Event Information

Celebrate the end of exams, have one last Uni-blow out with the flatmates and finish the year off in style with Cardiff University Students' Union in Amsterdam! An amazing two-night-three-day visit to the beautiful Dutch capital is yours for just £142, hotel accommodation, breakfast included. For more details see below. #AmsterdamCSU

Update: we've just organised a professional photographer to come and provide you with all the profile photos you could ever want!

Please note this trip is not suitable for children, but it is suitable for adults who are children at heart.

What's Included

Your £142 buys you:

1. All transport from the door of the Students' Union to the Centre of Amsterdam and back again. Over-night Executive Coach with Ferry crossing.

2. Award winning hotel accommodation in the Centre West of Amsterdam. Located next to Amsterdam Sloterdijk Railway Station, with amazing transport links 5 minutes from the city centre, MEININGER Amsterdam West is a large multi-award winning hotel, recently opened in 2012 built with a modern innovative design. All rooms are non-smoking, completely sound-proof, come with a flat-screen TV, wooden floors and new bathrooms and showers. Check out the independent reviews!

• Free WiFi throughout the building
• Reasonably priced Hotel Food Court
• Self-service laundry
• Chillout room and internet lounge
• Friendly and multilingual reception staff
• 24 hour reception
• Insured lockers
• Vending Machines
• Luggage storage on arrival
• Daily cleaning service

The Hotel is also completely disabled friendly, but please make sure you inform us of any special requirements at GiveitaGo@cardiff.ac.uk.

3. A delicious continental buffet breakfast (charged for all other guests) is included in your stay. The all-you-can-eat hotel breakfast serves Dallmayr coffee, tea, juice, a selection of bread, cereals, jam, honey, and a selection of fruit, cold meats and cheeses. Yum!

Added Extras

Seat & Bed Reserve £8

We don't like stampedes for seats and beds, so all tickets come with an allocated bed in the hotel and an allocated seat on the bus. You can take control of this allocation by choosing your seat on the coach and the friends you'd like to be roomed with in the hotel by adding the seat and bed reserve to your basket. You will be asked who you wish to be placed with as you check-out. Get this as well if you require a room with women-only!

Trip Social - Bar Crawl - Cardiff on Tour T-shirt £15

Definitely a MUST-BUY! Get hold of your 'Cardiff on Tour' T-shirt for just £15! This will double as your trip-wristband for the Saturday night bar crawl, heading through four prominent Amsterdam bars and ending in free entry to a nightclub! All entry and free shots included. What's more this T-shirt is yours to treasure forever.

Private Couple Room Upgrade £20 extra per person, per night.

The standard ticket gets you into a multi-person room. Want to upgrade to a private double room with someone? Worry not! Buy your standard tickets and if you add this extra on top we'll upgrade you. Private double rooms also come with private en-suite bathrooms and towel service. Single rooms are not currently available.

Trip Itinerary

• 20:00 Thursday, Meet in the Y Plas NightClub check-in desk, Second Floor Students' Union
• 21:00 Thursday, Coaches Depart Cardiff Students' Union, Senghennedd Road
• 04:20 Friday, Ferry Departure Dover
• 11:00 Friday, Arrival in Amsterdam

[Optional Give it a Go itinerary pending]

• 20:00 Saturday, Main Trip Social [Optional T-shirt Deal]
• 12:00 Sunday, Coaches Depart Amsterdam
• 17:00 Sunday, Ferry Departure Calais
• 23:00 Sunday, Coaches return to Cardiff Students' Union

link doc

What are you waiting for?! Fequently Asked Questions

This trip is organised directly by the Students' Union, equating to very low prices, great value and organisation you can trust! This is the third trip we've organised centrally and we're pretty sure we've hit the nail on the head with this trip. See the year out in style.

1. Can people who are not CU students come on this trip?

Yes, non-CU students can come on this trip if accompanied by a Cardiff University Student. They will have to create a guest account on this website to book.

2. Is this trip suitable for children/families? Is there a reduced rate for children?

No - children are not permitted on this trip. Although we are planning future trips with a set number of family rooms and exploring other options that would make our trips more inclusive for families and young children, this trip isn't suitable for them. We say this because of the nature of overnight coach travel, the fact that standard rooms are shared with other guests, the somewhat disruptive nature of the trip bar-crawl. Large numbers of mature students frequently sign up to our trips, but the majority make up of the trip are students aged 18 - 25.

3. I'm having trouble signing up online. What do I do?

We know a lot of students are having difficulty paying online at the moment. The reason for this is that the Students' Union finance system becomes much more strict for products exceeding £100. If your address, or any given details, don't exactly match the ones orginally given when you signed up for the card/account... the system will become very sassy with you. If you're having difficulties making payment through cardiffstudents.com please email SUFinance@cardiff.ac.uk and CC Giveitago@cardiff.ac.uk into the email. Ultimately it is possible to pay in person at the finance office of the Students' Union and there are no such difficulties with that payment method!

