Bike
You should really get a bike. You can buy them from other students, bums, or bikeshops. Bikes are like shoes in The Netherlands; there are many shops. Here are some of them:
Although most of the travelling within Leeuwarden is done by bike, you can also travel by public transport. The public transport in Holland is pretty good and mostly used for local or interlocal transport.
City busses
In Leeuwarden all the city busses are called “Maxx”. A map of city bus routes can be found here (PDF alert). You can plan your city bus trip door to door with the 9292ov journeyplanner. You need to buy an anonimous OV-chipcard and upload money on it to be able to travel by bus. You can buy them at the station or many stores like Primera.
(Inter)local busses
Besides the local busses, there are also busses going to all kinds of local and interlocal towns & cities. Most Frisian villages and towns can be reached by bus, but you can also go directly to Alkmaar, for example. (inter-)local bus jouneys can also be planned with the 9292ov journeyplanner.
Train
The main Dutch train company is called NS (Dutch Railways) and exploits most rail transport in the country. There are also some smaller train companies, like Arriva and Connexion. It doesn’t really matter which one you travel with, they just have different trains and different lines. From Leeuwarden you can travel directly to Groningen, Harlingen, Stavoren, Rotterdam and Schiphol, but most other popular cities can be reached with one or two change overs. You can buy a ticket at the station. Alternatively, you can use your OV-Chipcard. But for now in trains from the NS only. In the future, all trains are supposed to accept OV-Chipcard.
You can plan all your national train journeys with the NS journey planner, or door to door with the 9292ov journeyplanner. International journeys can be planned with NS Hispeed international train planner.
Train discount card
Instead of an anonymous OV-Chipcard, you can also get an off-peak discount Chipcard. It is recommended to get yourself an off-peak discount Chipcard as soon as you arrive in the Netherlands. With this card you get a 40% discount on all your train journeys after 9.00 on weekdays and during the weekend. This card costs you € 55,- which you usually earn back after only 3 or 4 train journeys. You can get the card at every train station in the Netherlands. More information can be found here.
