How to get drive times, routes, and directions: go to maps.google.com, enter paris to amsterdam and hit Enter.

Answer: 4h56m

rob,

4h 56 min ?

the high speed train takes 4 hours.
cars go faster than trains??

Thank you - i guess. Was aware of goggle map but was not sure if it was accurate? Often a drive can be much long than it appears on a map or a computer might calculate - considering road quality, traffic conditions, geography, etc..I was just wondering if anyone had done the drive and if the estimated 5 hour was correct.

So in other words Robespierre thanks for nothing

My dear Mem,

Robes gave you a perfectly reasonable answer. What's with the snarky resonse?

If you're driving from the absolute center of Paris at the midst of rush hour obviously you need to allow a little more time. but why would you disbelieve the web sites? (I find they often allow too much time - but we don;t drive slowly.)

Sorry if I seemed abrupt but this was my first post and the response from rob seemed condescending ("hit enter, etc"). I did not mean to offend you ira, but I appreciate any input.

I've driven that a few times. It takes 5 hours, unless I get lost navigating around Antwerp.

mem - I like the viamichelin.com site for this kind of info.

It gives you distance, time, driving directions, and costs (tolls + estimated gas).

Here's what it says for a generic "Paris to Amsterdam" trip (you can of course enter specific starting and ending addresses):

Time: 05h00 of which 04h27 on motorways
Distance: 503 km of which 485 km on motorways
Cost: 60.02 EUR (Toll 14.20 EUR | Petrol 45.82 EUR)

oh jetsetj - re: the time it takes cars vs. trains from Paris to Amsterdam

I'm currently living in Amsterdam and our DD is living in Paris for her junior year in university, so I take the train back and forth pretty often.

My understanding is that the "high speed" train is not actually high speed all the way from Paris to Amsterdam because of ... well I'm not completely sure. Something about the tracks. Or the signaling system. Or something. So right now it is high speed only between Paris and Brussels and then slow speed, you might say, to Amsterdam. Anyway when whatever it is has been upgraded, the train trip is due to only take around 3 hours from Paris to Amsterdam.

(Above information is not certified for accuracy - I only know what I've been told.)

And of course for the trains you have to figure in the time at station stops to load/unload passengers.

So I think these two things account for the car trips being almost as fast as the train currently.

NorCalif,
goes to show.. you learn something new everyday.

Thanks for all the information.

hit enter, etc. = condescending

Wow.

You sound like a thoroughly disagreeable person.

Hi Mem,

>May 21, 09 at 09:04 PM<

You are forgiven. Say 10 Hail Mary's and 10 Our Fathers.

Other sites are www.viamichilen.com and www.mappy.com. They don't all give the same route.

We just drove this route (paris/amsterdam) using our GPS and it took 7 hours min. It was heavy traffic due to construction, lane merges and lots of cars and trucks.

My husband drove it on Tuesday am, from South of Paris (Limours) and it took him just under 6 hours and he was taking it easy due to having a brand new car. Once he got away from the Périphérique he was fine and had no problems.

Oops, just realised this is a really old thread. Sorry.

Just for the record, the train now takes 3h18m.