Centraal Station, Stationsplein, is one of the largest railway terminals in Europe. The station has an impressive array of facilities, from showers and restaurants to hotel and travel booking services. The national rail provider is NS (tel: 0900 202 1163; website: www.ns.nl), which runs an efficient network with frequent services covering destinations all over Holland and further afield into the rest of Europe. International tickets should ideally be reserved at least a week in advance.

Rail services: There are regular Eurostar trains (tel: 0990 186 186 in the UK; website: www.eurostar.com) from London to Brussels, where a direct connection to Amsterdam can be caught after a short wait (journey time - 3 hours). THALYS (tel: 0900 9228; website: www.thalys.com) has high-speed services connecting Amsterdam with Brussels (journey time - about 2 hours 30 minutes). There are frequent daytime services from many large western European cities as well as night services. More express train links to other European cities are currently under consideration.