All activities / Museums & Galleries / Amsterdam
Museums & Galleries in Amsterdam
The Dutch capital, a city of concentric 17th-century canals, gabled merchant houses and world-class museums, laid out for the bicycle and threaded by the waters of the IJ and the Amstel. Its UNESCO-listed canal ring, art collections and year-round festival calendar make it the cultural centre of the Netherlands.
Why here
Amsterdam's Museumplein holds one of the great concentrations of art in Europe, and for anyone who cares about the Dutch masters or Van Gogh it is close to essential. The Rijksmuseum lays out the whole Golden Age under one roof, its Gallery of Honour building toward Rembrandt's vast Night Watch, with Vermeer's Milkmaid and rooms of Hals, Steen and delftware along the way. A five-minute walk across the square, the Van Gogh Museum traces one short, blazing career from the dark Potato Eaters to the sunflowers and wheatfields of the final years, hung in the order he painted them. Between them they tell you where Dutch painting came from and where it went, and both reward slow looking rather than a dash to the famous canvases. Book timed tickets, come early or late, and give each half a day rather than trying to do both in one sitting, because this is a place to study pictures, not tick them off.
Best months
Both museums are open year round and are busiest in summer and over holiday weekends; the quietest slots are the first hour after opening and the last two hours before closing. Timed-entry tickets are required and sell out for peak dates, so book online in advance. The Rijksmuseum is open daily; the Van Gogh Museum runs late evenings on some Fridays. Museumplein links the two with the Stedelijk and the Concertgebouw, so a single day can take in several institutions on foot.
Getting there & around
The Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum sit a few minutes apart on Museumplein, a 15-minute tram ride or half-hour walk from Centraal Station. Buy timed tickets on each museum's own website ahead of the visit; the Museumkaart and I amsterdam City Card cover entry but you still reserve a slot. Large bags go in the cloakroom. Allow at least two to three hours for each, and avoid the midday crush by starting at opening.
Skill levels: beginner
Schools & guides (2)
Rijksmuseum
OrganizerThe Rijksmuseum is the national museum of the Netherlands on Museumplein in Amsterdam, home to Rembrandt's The Night Watch and Vermeer's The Milkmaid alongside the wider story of Dutch art and history. Its landmark building, designed by Pierre Cuypers, opened in 1885 and reopened in 2013 after a decade-long restoration that returned the Gallery of Honour and the great hall to their original form. The collection spans the Middle Ages to the 20th century across some 80 galleries.
Van Gogh Museum
OrganizerThe Van Gogh Museum on Amsterdam's Museumplein holds the largest collection of works by Vincent van Gogh in the world, with around 200 paintings, 500 drawings and more than 700 of his letters. It opened in 1973 in a building designed by the De Stijl architect Gerrit Rietveld, later extended by a curved wing from Kisho Kurokawa. The galleries follow Van Gogh's career in order, from the sombre Potato Eaters to Sunflowers, The Bedroom and Almond Blossom.