In early September, I flew to Amsterdam for my birthday. We mostly toured the city, but you can't visit somewhere without going spotting (if you're a plane spotter of course!), so I decided to do it early in the morning.

Amsterdam offers an amazing, unobstructed view of arriving aircraft

Amsterdam has a wide variety of traffic throughout the day, but my flight left at noon, so I decided to go early in the morning, when American flights were landing. I woke up at 6am (my hotel was just outside the city) and took Uber with my dad to Amsterdam's most famous spotting location, the Polderbaan. 

The Uber was quite expensive, but there is an easy way to get there by bus via the Hoofddorp station. You can find out more information about the bus routes and stops on Google.

Polderbaan is beside runway 18R and 36L. The Ijweg side is better in the morning, while the Parking lot side (I don't know the name) is better for afternoon spotting. If you spot at Ijweg, do not park your car! Even early in the morning, airport security comes to check for parked cars. They will give you a ticket if you are parked in the roundabout. Instead, park your car in the village and walk over.

The walk from the village to Ijweg is about 15 minutes. It is very scenic and refreshing.

After arriving, I took about two hours to spot. I got many different airlines, such as American, Delta, KLM, Aer Lingus, and United. This location is amazing, compared to airports in America. Back home, airports are heavily secured, with barbed wire fences and security patrolling regularly. In many airports, airport security requires you to call the airport before spotting, or they will ask you to leave. This was not the case at Schipol. There was just a small stream between me and the runway, and security didn't really care I was there. I had a great time.

I truly had a great time at Amsterdam. Out of all the airports I've spotted at, Schiphol is at the top of my list. The proximity to the aircraft, as well as the runway reliability and airline variety makes plane spotting there an exhilarating experience. I will definitely come back in the future.