The KLM Crown Lounge 52 in Amsterdam, located in the Non-Schengen area of Schiphol Airport, is a superlative lounge with excellent food and drink and unique features that make it one of my favorite lounges in Europe.
KLM Crown Lounge 52 Amsterdam Review
If you’d prefer a brief summary of this lounge, check out my first impressions post I wrote after visiting this lounge. It instantly became one of my favorite business class lounges in the world, which is saying a lot.
> Read More: KLM Crown Lounge In Amsterdam Is Spectacular
You might also start by watching this video KLM prepared to showcase its premiere lounge:
Location + Hours + Access Requirements
The lounge is open daily from 6:00AM to 10:00PM and located past security in Non-Schengen area of the Main Terminal. Follow the clearly marked signs for “Lounge 52” and you’ll find the lounge in Concourse F near the food court. Proceed upstairs for check-in.
You can access this lounge as a SkyTeam business class passenger, Flying Blue Platinum or Gold member, or as a SkyTeam Elite Plus passenger. You can also purchase a pass to this lounge for 65EUR, which I consider a very good value if you have a long layover. If you are Flying Blue member, even without status, you can enjoy 10% off entry. Flying Blue Silver members get 25% off, as do Gold and Platinum members who wish to bring in more than one guest. If you purchase access online in advance, you can save an additional 10EUR.
KLM Delft Blue Houses
Did you notice something in the pictures above? You’ll find roughly 5,000 KLM Delft Blue Houses on display around the lounge. These cute little houses are given to business class passengers on longhaul flights and contain Dutch gin inside. Not only are these collectibles, but they are classy and you’ll be greeted by thousands of them as you make your way through the lounge.
Seating
This is a huge two-level lounge (6,800 square metres / 73,000 square feet) with seating for up to 1,000 passengers, plus 200 more seats in the Blue Restaurant and Bar.
The lounge is divided into five areas and I’ll simply borrow the verbiage from KLM to describe them:
In the Polder landscape, customers can work ideally and relax at the same time. The carpet, decorated in varying shades of green, is reminiscent of the Netherlands’ vast pastureland. And a 110-metre LED light wall simulates the Dutch sky. The lighting adapts to the time of day and includes a beautiful sunset.
In the lively City landscape, customers can enjoy “live” cooking, a Heineken Bar, specially designed by Heineken, and a coffee bar with a barista. The new food and beverage concept – characterised by stylish, high-quality, and fresh seasonal products – comes from KLM’s partner Vermaat. Reducing waste is an important pillar for both companies to lounge catering.
The Sea offers everything customers need to recharge their batteries during their journey. The area has twenty free showers, which customers can reserve in advance at the lounge’s self-service kiosks.
The striking Dutch Mountain zone offers visitors a variety of options for working and having fun, from a TV room to a DJ stand for special events. It devotes attention to Dutch design and offers historical attributes from KLM’s heritage.
Sky is an exclusive and original area on the second floor. At the explicit request of KLM customers, Sky’s high-end setting offers a terrace with a beautiful view of Schiphol Airport.
The Podler area was the most crowded part of the lounge, and thus I avoided it beyond a few pictures. Here, there are hundreds of seats and also couches in which you can stretch out on.
On the other side of the lounge, more seating was available, including some chairs with great tarmac views.
In between these two areas was a vast dining area, which was also fairly crowded during my morning visit.
Quiet Room
If you’re looking for a quiet area to sit in relax, proceed to the rear of the lounge, near the shower, area and through an unmarked door with a sticker indicating silence is required.
Despite the crowding in the lounge, there I found a very empty area that was quiet enough to hear a pin drop.
Sleep Cabins
If you’re really tired you can rent a sleeping cabin for a period of 2-5 hours (35EUR – 75EUR). You can use Flying Blue miles (at a very poor rate) if you prefer – I don’t recommend it.
Dutch Mountain
Perhaps the coolest design feature of this lounge is the “mountain” which features seating gradually connecting the first and second floors with vintage KLM artwork.
Another cool feature here: take a close look at the tiles on the wall and you’ll see they are taken from the safety video (or perhaps the safety video is taken from these…).
Terrace
On the second floor, a terrace with room for at least 30 people offers fresh air and tarmac views.
Dutch law now prohibits smoking areas in lounges, so not only is an indoor smoking room not available, but smoking is also prohibited on the balcony.
