Sure you have probably sorted out how to get to school. Most of us take a metro, train, bus or a combination of those. Others get to HES by car, motorbike, scooter, bike or just walk. In case you are a first year student you might be interested in what you can expect of the neighbourhood where the HES Amsterdam is located. Some may think of the old ghetto kind of stories about the Bijlmer but that’s just a history so therefore we will dedicate a number of posts to inform you about various sights and tips of what to do in and around the HES. (btw, some of this might be interesting for the ones who have been studying at the HES for several years)

Below you can see the map where you can find the location and address of HES Amsterdam.

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Check out the links to find more information on how to get to the school:

By train> Train station Amsterdam Bijlmer Arena

By Metro> Metro station Amsterdam Bijlmer Arena and station Strandvliet Arena

By car > Route description and parking areas

Popularity: 40% [?]

The building can be reached from several highways such as A1, A2, A9 and A10. In all these highways, you have to follow the blue banners that indicates “Transferium”.

You drive under the Amsterdam Arena Stadium and if you turn to the right, you will go to the HES/ROC parking area, if you turn to the left, you go to the free parking area (only 2 hours for free, you need a parking card with a clock)

The HES parking area is just beneath the HES building which is the safest option but the most expensive, €3,80 per hour.

Click on the image below to see where you can park your car for free.

Park areas nearby HES Amsterdam - click to enlarge

Popularity: 33% [?]

You can get HES Amsterdam with metro lines 50 and 54. The line 50 goes from Isolatorweg until Gein while the line 54 goes from Amsterdam central until Gein.

When getting HES Amsterdam you have 2 station to get off: Amsterdam Bijlmer or Stranvliet Arena. According to Google Earth, Amsterdam Bijlmer station is 470 metres distance from HES and Strandvliet Arena is 510 metres. The thing is that Bijlmer station has a lot more people traffic and just the fact of getting out of the station can take you a few minutes.

On the other hand, Strandvliet Arena is faster to get out and you can use the HES path short cut to reach the door of the school. However, it is not advisable to use that station when it’s dark since some robbery cases have been reported when walking towards that station, so when it gets dark, you better go to Bijlmer station, particularly girls walking alone.

Other detail is that sometimes at Bijlmer station when you get off of the metro you can find the GVB control officers checking the tickets whereas the chance they do that at Stranvliet Arena is very very low. (nobody ever checked my ticket at Stranvliet;))

Popularity: 33% [?]

Train station Amsterdam Bijlmer Arena

The station was built in 1971 which means a few years ago it looked like shit! Did you know that it can be the busiest station of the Netherlands after a big event or Ajax match in the Arena? Therefore the government decided to rebuild everything and as you may know Holland is not as fast as China with such constructions but finally after five years, it became one of the most beautiful stations in Holland. Don’t you agree? Total cost 130 million euro.

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The station has direct train connections with:
Schiphol, Utrecht Centraal, Zaandam, Amsterdam Centraal, Gouda, Rotterdam Centraal, Amterdam Zuid, Eindhoven (Maastricht)
See www.ns.nl for more info

There are quite some busses and metro lines 50 and 54 are connected to the station and depart every few minutes.

In the station:
There are a lot of shops inside such as AH to go, Etos, Burger King and even a Douwe Egberts Cafe.

For more info about public transport check out the following websites:
www.9292ov.nl > Door to door map, advices, etc.
www.ns.nl >Nederlandse Spoorwegen, Dutch trains website
www.gvb.nl > GVB Metro and Busses website

Popularity: 44% [?]