Netherlands Transportation Questions

Trains (and all other forms of public transport) in the Netherlands are mass transit. There is free seating and tickets are never tied to a specific train on a specific time, only to a specific day. So if you were to buy a ticket from Amsterdam to Leiden, you can take any train from Amsterdam to Leiden on the day mentioned on your ticket.

However since early this year, you can use your credit or debit card to pay for public transport. In busses and trams you tap your card when you enter the vehicle and tap again when you leave the vehicle. For trains and subways/metros, you tap when you enter and when you leave the station. Everyone in your party must have their own physical card in order for this to work. The cards can be charged against the same account, but you do need a card for each person. More details see here; https://www.ovpay.nl/en

Hotel bikes or rental bikes in Amsterdam will let you cover a LOT of distance in a short time and is super fun.

Regarding the trains, I just bought tickets ahead of time on the ns.nl website. Put in the starting station, and destination station, travel date, and rider count, and bought them that way. Scan the paper printout or use the app at the station. Very easy to do ahead of time for me - especially if you know the DAY (not TIME) you will be using the ticket(s).

On the Amsterdam tram, there was usually a clerk on board in the middle of the tram, but I just used my US credit card with a chip to "check in" and "check out" on the tram. I think that might work on the trains (and busses?) too, but didn't try.

In other words, no OV chipcard needed, and pretty convenient as I did it from home, but maybe not the most economic route?

In other words, no OV chipcard needed, and pretty convenient as I did it from home, but maybe not the most economic route?

There shouldn't be a price difference between tapping in and out (via either creditcard or OV chipcard) versus purchasing the tickets with NS online. The only exception being when you arrive to your destination and will start a new journey from there within an hour. In that case, the tapping in/out system will recognise this as a "transfer" and not charge a second boarding fee. (all fares consist of a fixed boarding fee plus a fee based on distance traveled). But this situation will rarely occur and probably the time investment to figure this out isn't worth the potential saving.

Purchasing paper tickets from the vending machine will be the less economical option, as €1 is added to each paper ticket as the strip of paper actually contains a small chip which needs to be paid for.
Thus, tapping in/out and purchasing tickets with NS online are both economical routes.

If you want to optimise costs, and given that you are a group of 5, you can consider whether there will be any journeys with longer train rides that will definitely be during off-peak hours. Then, if you have time, take a look at group tickets: https://www.ns.nl/producten/en/meest-gekocht/p/groepsticket-daluren

Happy travels!

How do the bus and tram fare-verification police check that a touchless credit-card was scanned already? (I haven't been to the Netherlands in ten years.) I'm sure they can read an OMV card, that's not my question.

Ticket inspectors in all forms of public transport use a device that can scan all types of cards and tickets. The device can scan the chips on OV-chipcards, debit/credit cards, single use chipcards and multi day travel cards as well as the QRcode on etickets.