Netherlands Guide
Getting around
By bus and tram
Supplementing the train network are buses – run by a patchwork of local companies but again amazingly efficient and reaching into every rural nook and cranny. Ticketing is straightforward, using strippenkaarts, though some long-distance buses don't accept them and you must pay the driver direct instead. Bear in mind also that in more rural areas some bus services only operate when passengers have made advance bookings. Local timetables indicate where this applies; regional bus timetable books, costing around €3, are sold at train station bookshops and many VVVs.
Within major towns, urban public transport systems are extensive, inexpensive and frequent, which makes getting around straightforward and hassle-free; most bus and tram services run from 6am until about midnight and strippenkaarts are valid except on special night buses (1–5am). Urban "Park and Ride" or Transferium schemes are commonplace.