Events and seasons in Amsterdam: getting around during ADE, the marathon, the holidays and winter

ADE 2026 runs from Wednesday, October 21, to Sunday, October 25, with more than 1,200 events across the city, so hotels, venues and the roads around them are at their fullest in the evenings.

After the trams and metro stop, GVB night buses take over from 00:30 on 11 lines from Central Station, and street taxis and ride-hailing apps work as on any night, at whatever price and wait the moment brings.

It can be at the moments that matter: ADE 2026 puts more than 1,200 events across Amsterdam between October 21 and 25, and when a large room empties, thousands of people look for a ride at once.

By train or metro to Amsterdam Bijlmer ArenA or Strandvliet, both a few minutes’ walk from the stadium, or by car: from Dam Square it is about 11 km, roughly 18 minutes on a clear road.

Yes: at 03:00 on Sunday, October 25, 2026, the clocks in the Netherlands go back to 02:00, so the ADE Saturday night lasts an hour longer and the hour from 02:00 to 02:59 happens twice.

Yes — you book the car night by night, per hour: Business Class costs €65 per hour (Van Class €80, First Class €100), each booking lasts at least 2 hours with 40 km included per hour, and it starts and ends in Amsterdam.

Yes — AmstelCab drives artists, tour managers and crews, booked ahead at fixed prices: Schiphol to any Amsterdam address is €90 per car in Business Class, or €125 in a Van Class that takes up to 7 people and 7 cases.

On Sunday, October 18, 2026, the organizer lists the longest closures around the Stadionweg and the Amstelveenseweg up to the Overtoom (06:00 to 19:00) and the Stadhouderskade (06:30 to 18:00), with shorter windows on the Hobbemakade, around the Zuidas, along the Amsteldijk and in Oost.

The organizer points runners to the metro or train to Amsterdam Zuid and a signposted walk from there, because the roads around the stadium are closed from 06:00 on Sunday, October 18, 2026; runners in the first two marathon waves must be on the field by 08:50.

Yes: book a pickup at the Kiss & Ride on the Jachthavenweg, which the organizer names for dropping off and collecting runners, a few minutes’ walk from the Olympic Stadium finish.

They can if your hotel is near the course: on Sunday, October 18, 2026, the organizer closes the streets around the Olympic Stadium from 06:00 to 19:00 and the Stadhouderskade from 06:30 to 18:00, with shorter closures in Zuid, along the Amstel and in Oost.

A hotel near a metro or train line to Amsterdam Zuid, the station the organizer sends runners to, keeps race morning simple without putting you on the course.

It can be, with two things to know: Thanksgiving, Thursday, November 26, 2026, is an ordinary working day in the Netherlands, and it is also the opening night of the Amsterdam Light Festival, which runs until January 17.

Yes — book two fixed rides, there and back, or keep one car through the evening.

Partly: the festival’s 20–30 light artworks stand along the canals and are made to be seen on foot or from a boat, so a car can pass some of them but not follow the whole route.

First check the jetty on your ticket, because Light Festival cruises leave from different places per boat company and the festival asks you to be there 15 minutes early; many leave around Central Station.

Yes.

Yes, but they carry the whole city for a few hours: last year trains, trams, buses and metros stopped around 20:00 on December 31 and only night buses returned from 01:30, while taxis kept running, according to I amsterdam.

Book a car before you fly if you land after about 7pm: last year Amsterdam’s trams, buses and metros stopped around 8pm, and the only train left running was Schiphol to Amsterdam Centraal until 10pm, with night trains from 1am and night buses from 1:30am.

Plan it before the night: last year the Museumplein show was for up to 60,000 people with the countdown from 23:50, while trams, buses and metros did not run between about 20:00 and 01:30, when night buses left from Central Station.

Last year the only trains in the early hours of January 1 were the hourly night trains from 01:00 between Utrecht, Amsterdam Centraal, Schiphol and Rotterdam, with most regular trains back from about 10:00, and Amsterdam’s night buses from 01:30.

Yes, and it is the one night when booking early matters most: requests are handled in the order they arrive, so book weeks rather than days ahead.

Ask your airline first: under EU passenger rules, when a canceled flight is rebooked for the next day, the airline must offer a hotel and transport to it and back, even when the cause is bad weather.

By road, and with extra time: on January 6, 2026, NS stopped its trains for part of the day because of snow and frozen switches, during a week in which the weather service warned of dangerous travel conditions.

It depends on how bad it is, and the official warnings are the guide: in January 2026 the Dutch weather service issued code orange warnings for dangerous travel conditions, and hundreds of flights were canceled.

Yes, it is a normal cross-border ride: Schiphol to Brussels Airport is about 205 km and roughly 2 h 33 on a clear road, Schiphol to Düsseldorf Airport about 229 km and 2 h 44.