Getting around Netherlands: transport and apps

One system covers the whole country: OVpay. Every Dutch operator - GVB in Amsterdam, RET in Rotterdam, HTM in The Hague, NS on the railways - now runs on it, and tourists no longer need an OV-chipkaart.

• How it works - tap a contactless bank card, phone or watch on the reader as you board or enter (check-in), and tap the same reader again when you get off (check-out). The fare comes from the pair and is billed once a day.
• Check in and out with the physically same thing. Tap in with the plastic card and out with the phone - even with that same card loaded in Apple Pay - and the system sees two incomplete journeys and charges the full unreduced fare twice. This is the most common and most expensive tourist mistake in Dutch transport, and the one r/Amsterdam has to explain every week.
• Forgetting to check out has the same effect, so make the tap on the way off automatic.
• Amsterdam daily cap - GVB caps contactless spending at EUR 10.50 a day (GVB Max) provided you use the same card throughout, after which the rest of the day's city journeys are free. A single GVB ticket is EUR 3.40 and a 24-hour ticket EUR 10.00, so the cap usually makes paper tickets pointless.
• Bikes - renting is easy and cycling is the fastest way across Amsterdam, but the traffic is fast, dense and unforgiving of hesitation. If you are not a confident city cyclist, the tram is the better first-day choice.

Apps worth installing:

• 9292 - the national journey planner covering every operator.
• NS - railway timetables, disruptions and e-tickets.
• GVB - live trams, buses and metro in Amsterdam.