Showers
20 shower suites are available. In theory, you can reserve your shower using a kiosk at the entrance to the shower area, but it did not work for me (or several other passengers around me): despite scanning my boarding pass, I could not join the shower queue.
Instead, an agent at the service desk set me up. When the shower was available, I received an email.
If you need to rent anything, you can also do that here (they will be happy to print corona tests).
The shower suites were clean, water pressure strong, and I was soon clean and ready to eat.
Restrooms
There are a few restrooms in the lounge, but the best ones are upstairs outside Blue Restaurant. These were private, quiet, and there were even real towels (versus paper towels).
Blue Restaurant + Bar
Sadly, Blue Restaurant closed during the pandemic and still has not reopened (and the restaurants Instagram page suggested it will not reopen). The restaurant featured a menu curated by Joris Bijdendijk of RIJKS, the Rijksmuseum’s Michelin-starred restaurant. The beautiful space is still present, though it was closed even for sitting.
However, across from Blue Restaurant is Blue Bar, which has re-opened and offers cocktails and premium liquor for purchase between 7:00AM and 1:00PM.
Here’s the drink menu:
Even more important to me, barista-made coffee is available using top-of-the-line La Marzocco machines. The flat whites (and I did have three…) were excellent.
There were also lovely fresh-baked goods like scones.
It was this coffee set-up that truly endeared me to this lounge. Nice coffee is such an important feature of a lounge.
Food + Drink
A large buffet was available on the ground level with cold cuts, meat, bread, pastries, fruit, scrambled eggs, potatoes, mushrooms, baked beans, and yogurt.
I enjoyed some eggs for breakfast.
At 11:00am, breakfast transitioned to lunch, with some overlap, but also fresh sandwiches, salads, and hot dishes like beef stew and pasta arrabiata.
Around the corner from the buffet, a bar offers beer, wine, and spirits, with Heineken being the point of interest (and sponsor).
Note barista-made coffee is also available on the ground floor too.
Finally, there was another food area on the other side of the lounge with coffee machines and a “restaurant,” but no food was being served there during my visit.
CONCLUSION
Bigger is not always better, but KLM thoughtfully has arranged its massive lounge space into beautiful areas that create a welcoming experience for passengers. The delicious food, exquisite coffee, and cool features like the “Dutch Mountain” and outdoor terrace make this one of my favorite business class lounges in the world.
Have you been to KLM Lounge 52 in AMS? How did you like it?
How many Delft houses do you have in your collection?
4. You?
Roughly 50, with about 10 more houses expected this year.
Excellent review thank you. (do a quick search for the word rent & replace it with print in your review 🙂
Those tiles used to be given out in business class before the houses. I have some tiles, now I really want houses…
Tiles? What was on them?
I guess I should have zoomed in on those tiles in the photo, I see what you are talking about with the safety video now. But the tiles I have are of a windmill and one with a big hoop and have a chart with all of them that show they were from 1986.
Love this lounge! My favorite SkyTeam lounge until the new AF lounge opened up. This is memorable because I hung out here on my first international J ticket ever.
Boycott KLM. CEO willfully violates law to boost corporate profits. Or at least steal couple pastries from lounge and bleed the company dry one croissant. KLM doesn’t obey the rules. Why should be expected to?
KLM Crown Lounge is my favorite lounge to date. Used to visit it at least once a week pre-covid, while it’s always busy the layout is very good and you can always find a quiet space. It’s a shame the blue restaurant is closed, it is expensive but well worth it if you have time.
I kind do miss the old lounge, it had a 90s vibe to it which I know a lot don’t like but it harked back to a better time in travel but it’s undeniable that the new lounge is a million times better.
I’ve probably been to AMS over a hundred times in 20 years. Before the pandemic, you could at last get magazines and newspapers. Those are gone. Too bad. Always enjoyed getting the Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, and New York Times plus whatever glossy magazines there were. Despite being the same airline parent company as Air France, KLM serves the worst wine. The wine in the lounge is cheaper than cheap. Like Barefoot quality. The food is generally poor quality and heavy on carbs. When KLM renovated this lounge and included the premium restaurant and bar, that was the fine straw for me. I now connect through Paris on Air France because the Air France lounges at CDG are night and day better than KLM’s lounges at AMS. The only bright spot of AMS and KLM is the KLM agents are pros with Delta. They can make magic happen that even Delta agents can’t perform.
