Parking in Amsterdam?

Fifty bucks a day or something like that - - garage or meter. The only way to beat it is to park at one of the outlying lots for around twenty per and ride the tram in. What we do is drive in to the hotel, drop the junk and one person, and then go get rid of the car. The whole process takes less than an hour.

Brad, if you ask for P+R tickets AT THE MOMENT OF PARKING (not on return), then you get the low Park+Ride fare. There are many underground garages in Central Amsterdam. The biggest ones are under Museumplein, in front of Leidseplein (across the canal), in front of the Central STation and behind the Dam square. On those parking, fares usually go on the € 40-75/day. Outrageous, many Dutch voters are extremely anger at those fares and trying to change the system. You can pre-paid parking on the P2CS (in front of Central STation) with a discounted fare € 20/day.

Use the park-and-ride lots. The one at Amsterdam Arena has easy subway access to central area. The one at Olympstadion has easy tram access to the Leidsenplein area. Parking there costs € 8/day for up to 5 days, with one caveat: public transport MUST be used in and out of the parking lot to warrant this low fare. The fare includes the ticket cost.

Please take this in the spirit in which it is offered, from one who has attempted, and often failed, to get parking in central Amsterdam - - suggest to your father that the best place to park in Amsterdam is nowhere near the centre of Amsterdam. Park outside, follow some above ideas, but above all avoid attempting parking near the girdle of canals. We tended to park outside Haarlem and training to Amsterdam or parking in the car park across from the Haarlem station. In addition to the hundreds of bicycles pulled from the canals in Amsterdam many cars are too. The spaces are tiny, the distance from the water minuscule.

We parked under the Olympic Stadium. I'm sure it wasn't cheap, but I think it was more like 20 euros a day. From there it's pretty easy to catch public transportation into the city.