E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Paul Dijkstra / Dijkstra bv
The Floating Dutchman in Amsterdam offers travelers an amphibious tour of the city.
If you’ve got a long layover between flights, your choices at most airports are to eat, drink, shop or attempt to nap while sitting up − and without drooling.
But passengers with at least five hours to wait at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport now have a new, entertaining and amphibious option.
On Wednesday, after a month-long delay, the Floating Dutchman welcomed aboard its first paying customers. The service is a cross between a bus and a boat and drives tourists from the airport to the city, enters the water at a specially-built ‘Splash Zone’ to give passengers a floating canal tour and then returns, via the highway, to the airport.
Speaking to Overhead Bin during the canal tour portion of the tour on Thursday, Annette Fatael of Toronto, Canada, said: “We have a nine-hour layover on our way from Toronto to Tel Aviv and chose this from several tours offered at the airport. It’s a huge tour bus and it was hard to believe that it was going to go into the water.”
The amphibious bus carries 48 passengers, cruises the canals on battery power and is a partnership between the airport, the city of Amsterdam and a local cruise company.
The swimming boat concept is much like the Duck Tours offered in many U.S. cities. “But our floating is different because it is a luxury touring car and a fully equipped boat,” said Freek Vermeulen, managing director of Great Amsterdam Excursions. “We have a license plate and a marine certificate, so we can go everywhere. Duck Tours often use old army vehicles, are very noisy and only have permission to operate on a certain route.”
Tours last two hours and 45 minutes and are offered three times a day. Tickets cost about $56 (39 Euros) for adults and about $28 (19.50 Euros) for children. Booking online offers a 10 percent discount.
“It may prove to be one of the best ways to explore Amsterdam during a connection,” Cristian Petre of Romania wrote in the Flying Dutchman guestbook after the first day of tours on Wednesday. “We’ve now got an idea what the city is about and would return for more exploring,” noted the Kireta family of Australia.
It’s not as if Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport is such a terrible place to spend a long layover. To serve the 40 percent of passengers making connections through Schiphol, the airport offers amenities that include a casino, in-terminal hotels, a library, more than 100 shops and restaurants and an outdoor observation deck. There’s also a park (with trees) inside the terminal and a branch of the Rijksmuseum.
A few other airports, including Incheon in Seoul, South Korea, and Hong Kong International Airport also offer transit passengers organized city tours. Singapore’s Changi Airport offers complimentary tours of the city. Turkish Airlines passengers stopping over at Istanbul Airport also receive free tours.
Related stories
- Back to nature at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport
- High times in Amsterdam? Not so fast
- Video: Amsterdam city guide
Find more by Harriet Baskas on StuckatTheAirport.com and follow her on Twitter.
Leave a Comment:
There is no way in hell i would ride in that thing. Just goes to show people are stupid nothing like being trapped inside a water coffin.
or you could use the emergency exit and swim to the bank, looks like about 50 feet in the picture...sounds hard...
That vehicle was NOT made in the USA so I wouldn't wory too much about it.
American paranoia ....you people don't know how to have a fun. Now I know why cops go for the guns and everyone hit the ground when someone sneeze on 5th Ave.
If 10 people get out of that thing when it goes over, it will be a miracle.
"Place the emergency oxygen mask over your nose and mouth, After you verify you can breath under water, sit patiently for the rescue divers who have been automatically summoned to the location of our bus by GPS."
http://www.uscg.mil/lantarea/cgcConfidence/history.asp
I was there for that tom no thanks this sounds like it could be similar trouble to me.
Imagine a lot of people panicking and now imagine your trying to get by them.
Can anyone imagine the TSA allowing this in the states?
On the one hand, I could see any number of things that could go wrong with that vehicle, but on the other hand the Dutch are pretty safety-conscious and EU regs are at least as stringent as US.
In any case, the author is right about one thing - Schipol is not a bad place for a long layover. I was there for 8 hours once and never bothered to leave - caught a nap on a lounge-type thing upstairs, shopped, casino, etc. Not a bad experience.
No way in hell would I get on, I'm 52 and doubt that I could get out or survive the swim to shore with my health conditions and I'm a fairly fit individual who swims well. Would not want to be in that panic mode with others. I agree, sounds like the perfect water coffin.
Bus in the water? Oh, sure, pretend it wasn't an accident: "I meant to do that!"
This is just like the duck tours that ply the waters after coming in from the streets. I imagine that it is
perfectly safe. I would ride if I had at least a 5 hour layover in Schipol. I've been to Amsterdam and the
canals aren't that wide. And, I'm sure the bus is adequately outfitted.
Too enclosed you can not swim if you can out get out, nothing like the duck trucks.