Amsterdam‘s Schiphol Airport will spoil you for all other airports. Its travel, relaxation, shopping and VIP facilities really take the wear and tear out of traveling.
First of all, the commuter train station is underneath the airport, along with a food court/shopping mall and full grocery store. If you know you’re going to a hotel with a refrigerator, you could be picking up some little snacks to stash away for when jet lag hits in the middle of the night!
Now, let us have a discussion of different airport security procedures. In the US, we have security with the x-rays and passport control at one stop. If you decide to go back, you can . . . you just have to go through security again. Okay. In Holland, it’s not like that. Pay attention! There’s a separate “passport control” from all the x-ray stuff. It doesn’t feel like our security procedures, you won’t have gone through x-ray yet. It won’t feel like the big deal in the US. However, once you go through “passport control,” you can’t go back! So, be sure to look at Schiphol’s web site to see what amenities you may want to check out “before passport control”. Great ones you’ll want to check out include a diamond merchant who will welcome you with a free glass of champagne and free inspection of your gold jewelry (it’d be a shame if your bracelet were about to pop off and you didn’t even know it) and importantly, the Privium Lounge.
Privium is a whole service program at the airport that includes arranging for Global Entry status, special parking facilities and a comfortable, exclusive lounge. The parking options include internal passageways to a private parking lot and valet parking. You may be thinking, “Why should I pay for an internal passageway?” Ah, let me tell you, from painful experience! One time, as I was wearing this delicate gauze dress on the plane and exiting, it split all the way down from top to bottom. It was like a hospital gown that opens in the back. I had to go out to the curb, rolling my suitcase in one hand and trying to hold my dress together in back with the other. I was unsuccessful and could only think to lean up against a pole as I cried and cried, waiting for my ride. This wasn’t very long ago, either. I suggest you pay for Privium membership, if only to avoid that hellacious event!
Other things to do at the airport include a cafe’ has seats like a Delftware teacup, a pharmacy that will put your prescriptions in a locker for you if you need things during non-working hours, a casino, a library, free WiFi, as well as a fine foods store that has loads of gourmet free samples! Oddly enough — and admittedly, I missed the Duty Free store — I didn’t see any Vandermint liqueur anywhere. By the oddest coincidence, I saw it as soon as I hit a restaurant in NYC.
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