A fair you walk slowly through,
and a city you should not drive in.
PAN Amsterdam fills a hall of the RAI with dealers in art, antiques and design, and fills Amsterdam-Zuid with people who came to look properly. Nobody does that well after twenty minutes of hunting for a parking space, and nobody should carry a framed drawing onto a tram.
One hall, a few hundred stands, and an afternoon that disappears.
PAN Amsterdam is the Dutch art and antiques fair: galleries and dealers in old masters, modern and contemporary art, design, jewellery, classical antiquities and books, laid out stand by stand across a hall at RAI Amsterdam on the Europaplein. Everything on show is examined by a vetting committee before the doors open, which is why the fair draws private collectors, museum curators and advisers rather than passing trade — and why people stay for hours rather than for a circuit of the floor.
The RAI sits against the A10 South, at the S109 off the Europaboulevard, with the Zuidas immediately north and Amsterdam RAI station at the door. That is convenient by rail and awkward by car: the streets around the Europaplein are metered, permit-bound and busy for the whole run of a fair, and the underground parking fills early on a strong day. A chauffeur simply removes the question. You are set down at the entrance the stewards are using, the car leaves the area, and it comes back when you have finished looking rather than when a ticket runs out.
A fair week is several different days, depending on who you are.
The fair in the morning, the Spiegelkwartier in the afternoon, a viewing somewhere on the Herengracht before dinner. One chauffeur holds the whole itinerary, so the only thing you carry between addresses is a notebook.
A stand is built, staffed for days on end and dismantled at speed. Hourly hire between a hotel in Zuid and the Europaplein keeps the team moving while the heavy work stays with the shippers who do it properly.
A day of appointments that will not stay on schedule: half an hour at a stand becomes ninety minutes when the right object appears. The car is on standby, not on a countdown, and the next address is already in the chauffeur’s head.
Private views run late and end in a restaurant rather than at a taxi rank. Being collected from the door in the same car you arrived in is the difference between a good evening and a cold wait on the Europaboulevard.
A framed work, a small bronze or a box of porcelain travels flat in a locked car, door to door, with the chauffeur or your own handler beside it and nothing changing hands in between.
How a fair day is put together.
Most fair days are a list of places rather than a timetable. Give dispatch the addresses and the order, and the chauffeur builds a route that assumes each stop will run over rather than under.
The RAI runs different doors for different halls, and the forecourt is often given to pedestrians and coaches. We confirm the point cars are allowed to stop at, so the walk from the kerb is short and known in advance.
Coats, catalogues, a laptop and anything you have bought stay in the boot while you go back in. The car is parked, not circling, and you can see exactly where it is on the My Ride page.
The run from the Europaplein into the canal belt takes minutes and finding a space there takes considerably longer. Fairs often end with a flight the next morning; the same chauffeur can take that run too.
A fixed amount for the journey, or the car by the hour.
A single run to the Europaplein and back is quoted as one fixed all-in amount per car. A day of viewings, a preview evening or a stand team on the move is better booked by the hour, which keeps the car yours between stops.
Hourly hire has a two-hour minimum, includes forty kilometres per hour and must start and end in the same city. Prices are per car, taxes included, with no card surcharge; a booking made within twelve hours of pickup adds ten per cent. Cancellation is free up to an hour before pickup.
The hall, the quarter and the rest of the calendar.
The venue itself, and the congresses and trade fairs that share its halls.
One item, one locked car, no depot and a signed handover at the other end.
Where the museums, the dealers and the quieter collections actually are.
Fairs, shows, races and galas across the country, driven the same way.
Yes, and that is how most fair days are booked. With hourly hire the car parks outside the busy streets around the Europaplein and returns on one message. Nothing is metered while you are inside, so a stand that keeps you talking costs you nothing but time.
If it fits safely in the boot or on a rear seat, yes — a framed work, a small sculpture or a carefully packed box rides door to door in a locked car. For anything larger or fragile, the dealer’s own shipper is the right answer; we are a chauffeur company, not an art handler, and we say so rather than improvise.
Yes. A chauffeur can collect a packed item and deliver it to a named person at another address, with your own courier or registrar riding along if the piece should not be left alone. You follow the car on My Ride and the handover is signed for. We arrange no customs formalities and carry no valuables cover.
The museum quarter and Oud-Zuid keep you within a few minutes of the Europaplein and walking distance of the Museumplein; the Zuidas is the next exit up the ring and suits anyone combining the fair with meetings. The canal belt is lovely and slower, which matters mainly at the end of the evening.
Easily. The Nieuwe Spiegelstraat and the Spiegelgracht run from the Rijksmuseum up towards the Herengracht and hold the city’s densest concentration of art and antique dealers. It is a short run from the RAI and an awkward place to park, so the car sets you down and waits nearby.
It does. Schiphol is roughly fifteen minutes from the RAI on a clear road. Your flight is tracked from booking, the chauffeur meets you inside the arrivals hall with a name sign, and the first sixty minutes of waiting after landing are included, so a morning arrival and an evening departure comfortably bracket a day at the fair.