Quick question on parking near Ibis at Schiphol..........

Pay for the car and tell the rental agency what you're doing. Lift gates aren't ever locked.

The hotel's a couple miles from the airport so you're going to have to move your junk around twice.

I'd give up an hour before paying parking and an extra day of rental charges.

The Ibis is in a business area with hotels and pay parking all around. It is just into the town of Hoofddorp. I don't remember any street parking in the area.

A car in the Netherlands generally means paid parking.

Are you driving directly to Brussels? That's another place with expensive parking. How will you plan to get around Antwerpen? There is road work to be aware of and often big traffic.

The Ibis has a very good shuttle to the Schiphol airport which it shares with the other Accor properties in Hoofddorp.

What are you doing the first day?

Hi

First day (Mon Sep 01) we are in town - planning for Rijksmuseum, canal tour, etc and evening along the canal area etc. Second day we plan to leave early as already mentioned. We are actually headed to Black Forest (Gengenbach) - having a leisurely drive via Brussels, etc. However it is unlikely that we will actually enter Brussels. May be a stop in Luxembourg to break the journey.

Looks like our best option at Schiphol seems to be:
1. Rent the car at the airport (already booked). We fly out on Sep 7 th - so we are getting a weekly rental anyway.
2. Drive to the hotel and park the car here for the rest of the day - basically pay the EUR 17/50 parking charges.
3. After freshening up at the hotel, take shuttle back to Schiphol and train to town - back to hotel in the night.
4. Tue morning - we can leave straight for the destination.

Does the above look ok? - seems like we will end up paying the parking charges.

Thx

That's a long drive - pretty much all day - and adding getting around Antwerpen and Brussel won't do anything to speed it up.

What did you have in mind to see on the way?

Nigel - thinking of stopping in Luxembourg City and may be another place also along the way. Google shows this as a 6 hr drive (Schiphol to Gengenbach) - we are thinking of doing it in 9 hrs. Both me and my wife drive, so it may not be that tiring (we hope!).

Suggestions on intermediate stops welcome !

.....Also.........

We reach gengenbach in the evening - then we are in this town for the next three full days - leaving on the fourth day towards amsterdam - but via another route, mostly a few hours in heidelberg.... Plan is to reach Amsterdam late evening / night

When I had to park my car at Schiphol to visit my family I did a lot of research for cheap parking around Schipol. The cheapest I found was Mobypark for 7 euro's a day

btw the link is: http://bit.ly/1jh1Jh4

If you are driving to Luxembourg from Amsterdam, it is much better to go via Eindhoven, Maastricht and Liège than via Antwerpen and Brussel. It is slightly longer, but highways are significantly less congested on your average day.

People.
I have parked at the quickparking schiphol and my car got scratch and they didn't recognise what happened. Never again. I park there.