Disabled travellers
Amsterdam is a hospitable city, and the accessibility of public buildings, public transport and parking facilities for visitors living with various forms of disability is taken seriously.
To and from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol
A range of services are on offer to assist disabled visitors arriving or departing from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol or departing from the airport. Read more about assistance at the airport. A lift is available at the train platform, and boarding/alighting assistance can be arranged in advance by the National Railway Service (NS). The NS also offers extensive information and additional services for disabled travellers.
Accessibility on public transportation
Navigating the city centre of Amsterdam can be challenging in some areas with narrow pavements, cobblestone streets and steep bridges. The city’s extensive public transport network (GVB) offers several features to make travel more accessible for people with physical disabilities, including on local trams, metros, buses and ferries.
Visiting city attractions
In Amsterdam itself, buildings are adjusted wherever possible to facilitate wheelchair users. A few taxi companies offer special wheelchair taxis to transport visitors in wheelchairs comfortably around the city. Several museums and attractions are also accessible to wheelchair users and those who are partially sighted. Several canal cruise operators make use of wheelchair lifts, such as the Blue Boat Company. If you'd like to experience the city like a local, Star Bikes has a bicycle in its range designed especially to accommodate disabled visitors.
In our cultural agenda, we provide information about the accessibility of many locations in Amsterdam. We try to keep this information as up-to-date as possible, but we recommend that you always check the venue's official website for the latest information.
More resources
- Accessible Amsterdam provides information about the accessibility of buildings in the city. Featuring accessibility and user-friendliness reviews of all sorts of public buildings, it helps visitors to plan their trip. The site also has information on public transport accessibility.
- The blog Able Amsterdam, written by Dutch-British Josephine Rees, promotes wheelchair and mobility-accessible places, to encourage people of all levels of mobility to get the most out of the city.
- Sage Traveling also provides helpful tips for wheelchair-accessible travel in Amsterdam.
- AmsterdaMobile is a travel agency for accessible tourism in the Netherlands, for travellers to rent mobility equipment, book accessible taxi transfers, accessible guided tours, and soon also hotels. Read the blog for reviews about accessibility to restaurants, hotels, attractions and more.
