Driving Exam Routes in Amsterdam: Practise Before Your CBR Praktijkexamen

If you are searching for Amsterdam driving exam routes in English, you are probably an international resident preparing for the Dutch practical exam, the CBR praktijkexamen. The CBR does not publish routes, but every Amsterdam exam starts and finishes at the same CBR location, and the roads around it recur across our practice routes — they are listed below.

Last reviewed 2026-09-10 · by SteerClear editorial · also available: Examenroute oefenen (Dutch)

Where you take your driving exam in Amsterdam

SteerClear has 10 practice routes that start and finish at Amsterdam's exam centre. For each centre, the roads below are the ones that appear on the most routes — the local network every exam from that centre is drawn from.

Route facts come from SteerClear's practice routes, which are built on the real road network around each centre. They are not a copy of any examiner's route — the CBR do not publish one.

What the Amsterdam exam involves

Amsterdam's practical exams are run by the CBR, the national exam authority, from its Amsterdam exam location. You book through your driving school, and the exam is taken in the school's car with your instructor usually staying behind: it is you and the examiner. The exam lasts around 55 minutes in total, of which roughly 35 minutes is driving.

The drive includes a section of independent driving, where you follow either the navigation system or a series of directions given in advance, and a set of special manoeuvres (bijzondere verrichtingen) such as parking or reversing round a corner. Amsterdam's centre-city roads — Raadhuisstraat, Prins Hendrikkade and the streets around Centraal station appear on most of our routes — mean trams, buses, thousands of cyclists and narrow canal-side streets are all realistic parts of the exam.

Taking the exam if you don't speak the language

The CBR theory exam can be taken in English. The practical exam is conducted in Dutch, but the directions used are simple and repetitive — links, rechts, rechtdoor, bij de volgende kruising, hier parkeren — and the independent-driving section runs from the sat-nav, which you can set to English. Learn the spoken directions and ask your driving school about any arrangements the CBR offers if your Dutch is very limited.

Whether you need the exam at all depends on your current licence: EU and EEA licences stay valid, and some other countries have exchange agreements, but many licences cannot be exchanged and require the full theory and practical exams. The CBR and the RDW (the licensing authority) set out which is which.

How to practise your Amsterdam exam routes

1. Start at the centre. Every route begins and ends at the exam centre's exit, so learn that junction — which lane, where the sight lines are poor, what the traffic does at your exam time.
2. Drive the recurring roads in both directions. The lists above are your syllabus. A junction that is easy turning one way is often the hard one turning the other.
3. Practise at your exam time of day. A route at 08:00 with commuters and school traffic is a different exam from the same route at 11:00.
4. Rehearse the directions in the exam language. Have your supervising driver give instructions the way the examiner will, so the words stop costing attention.
5. Finish with a full-length scored drive. A mock driving test of exam length shows whether faults cluster late, when concentration dips.

SteerClear builds these practice routes on the roads above and scores each drive live — speed, braking, cornering, lane position and observation — so a repeated hesitation at one junction shows up as a pattern you can fix before the exam.

Amsterdam roads and rules that catch people out

Cyclists have the city

Amsterdam has more bicycles than people. Cyclists come from every direction, often with priority, and the examiner expects you to give way correctly and to check for them before every turn and every door-opening manoeuvre.

Trams

Trams have priority in most situations and run down the middle of Raadhuisstraat and past Centraal station. Never stop on the tracks at a junction, and do not overtake a tram where passengers are boarding.

30 km/h almost everywhere

Since December 2023 most of Amsterdam's streets are limited to 30 km/h, with 50 km/h kept on a small number of main roads. Know which is which on the roads above; drifting to 40 in a 30 zone is a fault the examiner cannot ignore.

Priority to the right

On equal junctions without signs, traffic from the right has priority — including cyclists and mopeds. Amsterdam's residential grids are full of these junctions. Slow down and look right.

Frequently asked questions

More on driving exam routes

Our international guide to driving exam routes covers what the practical exam is called in 31 countries and whether routes are published anywhere. All Dutch centres are listed at Netherlands test centres. Other city guides in English: Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Brussels.