IAmsterdam Card / Passes, Amsterdam

Favorite thing: I amsterdam pass is the best choice for your visit to Amsterdam, there are pass for 24, 48 and 72hours. We bought the 72 hours pass, it cost 59 euros, brings a guide, 2 cards, the one for the visits and the GVB to use in public transport. At the end of the guide you´ll find voucher to use in restaurants, shops and museums where you can get a discount.

La tarjeta I amsterdam card es la mejor opción que escogimos en nuestra estancia en Amsterdam. Compramos la tarjeta de 72 horas, cuesta 59 euros viene con una guía de las atracciones que van incluidas en la tarjeta, la tarjeta GVB para usar transporte público y cupones de descuentro en establecimientos.

Favorite thing: We visited Amsterdam in April 2010 and debated whether or not to buy an I Amsterdam Card.
It does sound like a really good deal, but when I searched further I found an All in One Travel ticket which only cost 68 euros for 3 of us for 72 hours, and included the train journey from Schipol to Amsterdam (I Amsterdam card is metro, tram and buses only).
As the I Amsterdam card plus train would have cost 198 euros for all of us we decided not to buy them.

In the event we visited the Van Gogh Museum, Musuem Van Loon, and Allard Pierson Museum. We also went to Anne Frank Huis but this is not included in the I Amsterdam Pass. We also went on a one hour canal boat tour - together with our travel passes this all came to 167.25 euros, perhaps not a huge saving but we did only go to the Allard Pierson museum as we happened to be passing.

I think if we had bought I Amsterdam cards we would have felt more obliged to go to places just to get the value out of the cards, or end up feeling miffed that we had spent money we didn't need to.

Amsterdam is a lovely city, and it was fantastic to explore and wander. Whilst you do need a couple of things to build your day around it was nice to feel free to wander as we chose.

If you are considering buying an I Amsterdam card, bear in mind that entrance fees for children are reduced or free depending on age. Our twelve year old got free entry into the Van Gogh Museum, and paid a reduced price on the canal tour and at Museum Van Loon.

Favorite thing: My husband and I were first-time visitors to Amsterdam, and this pass gave us access to not only the "must see" spots (e.g., Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh Museum) but also less well-known places (e.g., Museum of Bags and Purses) that we probably wouldn't have visited if we hadn't had the card. The public transport card also made it super easy to ride the tram: just hold your card to the reader and you're good to go, which was particularly useful in a city that we thought was strangely inaccessible to independent travelers. (For example, despite the ubiquity of English speakers and signs, we couldn't find information in English about how to use public transit, and it was next to impossible to find a good free map.)

Which leads me to the card's weaknesses. First, it says that it's good on all GVB trams and buses, but all the buses we saw in town are run by a different company--Connexxion--and, it turns out, the I Amsterdam card DOES NOT work on these. (We found out the hard way. The Connexxion transit police pulled us off the bus and questioned us. They let us go once they realized we had made an honest mistake, but it took a few stressful minutes for us to convince them.) I Amsterdam should make it clear in the little book that comes along with the card that Connexxion is a different company and that you can't use the card on those buses, but they say nothing about this.

The second problem is that the maps in the booklet are not great. There's a map in the front of the book that shows a general city map with boxes that show each of the four I Amsterdam zones. (These four zones have more detailed maps in each of the four sections of the booklet.) But this general city map is very vague, with no street names or anything, and gives only the most superficial impression of the city. It's also entirely unclear how one might travel between the four zones. The zone maps are moderately more helpful, but the number posts that indicate locations accessible with the card often overlap so that you can't actually see what the number is (and, thus, don't actually know which attraction it is). Further, the description of each individual attraction lacks a map coordinate (e.g., B3 or A2), so you have to scan the whole map until you find the number post. Not the end of the world, but annoying nonetheless. The individual maps also lack a public transportation overlay, so it's hard to see how exactly to get where you want to go. The description for each attraction helpfully says which tram line and stop will get you there, but how are you supposed to know where to pick up that tram line? The maps at the tram stops are great, but you obviously have to be at a tram stop to use it, which is not so helpful if you're trying to plan your next move from your hotel room or from a restaurant or whatever.

So, overall, the card is totally worth it if you plan to see lots of sights in the city. It's not as user-friendly as it could be, and they would do well to fix these oversights, but it's hard to beat the deal the card represents.