There will be 3 different kinds for sale:
- one that is valid for one hour
- one that is valid for two times one hour
- one that is valid for 24 hours.

The cards are valid on all buses, trams and metros within Amsterdam. Please note: this means you can not use these cards on:
- regional buses (they are not operated by the GVB)
- the railways (also not to/from Schiphol Airport).

The 24 hours card is also valid on the night buses, the others are not.

The OV-chip card is an electronic card, it looks like a bank card. To activate it, you hold it in front of the check-in machines that you will see everywhere in all trams, buses and metros, and on platforms (see picture below).

If you change to another bus/tram/metro, you have to check out from the bus/tram/metro you leave (also by simply holding it in front of one of the OV-chipcard machines, and check in again in the next bus/tram/metro.
If you forget to check out, the card will lose its validity!

It is cheaper to buy an old-fashioned (paper) 'strippenkaart' in advance. GVB has, however, not published the rates of the new OV-chipcards. The local tv station AT5 showed that 1 hour cards are EUR 2.60, and a 2 hour card is EUR 5.-. The price of a 24 hour ticket is unknown to us.
You can buy a strippenkaart at the GVB ticket office in front of the Central Station.

More info on the (current) strippenkaart system.
More info on the new OV-chipkaart.


The OV-chipkaart