How do you get from Amsterdam to Rotterdam?

Four ways, and the cheapest is also quicker than the obvious one. FlixBus runs it in 1 hour from Amsterdam Sloterdijk for 5,48 euros. The direct Intercity from Amsterdam Centraal takes 1 hour 12 minutes for 20,20. The fastest trains do it in about 50 minutes but need a change at Schiphol and carry a 3,20 euro high speed supplement, so 23,40 in total. The Sprinter takes 1 hour 15 for the same 20,20 as the direct train, which makes it the one option with no argument for it. From Rotterdam Centraal it is a 22 minute walk to the Markthal.

How much is the train from Amsterdam to Rotterdam?

20,20 euros one way, second class, full fare with no travel card. But that is the base fare, and on the fast trains it is not what you pay: the Intercity direct, the Eurocity Direct to Brussels and the ICE all carry a 3,20 euro supplement, which takes the real price to 23,40. The Dutch railway's own planner shows the 20,20 with the words 'without 3,20 supplement' beside it in grey, which is easy to miss. If you travel off peak, a Dal Voordeel card takes 40 percent off, though it only pays for itself if you are making several journeys.

Is there a high-speed train from Amsterdam to Rotterdam?

Yes, and more than one operator runs on the line: the Dutch Intercity direct, the Eurocity Direct heading to Brussels, and the German ICE. All three charge the 3,20 euro supplement. In the hour we measured, on a Tuesday morning in October 2026, the quickest options were 50 and 51 minutes and every one of them involved a change at Schiphol rather than running straight through from Amsterdam Centraal. Aggregator sites advertise 41 minutes for this route; no departure that fast appeared in the eleven we looked at, so treat 41 as a best case rather than what you will be offered.

Is Rotterdam a walkable city?

Walkable but spread out, which is a different thing from Amsterdam. The centre was rebuilt on a wide street grid after 1940, so the distances between the things you came to see are longer than the map makes them feel: 22 minutes from Centraal to the Markthal, and the Euromast sits well southwest of the centre again. Everything is flat and the pavements are generous, but if you want the Markthal, the cube houses, the Erasmus bridge and the Euromast in one day, expect to use the metro or a bike for at least one of those hops.

Which is better to visit from Amsterdam, The Hague or Rotterdam?

They answer opposite questions, so the honest answer depends on what Amsterdam has already given you. The Hague is government, embassies, the Mauritshuis and its Vermeers, and a beach at Scheveningen: it is the more conventional day out and the closer thing to a second Amsterdam. Rotterdam is modern architecture and a working port, with almost nothing older than 1945. If you have had four days of canal houses and want a change of register, Rotterdam is the one. If you want more of what you already like, The Hague. They sit close enough together that every coach tour sells both in the same day, which is the other way to settle it.

Is Rotterdam worth visiting from Amsterdam?

It depends on what you want to look at, and this is the one day trip where that is the real question rather than the logistics. Rotterdam was bombed flat in 1940 and rebuilt upwards, so it is the opposite of Amsterdam: towers, a covered market hall, a cable-stayed bridge, almost no seventeenth century. If you have come to the Netherlands for canals and gables, a day here will feel like a detour. If you like modern architecture, it is the only place in the country that delivers it.

How much does the Euromast cost?

13,50 euros for the general ticket if you book online and 17,50 at the door, so booking ahead saves 4 euros, about 23 percent. The complete experience, which adds the Euroscoop up to 185 metres with a glass floor, is 19,00 online against 23,50 at the door. Seniors start at 12,00 and children aged 4 to 11 at 10,00, with under-4s free. Note that the Euromast takes cards only and does not accept cash.

Is there a day tour to Rotterdam from Amsterdam?

Not to Rotterdam on its own. Both coaches we found combine Rotterdam with Delft and The Hague in one nine hour day, at 59 euros and 125 euros. That matters for the decision: if Rotterdam is the only place you want, the return train is 40,40 and you keep control of your own timetable. The tour makes sense when you want three cities and do not want to organise three sets of trains.

Which Rotterdam tour from Amsterdam is better?

The same pattern as Giethoorn, and it is worth knowing before the price tempts you: the cheap coach at 59 euros is rated 3.98 over 936 reviews, below four, while the small group tour at 125 is 4.66 over 800. On a nine hour day with three stops, that gap is the difference between a good day and a long one. If 125 is too much, the train to Rotterdam alone is the better fallback rather than the cheap coach.

