Can You Guess How Many Museums Amsterdam Has?
Most are closed on Mondays; open Easter Monday
Save money: free entrance, or combine with bus/boat tour
The Netherlands has more museums per square mile than any other country in the world. And 89 of them are in Amsterdam. 1
They range from the fascinating Biblical Museum to the supposedly titillating (but in fact boring) Sex Museum. And from the huge Rijksmuseum and the must-see Van Gogh Museum, to the much smaller but no less interesting Hash & Marijuana Museum.
The Eye Film Museum houses an internationally renowned film collection that covers the entire history of cinema. Movies are shown here as well — almost all subtitled in English.
Mind you, some travel guides mention that Amsterdam has 40+ museums; others 50 — and yet others a much higher number.
The difference is explained by the fact that some only count the major ones. Others also include much smaller operations, such as the Pipes Museum or the Torture Museum.
A few tourist guides even fall for the clever tricks of shops that market themselves as ‘museums.’ (Do yourself a favor: don’t visit tourist traps like the Cheese Museum or the Tulip Museum.)
By the way, the entire province of Noord Holland — in which Amsterdam is located — sports 185 museums. That includes the hugely popular Zaanse schans open air museum — a real, lived in old-style Dutch village with working windmills, a wooden shoe factory, and much more.
5 Most Popular Museums in Amsterdam
Five of the six most-visited museums in the Netherlands are located in Amsterdam:
- Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam Tickets
- Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam Tickets
- Zaansche Schans, Zaandam (near Amsterdam) Tickets
- Anne Frank House, Amsterdam Click link for tickets
- Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam Tickets
- Science Center NEMO (for kids and grown ups), Amsterdam Tickets
If you plan on visiting museums in Amsterdam, avoid long lines by buying your tickets ahead of time.
All but seven museums in Amsterdam are privately owned, and nearly all charge an entrance fee.
In a time of dwindling government subsidies, many museums have developed commercial activities, are attracting non-tourist visitors with temporary exhibits, or have accepted financial aid from sponsors.
Free or Discounted
If you love museums and plan to visit at least 4 or 5 of them during your stay in Amsterdam, the I amsterdam card is a great deal.
So are combination bus/boat tour + museum tickets:
- I Amsterdam Card Free museums plus other benefits, such as discounts at attractions and restaurants, and free use of the public transport system.
- Combination Canal Cruise + Museum Entrance
- hop-on-hop-off bus and/or boat tickets + Museum Entrance
Most Museums Don’t Do Mondays
With the exception of the Rijksmuseum (the Netherlands’ National Museum, which carries nearly 1 million works of art – including Rembrandt’s famous Nightwatch), the Van Gogh Museum and the Stedelijk Museum (literally, Municipal Museum, but in fact the National Museum of Modern Art) most museums are closed on Mondays.
Nearly all museums are open on Easter Monday.
Museums
- Allard Pierson Museum
- Anne Frank House
- Amsterdam Museum
- Architecture Museum Het Schip
- Artis Amsterdam Zoo
- Bols Jenever Museum
- CoBraA Museum
- Hermitage Amsterdam Museum
- Hollandsche Schouwburg’s War Memorial
- Nederlands Scheepvaart Museum / Netherlands Maritime Museum
- Our Lord in the Attic — Amstelkring Museum
- Rijksmuseum
- Stedelijk Museum
- Tassenmuseum Hendrikje/Museum of Bags and Purses
- Tropenmuseum – Royal Tropical Institute
- Van Gogh Museum
Notes:
- Updated on March 5, 2021. The number of museums fluctuates over the years, as museums come and go. Sometimes collections are consolidated, or are moved to another city. The Museum of Bags and Purses was the most recent museum to close (April, 2020). ↩