Amsterdam: Buying tickets to the Anne Frank House
Editor’s Note: We originally published this article in 2014 when visitors would have to line up (sometimes for several hours!) to get into the Anne Frank House. Now you can only visit with online tickets purchased in advance. We have updated the information to reflect the most recent changes to the ticketing system as of August 2024.
Every summer my short stint as an Amsterdam tour guide begins with great intentions. We start at the Dam Square, stroll for an hour and soak in the good vibes from enjoying our afternoon wander. We check out the secret garden Begijnhof, dip into the art hall from the Amsterdam Museum, wander to the Flower Market and through the Canal Ring’s 9 Streets. Maybe we talk about weed and the Red Light District, and I always ramble off a to-do list for nightlife.
In the past, as we edged closer to the Anne Frank House, a cloud would roll over our heads. I would beg the museum gods to show mercy on my tour group, but starting in May, we were usually met with an entry line that rivaled the Louvre and Uffizi. Once July would come, my groups of first-timers to Amsterdam wouldn’t even try to get in.
But a new ticketing system at the Anne Frank House has added a ray of hope, especially for those that are good at planning ahead. Read on to find out how to make sure you see this essential attraction in Amsterdam.
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• The 10 best cheap hotels in Amsterdam
Tips for visiting the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam
An article in The New York Times reported that attendance at Europe’s top museums has caused enough congestion that directors are running out of ideas.
But that doesn’t mean you have to give up. In fact, a ticketing system —introduced in 2016 and revised many times in recent years — has changed visitors’ strategies. We are here to let you in on a few insider tips and answer questions like: How can you skip the line? When is the best time to go? Can I get tickets in advance? Here are your best options.
1. Reserve online and pick your time slot
The only way to get tickets to the Anne Frank House these days is to reserve them online. There are no more tickets at the door. As soon as you have your Amsterdam dates inked in the calendar, go to the Anne Frank House website and use your credit card to buy those tickets. Commit to a time slot and stick with it.
All available tickets are released on Tuesdays for visits six weeks later. Once they are sold out, there is no way to get on a waitlist. Once you’ve booked a date and time, you cannot reschedule.
There used to be a policy that after 3:30 p.m., the museum would open up to visitors without advance tickets. But this is no longer the case.
Tip: Do NOT arrive in Amsterdam and try to reserve a ticket for the following day. Chances are they will be sold out, as there is only a selected amount available online. You’ll need to be diligent in getting the tickets you want the month prior to your visit.
2. Know the museum rules for getting tickets
Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. (Amsterdam time) each Tuesday for available dates six weeks out. So if you plan on going to the Museum on October 4, 2024 the earliest you can buy tickets is the first Tuesday, August 20, 2024. The 10 a.m. time in Amsterdam converts to 4 a.m. in New York and 1 a.m. in Los Angeles.
The Anne Frank House is now open daily from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. year-round, with some limited hours on certain dates for holidays. The museum closes for Yom Kippur and will close this year from October 1–3 for maintenance.
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3. Early bird really does catch the worm
If you didn’t have a chance to get Anne Frank House tickets before your trip, don’t give up hope! You may be able to find available tickets online. And if you don’t get tickets during your trip, you’ll just have another reason to return!
The view from above. Photo: migulski
4. Making the most of your time before your visit
If you have extra time before your entry time, I encourage visitors to picnic or enjoy a coffee break. Across the street from the Westerkerk is an Albert Hein grocery store, even a bakery or two. Grab a cup of coffee, a sandwich, snack, or whatever looks good.
You can also plan the rest of your day because they have Wi-Fi that you can connect to while you wait for your entry time.
5. Off-season relief
If you are visiting Amsterdam after late September, patron traffic stays calm and cool until tulip season emerges early April and bus coaches come rolling in again. You’ll have a better chance of getting an online ticket less than a month in advance.
At €16 a ticket (€7 for kids 10-17), the Anne Frank House is a good deal of history at a lower price than most museums in Amsterdam. If you plan to see more museums during your trip, an Amsterdam museum pass may also be a cost-effective option to see multiple sites, including the Anne Frank House, for one fee.
Looking for alternatives to the Anne Frank House? Check out 20 free things to do in Amsterdam and smart alternatives for big attractions.
Good luck!
Do you have any tips for visiting the Anne Frank House? Let us know!
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Thought we share some tips on how to get tickets to the Anne Frank House which are available only online via their website.
Tickets go on sale exactly 60 days beforehand. For example, if you want to tour the House on April 10th, get tickets on Feb 10th. Tickets can sell out quickly, especially the “museum visit+30 minute introductory program”, so it’s best to plan ahead. The online queue for buying the tickets can be long. Here are some tips on how to navigate it:
First, if you are buying tickets from the US, Canada or a foreign country, make sure your credit card is OK with charges being made from a foreign country. In some cases, you may need to first contact your card issuer and tell them you will be traveling and charging things from the Netherlands/Europe. Don’t get through the online ticket booking website and find out that your credit card gets rejected (and you may have to start over).
