, in the city center, and the Hotel New York by the cruise terminal. The water taxis, which are actually shared-ride water minibuses, offer frequent daytime and evening service to many boarding places on the north and south side of the river, including the popular tourist attractions of Euromast and Delfshaven.

Rotterdam Waterbus ferry Waterbus fast ferries, which connect central Rotterdam with the windmills at Kinderdijk, Dordrech, and other points upriver on the Nieuwe Maas.

NS train in Rotterdam Centraal Station Netherlands Railways, which operates trains for commuters, business travelers, and tourists throughout the region (including trains to such cities as Delft, Utrecht, Den Haag, and Amsterdam).

Depending on how close you are to a railroad station, an NS train may be faster than local transit for reaching outlying points within the city like the Feyenoord football stadium at Stadion station, which is on the south side of the river beyond the Blaak and Zuid stations.

Taxis (the automotive variety) are available at Rotterdam Centraal Station, the airport, and other locations; you can also order cabs from Rotterdamse Taxi Centrale or Taxi St. Job.

Bicycling

Bicycle photo See our Rotterdam tours and excursions page for advice about bicycling (including links to local resources).

Driving and parking in Rotterdam

Rotterdam parking sign Rotterdam is a post-World War II city, for the most part, with an efficient road network and good separation between cars, bicycles, and pedestrians. Thanks to excellent public transportation and the Dutch willingness to use transit, car traffic generally moves smoothly outside of rush hours. Still, we'd recommend parking your car and relying on shoe leather and transit for sightseeing.