Day Trip to Amsterdam from Manchester: £90 Flights and 9 Hours in the City
A day trip to Amsterdam from Manchester on Tuesday 17 November 2026 costs about £141 all in: a £90 easyJet return, checked on Google Flights on 4 October 2026, plus about £51 on the ground. You land at 09:20 and fly home at 21:30, about 9.4 hours in the city.
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Running total: £0. Your alarm goes off at stupid o'clock and you start questioning your life choices. Stick with it.
06:30. Manchester Airport. Running total: £90
That's the easyJet return for Tuesday 17 November. Out at 07:00, home at 21:30. We checked it on Google Flights on 4 October and it was the cheapest same-day return going. KLM wanted £203 for the same day. There's an 08:45 for £89 too, but it lands at 11:05. A quid for two hours of Amsterdam? No chance.
Amsterdam from Manchester on Tue 17 Nov: today's price and times
09:20. Schiphol. Running total: £100
Land, through passport control, train into town. About £10 there and back on our cost data, 17 minutes each way. You're in the centre by about 10:07.
10:30. The canals. Running total: £100
Free. Walk the ring while it's quiet, before the tour boats get going. Then duck into the Begijnhof, a courtyard of old houses hidden right in the middle of town. Also free, and properly peaceful.
12:30. Albert Cuypmarkt. Running total: £118
Lunch, about £18 on our data. Amsterdam isn't cheap and lunch is where you feel it first. Wander the market before you eat, it's free to look, and there's cheese. A lot of cheese.
14:00. The free ferry. Running total: £126
Local transport for the day, about £8. Then the GVB ferry from behind Centraal Station over to Amsterdam-Noord. It costs nothing, it's a few minutes on the water, and the view back across the IJ is worth it on its own.
15:30. The Bloemenmarkt. Running total: £126
The flower market. Free to wander. Look, don't buy, there's no room in your bag.
16:48. Sunset. Running total: £126
That's the time on our trip page. Get back to the canals for when the lights come on. This is the bit you came for.
18:00. Dinner. Running total: £141
About £15 on our data, oddly the cheapest meal of the day. Add £6 if you have a pint with it. Leave the city at 19:33 and you're home by 21:50.
What we didn't pay for
The big museums. The Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum are about £21 each and you'd want two or three hours in either. Anne Frank House is about £14 and sells out. If one of them is the reason you're going, pick one and book ahead. On a day like this, we'd leave them for another trip.
The final receipt
Flight £90. Train £10. Lunch £18. Getting about £8. Dinner £15. £141, for over nine hours in Amsterdam. Saturdays were over £200 for the whole day on our trip pages this week, so the midweek day off is doing the heavy lifting.
Quick ones people ask
Cheapest way to Amsterdam from the UK? Fly, midweek. Train from Manchester? Not in a day, you'd go via London and the Eurostar. Direct flights? easyJet and KLM both fly it from Manchester.
Want your own receipt before you book? Every trip from Manchester, costed. Founders get six months of dates for £19 a year. Here's how.
Photo credits. Top: Anne Dirkse, CC BY-SA 4.0. Autumn canal: Fons Heijnsbroek, CC0. Begijnhof: Dietmar Rabich, CC BY-SA 4.0. Cheese stall: eric molina, CC BY 2.0. The IJ: Txllxt TxllxT, CC BY-SA 4.0. Canal at night: MarcusObal, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Day trips in this article
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