P.S. Increasingly, you can avoid AMS by double-connecting through CDG and LHR thanks to the enhanced relationship between Air France, Delta, and Virgin Atlantic. I’d much rather drink real champagne and eat real food in London and Paris than high school cafeteria food at AMS.
If you believe any Virgin Atlantic lounge is good at Heathrow and it is “real champagne” in that lounge then I guess pomiane is quality to you then
Good Heavens, one might imagine you are being paid by KLM (who can’t seem to transport anyone anywhere without spreading Covid) to keep reviewing this lounge! It’s honestly a very basic business class lounge for a major airport. There is absolutely NOTHING special about this lounge, in my opinion. Perhaps we can move on, soon?
What are you talking about? I haven’t reviewed it before…
Great review!
Never had a chance to use the lounge. Maybe this time I will.
Yes, if you notice the preference of food offer in the longue is choice for meddle east , vegetarian or any other religions taste except Cristian , Dutch tradition. No pork ham, no bacon , no nothing what is traditional for Nederland or European cuisine. (Sandwiches with only cheese, chicken salami, beef pastrami ) ….like flight menu choices ,,,,you can choice you meal if you vegetarian, Jewish , Hindu , Muslim but no if you a Christian.
That’s an interesting observation. I seem to recall ham with the other cold cuts.
You took great photos and were very thorough…but this was too long of a post. Took forever to scroll. Can tell you really enjoyed it though. Maybe I will get to visit it later this year.
It’s ok to just post a handful of teaser shots. Less than half of what you posted.
It’s nice to leave some mystery of first person exploration.
I hear you. But Google appreciates the thorough reviews. But that’s why I tend to do quick summary posts with no more than 10 pictures, offering my “first impressions” which serve as a high-level mini review.
I just spent 8 hours in Lounge 52, after a 13 hour flight from Buenos Aires.
I will not write a long review, I will mention the best and the worst things I found about it.
The best things for me were the shower which is included, it was one of the best showers i have ever tried, with a lot of pressure and water in a nice modern shower room.
Also the choice of renting per hour a small room with an very comfortable single bed and great bedding to go with it. The area where these rooms are is very quite and of nice modern low light corredor.
On the food side, good coffee and a small variety of croissants and cakes.
Here comes the negative review, the food… I could not even try it as it looked very slushy and not attractive. Kind of soup, stew, and some pasta… No meat, chicken or anything roasted, nothing that I would think “yummy I want to try that”
A real pity as the food counter did not match the beautiful lounge.
They really have to do something about it. I saw many people walking to the food counter, looking and then walking away from it, going for bread and cheese instead. I was one of them. Very disappointing to say the least.
I dont drink alcohol, but everybody seemed to enjoy the free bar.
Hopefully next time I book this lounge the food counter will be more attractive.
I appreciate your review.
Am using the lounge this week with my child. Being disabled and needing comfy seating, i can see I’ve made a good choice to rest in this lounge as compared to my last stint in Schipol June 22 & in the common areas for 6 hours.
Would you happen to know if the entertainment area has any children’s activities like reading books ? Is there any power points for charging laptops and mobiles ?
Thank you
Hi Kim, I do not believe the children’s areas have books, but you will certainly find power points throughout the lounge. Safe travels!
Hello Matthew,
Thanks for your helpful review.
Are there any international newspapers and magazines to read in the Business Lounge?
When you get an opportunity, I await your response. Thank you.
I believe those were eliminated during that pandemic. Perhaps someone who has been there more recently than January 2023 can opine.
Will not allow me to make reservation for 13th Dec
Ina Piggott
Maybe too far in advance?
I found the Crown Lounge enjoyable but weird. There’s a kitchen at the bottom of the “mountain” stairs that suddenly started serving Thai-inspired small plates for about an hour – including a tasty glass noodle shrimp dish – and then shut down completely. The upstairs ‘blue’ area is a bit confused – there’s a large restaurant-looking area with a sign referring to ‘seating,’ but it’s just first-come first-serve. There’s another large kitchen in that area that only supports the paid food that few people seem to order. I had no problem with KLM charging very reasonable prices for the higher end alcohol and food, and the overall experience was pleasant.
Hi Matthew, thanks for this very thorough review. Question: would it be frowned upon to snooze on one of the many lounges, instead of paying for the sleep pods?
I don’t think so, but feet should not go on furniture and shoes should remain on.
Hi Matthew- AUS -GDN with layover in AMS. Can I enter lounge 52 before leaving non Schengen? Thank you!