Amsterdam ZTL

I don't believe Amsterdam has ZTLs, one is free to drive around at the centrum all they want but most don't because of the expense, and the very narrow side streets. There are large public underground parking complexes in the city center but they are brutally expensive. Around 50 euros a day for the ones in the Centraal Station/Dam Square area. Here's a list: http://www.amsterdam.info/parking/

Michael's right. What we do is drive in and drop our junk. Then one of us takes the car out a ways to a lot and catches a ten-minute ride back in to Centrall. Paring drops to ten or twelve euro a day. You're nuts if you try to drive around the city - - short-term parking is something like five euro per hour.

Amsterdam has indeed some pedestrian only streets, e.g. Kalverstraat and some adjacent ones. Don't google with "ZTL", that's an Italian acronym, search under "pedestrian only street" and you find more information, e.g. here:
http://www.amsterdam.info/shopping/ The biggest issue is parking, finding it and the cost of it. The only time we took the car into Amsterdam we ended up parking underground at the Van Gogh museum. It was a great location, not too difficult to get to, but very expensive.

I have no personal experience doing this. However, last year we stayed at a B&B in the De Pijp area (a little south of the Van Gogh museum. It did not take us long to ride a tram to Centraal station and we actually walked there twice). On their web site, she posts that parking is available at Olympisch Stadion for 8 euros a day. That is pretty reasonable and close to where we stayed. I would imagine that there is good public transportation since it is a stadium. Just an idea to help you focus your search.

I haven't seen ZTL's as such. I did, however, get pulled over by two bicycle cops for driving in a bus only lane. I had followed a taxi around a turn; a block later the taxi turned off, another block and I was being waved down by two police on bikes. They were very nice and sent me in the right direction without a ticket. I will add that, although my car had French license plates, their first question was (in English), "Where are you from?" (So much for no one knowing I'm a tourist.)

Don't google with "ZTL", that's an Italian acronym, search under "pedestrian only street" and you find more information There are of course pedestrian/tram/bus only streets, as Brad noted, but they're not enforced by camera's taking pictures of license plates. So if you make a few wrong turns you're not going to be accumulating fines like in Italy.

I've parked my car once in central Amsterdam, very short term as I went into a store, and never again. The roads in the grachtengordel area are extremely narrow, the spaces to park are exceedingly small, the cars parked have many a scratch and ding, there are big trees along the road narrowing the spaces and tearing up the road -- and if you don't get it just right you'll find your car in the canal. I find parking in Haarlem much easier, although certainly not really easy. Parking in Haarlem is either very expensive, non existent or for residents only. I usually parked there beyond the Leiden railway on the way to Zandvoort.

There are no restricted traffic areas in the Netherlands on the fashion they have the ZTLs in Italy. At most, there are some restrictions to bringing a car to 2 of the Wadden Zee islands. Parking on-street is very expensive. There are, however, 8 big park-and-ride lots near the ring road where you can park for a low daily fee and get an easy subway/tram ride into town.

Thanks to all for the helpful replies. I knew that ZTL was an Italian term, but I didn't know what they were called in other parts of Europe and also knew that there were other European cities that had them. And I figured everyone here knew what they were. It's good to know that there aren't any in Amsterdam. In any case, I believe we will take the advice of parking in one of the external park-and-rides and take the train into the center. Looking forward to the trip -- even if it seems like perhaps the place will be mobbed due to that big convention that is going on. Thanks to all.