Using an eSIM in Amsterdam

What Amsterdam is like on a phone

Amsterdam is walked and cycled far more than it is driven. Visitors range from couples on a weekend to families taking children round the museums to people flying in for a short round of meetings. The plan of the city is a set of nested canal rings, which makes it easy to lose your bearings and leans on the map more than a grid city would. Coverage across town is even and dependable. What people do notice is the map placing them on the wrong side of a narrow canal street, where tall houses press in from both banks.

When you land

Schiphol (AMS) has its station directly beneath the arrivals hall, about twenty minutes from Amsterdam Centraal, and international trains from Paris, Brussels or Germany arrive at the same terminus. Switch the line on before you take the escalator to the platforms, because you have to buy a ticket and pick the right stopping pattern. The ride in keeps service throughout since the route is entirely above ground; inside Centraal, under its old iron train shed, the speed drops briefly and recovers as you come out onto the forecourt.

Where coverage changes

Both the inner canal rings and the outer districts stay connected, but on a narrow canal street lined with five-storey houses, positioning often puts you on the opposite bank and the app sends you over the wrong bridge. The metro line running under the centre has deep tunnel stretches that stay quiet until the next platform. Canal tour boats keep service, always being close to a bank, though the heavy glass roofs on some of them noticeably cut reception compared with sitting in the open.

What a day here costs in data

A walking day here runs about 800MB to 1.3GB, because the map tends to stay open longer than usual — the canals keep making you re-check which way you are facing. Booking museum slots ahead and opening the ticket at the door are short but frequent. If you cycle with voice navigation running all day, allow another couple of hundred megabytes: continuous guidance costs more than glancing at a map now and then.

Districts travellers ask about

• The canal ring — Service is fine, but the position pin regularly jumps to the far bank — confirm with a bridge name or a house number before you turn.
• The Jordaan — Small lanes and small shops: fine on the street, though rooms at the back of an old building facing an inner yard receive distinctly less than those on the canal side.
• The museum quarter — The open square in front connects well, while galleries set deep on the lower floors leave you on the building's Wi-Fi — open your timed ticket before joining the queue.
• Oost and the eastern docklands — Newer waterside blocks with wide streets and space between buildings, steadier than the inner rings — the easier side of town for working or a video call.

Day trips out of the city

• Zaanse Schans — A short train and a walk; the open riverside ground has good service, though inside a mill — thick timber and machinery all around you — it weakens noticeably.
• Haarlem and the coast — A short train with service throughout; on the North Sea beach it is good at the shoreline but thins out on the dunes away from any building.
• Utrecht — The inter-city line keeps service throughout; in Utrecht the lower canal wharves, set below street level, weaken because you are underneath the city rather than on it.