Ferries from Amsterdam, Centraal Station

1,307 active sailings — more than any other port on this site — and every one of them is free. The GVB ferries across the IJ from behind Centraal Station are not a tourist attraction that happens to be cheap; they are a piece of road that happens to float.

Three routes north

• Buiksloterweg — 4 minutes, 391 sailings. Runs 24 hours a day. For the A'DAM Lookout and the EYE film museum.
• IJplein — 4 minutes, 160 sailings. Stops overnight.
• NDSM Werf — 13 minutes, 101 sailings. The former shipyard, now the STRAAT museum and the IJ-Hallen flea market. Stops overnight.

⚠ Free means free — there is no ticket to buy

Pedestrians, bicycles, mopeds, scooters and wheelchair-accessible vehicles all cross at no charge. There is no gate, no validator and no queue to pay at.

People regularly stand looking for a ticket machine that does not exist, or assume a travel card is required. Walk on.

Where the pier is

The slips are directly behind Centraal Station — through the station concourse and out the north side, onto the waterfront. From platform to gangway is a few minutes' walk with no street crossing.

That position is why the ferries carry the numbers they do: they are the natural continuation of a train journey rather than a separate trip.

What Noord is for

Amsterdam-Noord was industrial and is now where the city put the things it had no room for downtown — the film museum, the street-art museum in an old shipyard, food halls, the monthly flea market. The four-minute crossing is what made that possible.

Timing

Buiksloterweg runs through the night; the other two do not. If you are coming back late from NDSM, check the last sailing or plan on the night bus, because the walk round is a long one.