4. I don't know if I need a visa. Help!

If you are a UK/EU citizen, you do not require a visa to travel to the Netherlands, but you do need a passport to prove that you are, in fact, a UK/EU citizen. If you are not a UK/EU citizen it a likely that you will require a visa and we advise you to read the advice in the next few titles down and engage with thorough independent research to make yourself aware of the process of applying. 

5. What is the deadline for this trip?

For students who do not require a visa, there is no deadline for this trip. There are 120 places and when the tickets are gone, they're gone. Email giveitago@cardiff.ac.uk for an up-to-date figure of how many tickets are left. For international students who require a visa, the safe deadline to sign up to the trips allowing time to apply to the visa is 30th April. Any sign ups made after that date, we will happily provide visa evidence for, but the risk of your visa not arriving in time becomes ever more real (it has happened in the past and students have lost money).

6. Can societies, clubs and groups sign up for the trip?

Groups, societies and clubs may be accommodated as part of this trip, but please email us to check on the usual email address.

If you have any other enquiries please email Giveitago@cardiff.ac.uk and we'll get back to you within 1-2 working days!

Important Terms and Conditions

You should be aware of the following details:

Passports

- You are required to have a valid and in-date passport for this trip. The UK is not a part of the Schengen area and consequently boarder restrictions are in force between Dover and Calaise that are beyond our control. British citizens do not require a visa, but require a passport to prove that they are in fact a British citizen. Please ensure your passport is valid and in-date before you book onto this trip.

- It is possible that your passport will not be checked leaving the UK, but it will certainly be checked on re-entry and restrictions on drivers hours mean that the bus cannot wait for any passengers detained by boarder control.

Refunds

- This general trip ticket and all added extras are strictly NON-REFUNDABLE, so please be absolutely certain that you're free for the dates of the trip.

Transfers

- It may be possible to transfer your place to a friend as long as they are a Cardiff University Student. This must been done more than a week before we leave however. Email Giveitago@Cardiff.ac.uk to confirm.

Travel insurance and European Health Insurance Cards

- We would strongly advise you to take out personal travel insurance for this trip to cover your personal property, money, passports, medical expenses and repatriation if necessary. The Students' Union itself has public liability insurance, but that won't help you in the least unless your loss is directly attributable to our negligence. Applying for an EHIC if you don't already have one will be a good idea as well, but this will only cover the most basic of medical treatment.

Students' Union and Hotel Terms and Conditions

- This is a Students' Union trip, organised directly by the Give it a Go Team. In terms of rules and expected conduct, whilst on this trip you are in effect inside the Students' Union Building and subject to University Regulations. By signing up to this trip you are agreeing to both the Students' Union code of conduct and the house rules for the Hotel. Any infringement of which may provoke academic consequences for you.

Students' Union Code of Conduct

Meininger Hotel House Rules

International Students and Visas

N.B. The cut off point for international students wishing to sign up to this trip is Monday 30th April. This is six weeks before departure to ensure sufficient time for you to process your own visa application.

Students should be advised that this trip obviously requires them to be able to travel outside the UK and initially into France (then Belgium, then Amsterdam). It is the responsibility of individual students to seek appropriate advice, visas and passport documentation for this purpose.

The Students’ Union and its staff are not insured to advise students with regard to visas or the visa process. The Students’ Union will not check that you have the appropriate documentation and assumes no responsibility for the consequences of failing to make arrangements.

It is the student’s responsibility to ascertain whether they require a visa or passport documentation. In the event that they do, they should be advised that visas can take extended periods of time to process and usually require a not-insignificant charge (a Schengen visa for example is priced at £40 - £60).

In addition, individuals should be made aware that once booked, this trip is strictly non-refundable.

Final Year International Students who are in the UK on a study visa and who have less than 6 months on their study visa at the time of this trip, should be advised that some embassy's, e.g. TLS, the French Consulate, will refuse to process a visa application for them.

We have been instructed by the International Student Support Office of Cardiff University to direct students who require visa advice to their online information. The International Student Support Office of Cardiff University may be contacted themselves for general information, but have said that they cannot assist students with the process and like the Students' Union, will not provide specific advice.

Students' Union Visa Guidance

The general approach when applying for a Schengen visa is to to apply to the embassy of the 'main country of destination' which for this trip in isolation will be the Dutch Embassy.

As of 1 March 2015 all visa applications to the Netherlands can only be made by an 'in-person' appointment at the VFS offices in London, Manchester and Edinburgh. I.e. you will not be able to make a visa application to the Dutch consulate in Cardiff, you will have to go to the nearest office (London) in person after making an appointment with the VFS office.

More information is available following this link.

You can make an appointment with VFS following this link.

You can apply for a Schengen visa within three months of the inteneded date of travel. Assuming there are no problems, the application itself can take up to 15 working days to process - but longer if you supply incompete documents or the embasy has a query with your application. We've placed a suggested cut off point for international students to sign up to this trip of Thursday 30th April.

The application itself generally has a fee attached to it of between £40 - £60 but this does not include the costs you will incur travelling to London.

Visa Documents the Students' Union can provide

The application will require you to supply a number of documents, some of which the Students' Union can supply for you. You should research this thoroughly yourself before you travel to London to make the application to avoid wasted time and money. Click here for more information on short-stay document requirements.