How long do you need in Rotterdam?

A day trip gives you plenty. Return travel on the direct train is two hours 24 minutes and the walk from the station is 22 minutes each way, so you are spending about three hours and ten minutes moving. The Euromast takes around an hour by its own estimate, the Markthal is free and takes as long as you want, and the cube houses are a ten minute look from outside. That fits comfortably into the daylight in any month, which is not true of Giethoorn.

Rotterdam from Amsterdam: the coach beats the direct train, and the fare you see is not the fare you pay

The short answer

The coach does it in an hour for 5,48 EUR and the direct train takes 72 minutes for 20,20 EUR, so the cheap way is also the quick way, which is not how this usually goes. The real question is whether you want the city at all: it was bombed flat in 1940 and rebuilt upwards, so it is the opposite of Amsterdam. If you came for gables and canals this will feel like a detour. If you like modern architecture, it is the only place in the Netherlands that delivers it at this scale.

The coach is 14,72 EUR cheaper than the train and twelve minutes quicker. FlixBus runs 19 a day from Amsterdam Sloterdijk in 60 minutes from 5,48 EUR, against 72 minutes and 20,20 EUR on the direct train. What the train buys you is frequency, not speed.
The fare the planner shows is not the fare you pay on a fast train. 20,20 EUR is the base, and the quick services add a 3,20 EUR supplement that sits beside the price in grey type. About 50 minutes with a change at Schiphol Airport, for 23,40 EUR.
Book the Euromast online and save 4,00 EUR, which is 23 percent. 13,50 EUR online against 17,50 EUR at the door, on the tower's own site.
No coach goes to Rotterdam on its own. Both combine it with Delft and The Hague over nine hours. If Rotterdam is all you want, the train wins on price and on freedom.
It is a 22 minute walk from the station to the Markthal, the longest station-to-centre walk of any rail day trip from Amsterdam except Giethoorn. Rotterdam has no single old square, and that is the point of it.

Four ways in, and the cheapest is not the slowest

Rotterdam is the only journey of the ten in our day trips guide where the default advice is wrong. The train is the obvious choice and it costs four times as much as the alternative without being faster.

Amsterdam to Rotterdam, every way of doing it

How	Time	One way	Leaves from	Note
FlixBus	60 min	5,48 EUR	Amsterdam Sloterdijk	Cheapest and quicker than the direct train, but only 19 a day
Fast train, with a change	50 min	23,40 EUR	Amsterdam Centraal	Change at Schiphol Airport. Includes the 3,20 EUR supplement
Direct train, no change	72 min	20,20 EUR	Amsterdam Centraal	The simple one. No supplement, no change, no thinking
Sprinter	75 min	20,20 EUR	Amsterdam Centraal	Same price as the direct train and slower. No reason to pick it

Swipe to see the rest of the table.

Coach times, frequency and lowest fare from FlixBus on 6 October 2026, read on its Dutch site so the price is in euros. The fare is the lowest advertised and moves with demand, like any coach ticket. Train times and fares read from the Dutch railway's own journey planner on 6 October 2026, for the eleven departures between 08:26 and 09:18 that Tuesday. Fares are per person, one way, second class, at the full rate with no travel card. The planner shows the base fare with the words 'Without EUR 3.20 supplement' beside it, so the number on screen is not the number you pay on a fast train.

FlixBus is 5,48 EUR and 60 minutes, which is 14,72 EUR less than the direct train and twelve minutes quicker than it. That is roughly 3.7 times cheaper for a shorter journey. The coach is usually assumed to be the slow way of doing this; against the 72 minute direct train, it is not.

What the train actually buys is frequency and a better address. We counted 11 departures in the 08:26 to 09:18 on Tuesday 6 October 2026 window, against 19 coaches across the whole day. On a day trip the return leg is where that matters: miss a train and the next is a few minutes away, miss the coach and your evening changes shape. The coach also goes from Amsterdam Sloterdijk rather than Centraal, which is a short train ride out of the centre before you start.

The one option with no argument for it is the Sprinter: 75 minutes, stopping everywhere, for exactly the same 20,20 EUR as the direct train. If the board offers it, wait for the next Intercity.

