Last week, I had a meeting in Frankfurt Germany. Normally I would take the plane; it takes me approximately an hour to go from Amsterdam Schiphol Airport to the international airport of Frankfurt. However, since the meeting was on a Monday, I decided to take Germany’s new ICE 3 Neo High Speed train on Sunday from Amsterdam Central Station to Frankfurt. Please read my review below to see whether it’s worth it going with the ICE 3 Neo in First Class.
Prices, Duration, and Speed!
I used the Dutch International Railways site to book my ticket; https://www.nsinternational.com/. It’s very easy to book a ticket on this site but one thing I noticed is the incredible variation of ticket prices; the time of day when you travel, when you book you ticket, the type of train… It all influences the ticket price. If you are flexible, you might be able to book a direct ICE ticket cheaper than a non-direct ticket on a different day! I paid 118 Euro for a one way ticket in first class which I thought wasn’t too bad at all. I reserved my ticket less than 2 weeks in advance.
It takes the ICE 3, roughly four and a half hours to go from Amsterdam to Frankfurt. The real ‘high speed train experience’, you’ll only encounter between Cologne and Frankfurt though, since only during that stretch the high speed train will get up to 300 km/h.
First Class Cabin in the ICE 3 Neo
These ICE 3 Neo trains are fairly new and thus the interior still looks very new also. All the seats are spotless and everything looks clean! A big difference when you come out of a regular Dutch train! The interior looks very German; it has a very formal look and the colors and use of materials actually remind me of a Lufthansa Business Class cabin. I like it! Seats don’t recline but you don’t really miss that on a 4 hour long journey during the day-time. Every seat in first class has its own personal power socket. Of course there is a tray table.
There is wireless internet on the ICE 3 Neo, but the wireless wasn’t very reliable during the day I travelled. To my surprise there is even on board entertainment, you can watch on your own device. The selection of movies is very limited though and it’s certainly not the latest and greatest selection.
There is a restaurant wagon where food is served but most people just bring their own food into the train. Exactly what I did – Amsterdam Central Station has a lot of shops with decent food options.
I didn’t mention yet that Amsterdam Central Train Station also has a lounge for travelers traveling first class on international trains. I did visit the lounge and even though there are no snacks, there is a very good coffee machine. Having a cappuccino in the first class lounge certainly beats waiting on a windy train station! If you want to enjoy a lounge before departure, you need to be careful from which station you depart from. In The Netherlands, only Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Schiphol have a first class lounge for international train travelers.
The ICE 3 First Class Experience
As stated, there is only a relatively small stretch where the ICE 3 Neo reaches speeds of around 300 km/h. So make sure you travel between Cologne and Frankfurt if you want the experience the high speed potential of this German High Speed Train. It has to be said, the train is very comfortable even when traveling at these high speeds. I I think this is an excellent form of transportation assuming you can spend more than 4 hours in a train. The plane takes less than an hour to fly from Amsterdam Schiphol to Frankfurt so that’s considerably less. But if you are flexible, prices of the IC3 Neo are very competitive. The price difference between first and second class is not that big. When booking 2 months in advance, I saw prices of 108 Euro for a first class one way ticket. This was only 18 Euro more expensive than a second class ticket. Based on these prices, I would always choose a first class ticket, especially when you are traveling alone and you can have your own private seat next to the window.
Also have a look at my Youtube Video I made of this journey. Don’t forget to like the video and subscribe to the channel!
Leave a Reply