Trams
The best way to travel in Amsterdam is by tram. They are frequent, fast and dependable.
Where to buy tickets?
You can buy a ticket from the driver, the conductor at the back of the tram, or a machine in the middle of the tram, depending on the sort of tram it is. However, it is considerably cheaper if you buy a strippenkaart (strip ticket) from a tobacconist, post office or railway station beforehand, for €6.90 for 15 strips. On most trams there is a conductor: you get on at the back of the tram and the conductor stamps your ticket for you.
How to stamp the tickets?
However, on some trams you have to stamp the ticket yourself in the yellow machines in the tram: each journey uses one strip plus a strip for every zone 
you travel in. If you stay within the centre of town, that is one zone, so you leave one strip blank and stamp the second. If you travel over a zone border, you are travelling in two zones, so you leave two strips blank, and stamp the third.
Once stamped, a ticket is valid for an hour, regardless of how often you change tram or bus.
Several people can travel on one strippenkaart: you just stamp it for the first person, and then for the second, and so on.
Strippenkaarten are valid on all trams, buses and metros, and also on trains within the city boundaries (thus not to Schiphol Airport: then you have to buy a train ticket ).
The trams run until just after midnight (the last trams leave Central Station at 12:15). After that there is an hourly service of night buses from Central Station.
Travel information
Public Transport
Network map
map of tram, bus, metro (subway) and ferries.
Relevant links
www.gvb.nlpublic transport company
