This file (hopefully) contains all information which you will need upon your arrival in Eindhoven to find your hotel, the workshop & spring school locations, and/or the reception.





Train

The easiest way to find train connections to Eindhoven is to use the travel planner of either the Dutch railway or the German railway - both also have english versions (NS-english, DB-english). Train tickets can be bought at machines at every train station in the Netherlands and at counters at the bigger stations. The ticket machines have Dutch, English, German, and French interfaces and accept all cards that carry the Maestro symbol but currently no credit cards (this is supposed to change soon). A discount on the ticket price is only available for children or for the holders of the Dutch reduction card ("Voordeelurenkaart"). Within the Netherlands there are only day and weekend returns available, so, if you are traveling from Amsterdam Schiphol or Rotterdam Central most likely you will want to buy a single ticket to Eindhoven.

Plane

Eindhoven itself has only a small airport which is mainly serviced by Ryan Air. Ryan Air currently flies from Eindhoven to London Stansted (STN), Girona Barcelona (GRO), Milan Bergamo (BGY), and Rome Ciampino (CIA). But since there is a frequent and fast (< 30 min.) public bus service from the airport to the train station it might nevertheless be convenient to connect through London Stansted by using one of the many low-cost carriers that are based there. The following web-page www.fliegen-ist-schoener.de provides an excellent overview of the many low-cost carriers available - simply click on "Karte öffnen" under the red "Billig-Airlines" heading. You certainly might want to consider Transavia, BasiqAir, and EasyJet, all of which operate from and to Rotterdam and/or Amsterdam, as well as Germanwings who fly from Köln/Bonn.

There are basically six airports that might be useful when traveling to Eindhoven, namely Amsterdam Schiphol, Rotterdam, Brussels, Düsseldorf, Köln/Bonn, and of course Eindhoven itself. The table sketches the travel routes and times from these airports:

Airport
Minimum travel time
Route
Amsterdam Schiphol
1:30
Train, changing once in Duivendrecht, every 30 min., travel time 1:33
Rotterdam
1:30
Bus 33 (every 10 min., travel time 0:20, see schedule) to the train station, then direct Intercity to Eindhoven (every 30 min., travel time 1:12)
Eindhoven
0:30
Bus 401 to the train station (every 15 min., travel time 0:25, see schedule)
Brussels
3:30
Train, changing at least twice, see here for details, once an hour
Düsseldorf
2:15
Train, changing twice in Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof and Venlo, once an hour
Köln/Bonn
2:30
Train, changing twice in Mönchengladbach and Venlo, once an hour


Some of these connections have rather tight changing times - which is perfect if everthing goes well - but unfortunately delays are not uncommon.

The Netherlands have a great system of nationally valid bus tickets. Wherever you are in the country you can always pay with "strippen" = strips. The first zone you travel in costs you two, every additional zone one strip. These strips are sold as "Strippenkaarts" (see picture on the right). If you choose an airport that requires some bus travel then a small Strippenkaart with 15 strips (currently 6.50 €) is probably the right thing for you (at Eindhoven airport they are sold at the information desk inside the airport). They also come in handy on a day trip to Amsterdam, if you do not want to walk all the way to the Van Gogh museum but rather want to take a tram.

Taxis are expensive in the Netherlands. For instance, a taxi from Eindhoven Airport to the train station, which takes about 15 minutes, will cost roughly 20 €.


 
last modified: 27-Mar-2006  
contact: EWCG 2005