A day of shopping,
with the bags in the boot.
Amsterdam’s shopping streets were mostly laid out before the car: the P.C. Hooftstraat, the Negen Straatjes, the Utrechtsestraat. A chauffeur by the hour turns that into an advantage. You walk in, the car waits, the bags stay behind you, and the next street is already on the way.
The city was built for walking; the shopping was not.
Anyone who has tried to shop in Amsterdam by car knows the problem. The P.C. Hooftstraat has a handful of kerb spaces and a garage under the Museumplein that is a walk away; the Negen Straatjes sit on canals where a car can barely pause; De Bijenkorf stands on the Dam among the trams. Taxis mean queuing again with every bag you carry. Hourly hire removes all of it: one chauffeur, one car, one rate per hour, and the boot as your cloakroom.
The pattern of the day is simple. The chauffeur drops you at the top of a street and collects you at the bottom, or waits round the corner while you try things on. Purchases go into the car between stops, so you walk into the next boutique with empty hands. Lunch at the Conservatorium or a coffee on the Cornelis Schuytstraat is a stop like any other, and the day ends with everything carried to your door or up to the hotel room.
Six addresses, one car between them.
The Oud-Zuid street of the international fashion houses, a few hundred metres from the Vondelpark to the Van Baerlestraat. Your chauffeur drops you at one end and is at the other when you emerge with the bags.
The department store on the Dam. Cars cannot stop on the square itself, so the chauffeur sets you down as close as the streets allow and collects you at an agreed corner when you send a message.
A short street in Oud-Zuid, a few blocks south of the P.C., with boutiques, florists and delicatessens at neighbourhood scale. Quiet enough for the car to wait within sight of the shop door.
Nine side streets between the Singel and the Prinsengracht, full of independent shops, vintage and small designers. The car cannot follow you in, and does not need to: drop on one canal, pick up on another.
Between the Rembrandtplein and the Frederiksplein: interiors, records, books and independent labels, with the tram down the middle. The chauffeur waits at the Frederiksplein end.
The Museumplein, the Rijksmuseum shop, the Stedelijk and the Concertgebouw are all a few minutes from the P.C. Hooftstraat, so a shopping day and a museum afternoon fit in the same booking.
The rate is per hour, per car, taxes included.
Book the block you expect to need; if the day runs on, the same rate simply continues. Every hour includes 40 kilometres, which a day of Amsterdam addresses never comes close to using.
Minimum two hours. Hourly hire starts and ends in the same city; a shopping run to Antwerp or Düsseldorf is priced as one fixed door-to-door quote instead. Free cancellation up to one hour before pickup.
From the hotel door to the last carrier bag.
Choose a class and a start time online, or message dispatch with a rough plan. Two hours is the minimum; most shopping afternoons want three or four, and you can extend on the day.
The chauffeur collects you at the hotel or the apartment, professionally dressed, with water and chargers in the car and, if you like, the streets put in a sensible order.
At each stop the chauffeur takes what you have bought and waits nearby. Send a message when you are ready and the car is back at the kerb.
Everything comes out of the boot at your door. If the evening carries on, so does the car, at the same rate, to dinner and back.
Antwerp, the Königsallee and the outlets.
A shopping day that leaves the city is not hourly hire but a fixed door-to-door quote, with the car and the chauffeur waiting throughout.
Belgium’s fashion city, about an hour and three quarters south: the Meir, the designers around the Nationalestraat and the diamond quarter beside Centraal station. Out after breakfast, back for dinner, one price for the car.
The Königsallee, the Kö, is a tree-lined boulevard of flagship stores about two and a half hours east on the A12 and A3. The chauffeur waits on the boulevard while you work your way down it.
Designer Outlet Roermond in Limburg and Batavia Stad in Lelystad are both a motorway drive from Amsterdam. Quoted as a fixed round trip with the car waiting and the boxes stacking up in the boot.
How hourly hire works: the minimum, the included kilometres, the same-city rule.
The fashion and diamond city as a door-to-door day trip at a fixed quote.
Seven seats and seven bags, for a shopping party or a serious haul.
Days out, dinners and weekends by chauffeur across the Netherlands.
Business Class is €65 an hour, Van Class €80 and First Class €100, with a minimum of two hours and 40 kilometres included in every hour. The rate is all-in: taxes, the chauffeur’s waiting time and the car. The Maybach is quoted on request.
Where stopping is allowed, yes; otherwise the car waits a street away and is back at the kerb within a minute of your message. Where the car stands is the chauffeur’s concern, not yours, and never appears on your bill.
Between stops the chauffeur waits with the car, so your bags are with a person rather than in a parked vehicle. Everything goes into the boot, out of sight, and comes out again at your door or hotel.
Not as hourly hire, which has to start and end in the same city. A day in Antwerp or on the Königsallee is quoted as one fixed door-to-door price with the car waiting throughout; message dispatch with the date and we send the figure.
Very. The Mercedes-Benz V-Class seats seven and takes seven bags, with the floor space for boxes and garment bags that a saloon does not have. It suits a family, a group of friends or a stylist working with a client.
Yes. Put the guest’s name and number in the booking and you both receive the updates, from confirmed to safely arrived, while the guest deals only with the chauffeur. Companies that do this regularly get an account with invoicing.