Tickets go on sale starting at 9AM Amsterdam time (adjust to your local time), although we have found that time might be delayed by several minutes. The website is set up so if many people start to query it, it will establish a queue with a message “This website is currently overcrowded. In order to relieve the server, you have been queued. Do not close this page. The page will be refreshed automatically. There are still 243 people waiting before you…” Note that this queue is to get ON the website to query for available tickets. It is NOT a queue for actually buying the ticket for the day that you want.
This traffic queue creates a bit of a problem — If you go to the ticket purchasing website too early, for example at 8:30AM Amsterdam time, you may find there are already 300 people waiting in this queue. However, as the queue gets shorter, it might still be too early to be able to buy anything (remember, the April 10th tickets you want won’t start selling until *AFTER* 9AM), so you may end up waiting for nothing, because when that wait list of 300 gets down to you, it may only be 8:48AM so now you’ll have to give up, wait, possibly get kicked out by the server (see below), or start over at the back of the queue.
Timing is important — I recommend a strategy of opening multiple browsers (Firebox, Explorer, Chrome, SeaMonkey, Safari, etc) and in each browser, go to the ticketing website and launch multiple wait list in the queue. You may wish to start this at no later than 8:30-8:40am (20 to 30 minutes before ticket sale starts). For example, in the different browsers, you might be number 298, 345, 481 and 515 waiting in this queue. When the queue drops down to your number and let you get on the website, hopefully it will coincide with when the tickets become available for sale at 9AM (+/- a few minutes).
Sometimes, when you get through the wait list queue, you might get the error message, “Server Error in ‘/’ Application. Object reference not set to an instance of an object…” In that case, try and hit the Back button on your browser and wait for the server to respond. If you’re lucky, it will kick you into the ticket selection calendar page. Now you can select April 20th and see what tickets are available. If you are unlucky, it may kick you out completely and you’ll have to start over (or abandon that browser and go with your next wait list browser.)
For our recent purchase, only 7 time slots were open and only 30 tickets were available for each time slot. All the tickets were gone in less than 15 minutes.
*** If you wait until 10:00 or 10:30AM, additional tickets may also be released and there might not be as much of a traffic jam on the website as the 9AM rush, but it’s all a matter of timing, luck and the demand. Right now, it seems AFH releases 7 time slots, each with 30 tickets, every hour or so, but that may vary.
Hope these tips help you buy the tickets you want to visit the Anne Frank House. Good luck & safe travels!
Quick reminder that this is not true anymore, tickets have to be booked online for THE ENTIRE DAY
No more queuing after 3:30
John
Hi John
I am reading conflicting information on social media-taking my daughter for her 21st pressie in December-tickets sold out on our dates we are there-so does this mean no queuing and no other form of entry !!
Thank you for any help you can give me 🙂
Hi john I am just wondering if I have bought a ticket do I still have to queue? Or how do I get into the museum
May not be the place to say this but my friend and I got tickets to go to the Anne Frank museum on the 30th of this month, but now we’re not going to Amsterdam at all. If anyone would like to go on this particular day (I believe our reservation was at 1 pm), please reply with your email address and we can arrange something! 🙂
Are these tix still available? We are looking for 2 of them!
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You might have a big time lag between when your plane hits Schipol and when you can check into your hotel. Our plane hits early morning. Might want to check out the Anne Frank location for how big the crowd is. If it’s too big, go to a cafe, drink a latte, and just sit and watch the people. Maybe eat a little, and get the damn plane food off your palate. Amsterdam is a great place for people-watching.
They just overhauled their whole system last summer. Now it’s waiting in line from 3.30 PM, everything beforehand is prebooked. I would alreday take the selfie at the actual front door (Next to the line), and then spend the rest of the waiting time posting it on social media.
it is May 9 and on May 6 the tickets for JULY 6, 7 and 8 were not online – and today they are all sold out? what the heck?
I had the same problem. Checked for August 3rd tickets on June 3rd and they weren’t up. Checked again throughout the day and night on the 4th and nothing. Checked first thing on the 5th and suddenly August 3, 4, and 5 are all showing and all completely sold out. Not sure what’s up but I wouldn’t be surprised if ticket resalers are snapping them up immediately and reselling at a profit.
Looking for tickets for the Anne Frank House since getting our hotel and air! We will be in Amsterdam April 18 – 25(departing date).
Might it be less crowded or easier to buy tickets that morning and get into the house and not on 3 hours?
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Please does anyone have a ticket stub they saved of their visit? I’m doing a project of my daughters visit there and inadvertently ruined the stub she saved. Please???
Neelam
Bring along your kids. Inside the Frank house, the crush was intense. My 4-year old simply climbed through all the legs and signs and led me outside. He didn’t want to be trapped in there, too. I, by the way, had seen it all on the movie with Shelly Winters. It’s as though the film had come to life.
just read about how difficult it is to get tickets to see anne franks museum. We booked a mini cruise to Amsterdam and the travel agent was nt able to book us tickets to the museum I have also tried and failed. We are there on Saturday October 24th. We are so dissappointed.
M
Be advised- when you do get in the stairs are truly steep….that said it was one of my bucket list experiences and well worth the trip
Thanks, great tips. Anything on Copenhagen?