My husband and I will be traveling to Italy from Dulles airport in Washington DC. We are flying into Amsterdam first and then changing planes to continue on to Florence. We have a 2 hour layover in Amsterdam. If all goes well we arrive in Amsterdam at 8:30 am and our connection leaves for Florence at 9:45 am. Can anyone tell me what we can expect upon landing in Amsterdam? Will we need to go through customs? Will 2 hours be enough time to find the connecting gate? We are flying KLM. Any information would be appreciated.
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area (USA)
16133 posts
Assuming your inbound flight arrives more or less on time, 2 hours are more than sufficient to make the transfer. AMS is very easy to navigate.
You will go through passport control (immigration) in AMS, as it is your first EU Schengen port of entry.
There will be no customs there and your checked luggage will actually be transferred to the Florence bound plane so you won't see your luggage at all. You will pick up your luggage in FLR and the customs will simply consist of walking through the green line (nothing to declare). You could be picked up for a random check by the customs officers in Italy, but in 40 or 50 some trips to Europe I was picked only once in Barcelona (Spain) and only because I was transporting boxes with computer equipment.
If your flight from IAD to AMS is greatly delayed, there is the possibility that you might miss your connection to FLR. In that event go the the 'Transfer' desk (they are in all piers of Schipol airport). The KLM staff will rebook you on the next flight to FLR. Unfortunately there are only 4 flights to FLR, so it might be a few hours to wait at the airport. If it's too many hours to bear, you might consider a quick visit to the city of Amsterdam. It's not far from the airport by train. Just make sure you are back at the airport about 90 min before boarding time.
The four daily flights to FLR depart at 8:40 - 9:45 - 14:55 - 20.50
Posted by
OP
2 posts
Thanks so much for your reply. It's much appreciated.