Tips & Tricks

On this page we provide you with some practical information for your daily life in the Netherlands. Do you have a tip for us? Please let us know!

Newspapers

There is a special University of Twente newspaper, called the UT-Nieuws. It always has at least one International Page. This paper is delivered to campus houses and also available at the entrances of UT-buildings. You can also read it online by clicking here.

If you are interested about events in the Netherlands, the Dutch News website might be interesting.

Holidays

When will you be free from classes, but also when will the supermarket be closed? To know about the Dutch public holidays, click here.

Dutch weather

The typical Dutch weather is cold and rainy. But... it's easy to avoid cycling in the 'wonderful' Dutch rain. Just click here in advance of your cycling trip.

Food delivery

And in case the Dutch weather let's you down (again), just plan a cosy indoor evening/night with friends and order some food, which will be home delivered!

Public transport in the Netherlands

Most Dutch students have a so-called 'OV-studentenkaart', which is either valid for the weekends or the weekdays. With that card they can travel for free and additionally they can take three people with them who then only pay 60% of the regular price. If you will travel a lot, another option is to buy a reduction card, which is valid for one year and gives 40% reduction after 09.00 on weekdays and the whole day during weekends. With this card you can also take three people with you who will get the same reduction! You can buy this card at the Tickets & Service desks at central train stations. At the time of writing it costs 55 Euros for this card, which will be valid for 1 year.

To travel cheap by bus, check the special bus ticket called Buzzer. This ticket is valid for two persons for one day, but only in busses from the companies Connexxion, Novio, Hemes and GVU.

Plan your trip using these online planners:

• Trip by train (NS).
• Trip with all public transport (bus, train, tram, etcetera).

Public transport to Germany

Enschede is in the East of the Netherlands next to the German border! It is very easy to travel to Germany by train from platform 5 at the Enschede train station in the city. You can get cheaper grouptickets (up to 5 persons) which are valid for 1 day.

There is the SchonesWochenendeTicket for Saturdays and Sundays. With this ticket you can only use the 2nd class in the S-Bahn, RB, IRE,and RE trains (meaning not the highspeed/international ones). It's for example perfect to go to Münster with this ticket. It costs €30 and on 1 ticket up to 5 persons can travel for 1 day (00.00 till 03.00 the next day). This means the price will not change, but if you travel with more people you can split the total costs.

There is also the NRW SchönerTagTicket, which is €34, also for maximum 5 people. This one you can use in all public transport (S-Bahn, Regionalbahn, Regional-Express, bus, Straßen-, Stadt- and U-Bahn, in 2nd class) in the province of Nordrhein-WestFalen (NRW) and in the trains Enschede-Gronau and back. So this ticket will take you from Enschede to everywhere in the German province of Nordrhein-WestFalen. The tickets are valid for 1 day in the weekend (24 hours, midnight till midnight) or during weekdays from 09.00 until 03.00 in the morning the next day.

You can buy both tickets at the ticketmachine at platform 5 at Enschede station. Unfortunately, this machine is broken most of the time... In that case you have to go to the driver of the train and tell him/her, so you can buy your ticket in the train with either him or other train-employees. If the machine works, you need cash money (coins or notes), because it doesn't work with Dutch bankcards.

Plan your trip to Germany using the online planner for the train (Deutsche Bahn).