With these tips you make the most of your visit to the Anne Frank House.
I hear too often, people where not able to visit during their stay in Amsterdam and that is absolutely avoidable if you follow these tips:
8 Tips To Make Your Anne Frank House Visit a Success
I have already given you my main two tips before:
- Mark the date to reserve your tickets to make sure your preferred date and time will not be sold out. Tickets are limited!
- I recommend always booking the introductory tour before your visit. But in order to do this your only change is to book it when reservering your tickets. Once you have your tickets you cannot add the introduction tour at a later stage.
But I have eight more Anne Frank House tips to make sure you’ll have a wonderful visit at the museum.
- Be sure about your date and time. There is no option to cancel, re-schedule or start your tour at a later time.
- Do not bring large luggage like a trolley or suitcase. It will be denied. And you will lose your time slot without any compensation. Paid baggage storage can be found at Central Station. From there take tram 13 or 17, or walk, it will be 20 minutes.
- Do not arrive without a ticket. The line for standby is usually hours long, and there is still a change you won’t be able to get in.
- Have the right expectations. This is a house, not a large museum. The value in a visit here is experiencing how a little girl that wrote an amazingly famous diary from a room on the attic in person. You’ll be standing in a the same room. You’ll see how they hid them too.
- You will have to climb a steep stair to there. Make sure you’re comfortable doing that before booking your ticket.
- Make sure to book your book your ticket only from the official Anne Frank House website. Do not use a re-seller. The only legal place to buy tickets is from the museum itself. Links here only link directly to the museum.
- Plan to be an 45 minutes to an hour at the museum, if you book the introductory tour as well 30 minutes more.
- Read her diary before you travel. Refreshing your memory about her diary will make your visit a lot more impactful and special.
With these tips in mind your visit will be a lot more enjoyable.
What to expect at the Anne Frank House
Once you enter – if you booked it – you’ll first enjoy the introductory tour. It takes 30 minutes and it will give you a much better understanding and context.
Then you will visit “Het achterhuis” or translated the back house. This is the part of the house that was hidden from the “main” house.
This is where you will pass the famous bookcase that hid the entrance to the back house and the attic where Anne Frank and her family were hiding.
Once upstairs you’re in the same room as Anne was.
Thankful you only have to be there a few minutes.
Imagine yourself being stuck there for more than two years without knowing if and when you would be able to leave again. The fear, the boredom.
Try to image that.
After that you continue your visit to the house next door, which is a more modern museum. Here you’ll learn about the people that made hiding there possible and what happend to the family.
“To build up a future, you have to know the past.“
— Otto Frank (Anne’s father)
Frequently Asked Questions
Is my visit to the Anne Frank House going to be depressing?
No. Of course, visiting a hiding place of a young girl who died in a concentration camp isn’t going to be a cheerful experience. But I think the museum does a great job to let you think and contemplate without getting to graphic or depressing. I always walk away thinking, but never depressed. I think from all the holocaust sites you can visit here in Europe this is one of the easier ones. It’s going to be relatable and not scary at all. There are no graphic images like you find in other holocaust memorials.
Is the Anne Frank House museum really that strict with time slots and baggage?
Yes. They’ve heard it all, the tram didn’t come, thus I am late, there was a hold up in traffic, the hotel didn’t allow you to leave your luggage, and many more.
The fact of the matter is that it is not about being unpleasant towards tourists, this is not a purpose build museum. It’s a house. And there is not much room, and millions of people wish to visit it.
Only by strictly regulating time slots (you have a 30 minute window on each side) and allowing no luggage they can accommodate as many people as they they can which translates into more tickets available for all of us.
Can I visit the Anne Frank House during a lay-over at Amsterdam airport?
Yes, you can when your layover is long enough. I recommend having 5 hours as a minimum.
That gives you an hour to get there, visit for 90 minutes, and travel back to the airport and giving you at least an hour at the airport for security and such.
You do need to book an exact time slot so book for 75 minutes after landing. If your flight is delayed you will lose your entrance ticket. But that is a risk you should be willing to take.
When do tickets for the Anne Frank House become available?
Tickets are released every Tuesday at 10AM local time for the next six weeks. Popular time slots will go quickly. Therefore book them as soon as you can. You can only buy your tickets directly on the Anne Frank House website. Usually, especially off-season, you can get tickets (much) closer to the date you’d like to visit. Especially if you’re flexible with time. Evenings are relatively quiet. I was able to get tickets up to a few days in advance on multiple occasions. But I live here, if full, I’ll try again. But your dates are bound, so don’t take any risk.
What to do if tickets to the Anne Frank Museum are sold out?
Don’t despair yet if you’re traveling on short notice and tickets show as unavailable. If your time slot or date is sold out, you are not out of luck yet. Only 80% of the time slots are released in advance.
The other 20% is available on the day at 9 a.m. local time. Go to the Anne Frank Museum website as close to 9 a.m. (Amsterdam time) and look for today’s tickets. You should still be able to find one or more.
What does a ticket to the Anne Frank Museum cost?
Check the top of this page for current Anne Frank House museum prices.
What are the opening hours of the Anne Frank House Museum?
See opening hours at the top of the page. Hours can change but once you book your ticket the museum will show you current opening hours, and the available time slots within.
Is the Anne Frank Museum accessible for Wheelchairs?
Not really. As you might expect, an old private residence with many (steep) stairs and no room for an elevator is not the best place to visit when you are in a wheelchair.
If you want to visit the room Anne hid in, climbing a steep stair is necessary. The new part of the museum is modern and fully accessible. This is where the exhibition is, but it’s not the original house.
Can I take photos inside the Anne Frank Museum
No, you can not. For safety pictures inside are not allowed. Keep your mobile phone in your products. It’s also the reason why I use stock photo’s from the museum on my website. I am also not allowed to take pictures inside.
