The City of Groningen has excellent connections to all main airports and railway stations in the Netherlands. It is located in the northeast of the Netherlands, approximately 200 km from Amsterdam and 250 km from Hamburg in Germany. You will probably arrive in the Netherlands at Schiphol, Amsterdam International Airport. The easiest way to travel to Groningen is to take the train. The underground train station is located near Schiphol Plaza, within several minutes walking distance from the luggage claim. The Dutch railway system is run by Nederlandse Spoorwegen and known as NS. You will recognize it by its yellow and blue colours. Look out for the yellow illuminated signs that direct you ‘To the trains’.
Tickets
It is important that you purchase a train ticket to Groningen before you board the train. Passengers travelling without a valid ticket will be fined. There are two ways of purchasing a ticket: at the ticket office where you can purchase a ticket from a railway officer in person, and at the yellow and blue ticket-vending machines that you will find in the luggage claim hall and by every entrance to the train terminal. You can purchase tickets from the machines only by using your credit card or a debit card with the Maestro logo. You can buy either a first-class ticket (approximately € 45) or a second-class ticket (approximately € 25).
Public Transport Chip Card System
Please note that in parts of the Netherlands a new ticketing system is in use. It is called the OV-chipkaart system (Public Transport Chip Card system). Currently both the old and new ticketing system are considered valid. However, we advise you to purchase paper tickets for as long as they are being offered, since the OV-chip card system is not yet in use on all bus and train companies in the province of Groningen.
Should you still want to buy an anonymous OV-chip card you can get one at the following points of sales: desks of railway companies (such as the NS Service Desk), ticket vending machines on train stations, several tobacco shops (such as Primera), supermarkets (Albert Heijn and C1000) and some Bruna bookshops. At Schiphol Airport you can buy the anonymous OV-chip card at the NS Service Desks or the AKO bookshop, located at Schiphol Plaza.
Further information about the OV-chip card system can be found on http://www.ov-chipkaart.nl (click on ‘UK’) and through Travelling with the OV-chipkaart [PDF]. Here you can also check which parts of the Netherlands are already using the OV-chip card system. The purple areas indicate those areas where you can only travel by means of the OV-chip card, the pink areas indicate where you can use the chip card but can also still use paper tickets, and the green parts indicate where the use of the new system has not been implemented yet.
Train schedules
Every hour there is a direct train to Groningen from SchipholAirport. Additional connections every hour involve just one change of trains (at Amersfoort). Make sure that you board one of the carriages marked with the destination Groningen (the other part of the train travels to Leeuwarden). The journey from Amsterdam or SchipholAirport takes approximately 2.5 hours.
A national railway timetable is available on the Internet at http://www.ns.nl/ (Click on ‘English’). Here you can also find a demonstration of the ticket vending machine with touch screen. This gives you an opportunity to practice.
You can also use the Journeyplanner for all Dutch public transport.
You are advised to take a taxi to bring you to your accommodation. You can find taxis at the front of the Groningen railway station.
> read more about travelling in the Netherlands