The Euromast sum, which is the same shape as the Heineken one

Rotterdam has one major paid attraction and it is a 185 metre tower. Two things about its pricing are worth knowing before you turn up, and both are on its own website rather than being our opinion.

Euromast tickets, online against the door

Ticket	Online	At the door	Note
General: platforms at 112 m	13,50 EUR	17,50 EUR	4,00 EUR cheaper online
Complete: adds the Euroscoop at 185 m	19,00 EUR	23,50 EUR	5,50 EUR more than the general, online
Seniors, from	12,00 EUR	n/a	Online rate
Children 4 to 11, from	10,00 EUR	n/a	Under 4s free

Swipe to see the rest of the table.

Euromast ticket prices read from euromast.nl on 6 October 2026. The crossed-out prices on its own site are the walk-up rate and the lower ones are for booking online.

First: booking online saves 4,00 EUR on the general ticket, which is 23 percent. The Euromast prints both prices on its own tickets page, with the walk-up rate crossed out. There is no reason to pay it.

Second: the jump from general to complete is 5,50 EUR, and what it buys is the Euroscoop, the rotating lift that takes you from the 112 metre platforms up to 185 with a glass floor. That is the whole reason most people come to a tower. We said the same thing about the Heineken rooftop for the same kind of reason: when the upgrade is small and it contains the actual attraction, the base ticket is the bad buy.

No coach goes to Rotterdam alone, and that decides it

We looked for a Rotterdam day tour and there is not one. Both products on sale bundle Rotterdam with Delft and The Hague into a nine hour day, which is a different proposition from the one most people are searching for.

Coach day trips that include Rotterdam, October 2026

Tour	From	Rating · reviews	Length	Note
Rotterdam, Delft and The Hague, small group	125,00 EUR	4.66 · 800	9 h	Three cities, small group, and the only one rated above 4
Rotterdam, Delft and The Hague, coach	59,00 EUR	3.98 · 936	9 h	Less than half the price, and under 4 on a bigger sample

Swipe to see the rest of the table.

Coach tour prices, ratings and review counts from the Viator API on 6 October 2026, lowest adult price per product.

So the comparison is not train against coach, it is one city on your own against three cities on a bus. For one city the train is 40,40 EUR return and you leave when you like. For three, organising the trains yourself is a real chore and the coach earns its money.

And the ratings repeat the pattern we found with Giethoorn: the cheap coach at 59,00 EUR sits at 3.98 over 936 reviews, below four, while the small group one at 125,00 EUR is 4.66. If the 125 is more than you want to spend, our advice is the train to Rotterdam alone rather than the cheap coach to three places.

Only if you want all three cities in one day

Rotterdam, Delft and The Hague small group tour

4.66 · 800 reviews

Book this only if you want the three cities, not if you want Rotterdam, and we would rather say that than take the commission on a mismatch. For Rotterdam alone the train is 40,40 EUR return against 125,00 EUR here, and you keep your own timetable. Where this earns its price is the other two stops: Delft and The Hague are separate train journeys and separate fares, and stitching all three into one day on your own is most of a planning afternoon. Of the two coaches running it, this is the one rated above four, 4.66 over 800 reviews against 3.98 for the 59,00 EUR one, on a nine hour day where that gap is felt. Nobody on this site has taken it, and the photograph is of the city rather than of the tour.

125,00 EUR

9 h · small group · free cancellation

Check availability on Viator

Photo is illustrative, not from the tour. Photo: Jan Geerling, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

What you are actually going to see

Rotterdam was bombed in May 1940 and the medieval centre went with it. What stands today was built after, which makes it the one Dutch city that does not look like the postcard. That is either the reason to go or the reason not to, and it is worth deciding before you buy the ticket rather than after.

The things people come for are close together once you have done the 22 minute walk: the Markthal, a covered market under a vaulted arch of flats, free to enter; the cube houses next to it, which most people photograph from outside; and the Erasmusbrug over the Maas. The Euromast sits apart from all of it, in a park about half an hour from the Markthal on foot.

If what you want is the Netherlands of windmills or villages with canals instead of streets, those are different day trips and both are better at being what they are.

The photograph above was taken on 17 November 2018 and carries its time in the caption. Every price and time on this page was measured this year, not recalled from that trip.