Museum

Rijksmuseum

#1of 9 places to visit in AmsterdamAmsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands

Also known as Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

Quick answer

Opening hours: 09:00–17:00. Entry: €25. Allow 3 hrs. Best time: 09:00-10:00.

Updated 18 September 2026 · Compiled by Traveliac, AI-assisted · 4 min read

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Photo: Trougnouf (Benoit Brummer) / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0

Opening hours: 09:00–17:00; Daily 09:00-17:00, including public holidays.
Entry fee: €25; Ticket from
Time needed: 3 hrs
Best time of day: 09:00-10:00
Best months: Apr – Jun, Sep
Address: Museumstraat 1, 1071 XX Amsterdam, Netherlands

About Rijksmuseum

The Rijksmuseum charges €25 for adults and admits visitors under 18 free, as of 2026, and every visitor must book a start time. The national museum of the Netherlands holds about 1 million objects, with roughly 8,000 on display, and its Gallery of Honour ends at Rembrandt's The Night Watch. Pierre Cuypers's brick-and-sandstone building on Museumstraat opened in 1885, and a central passage still carries cyclists and pedestrians straight through the ground floor beneath the galleries. Rijksmuseum galleries are strongest on the seventeenth century, with Vermeer's The Milkmaid, works by Frans Hals and Jan Steen, and a large room of ship models and naval paintings that shows how trade money built the Dutch Republic.

Best time of day: 09:00-10:00. On a weekday, or the last two hours before 17:00 when day-trip groups have left.

Rijksmuseum timings

Rijksmuseum opens at 09:00 and closes at 17:00. The weekend is no different: Saturday and Sunday follow the same times.

Opening hours: 09:00–17:00; Mon–Sun 09:00–17:00; Daily 09:00-17:00, including public holidays.
Closed on: Open every day

Mon–Sun	09:00–17:00

Good to know: Start times sell out first on weekends and school-holiday weeks; the Rijksmuseum Garden and the ground-floor passage have their own access hours.

Opening hours compiled from rijksmuseum.nl and public records, last updated 18 September 2026. They change without notice — confirm before you travel. How we write these guides

Rijksmuseum ticket price

Entry fees for Rijksmuseum
Ticket	Price
Standard ticket	€25
Concession (student / senior)	€11.25
Children	Free

Adult admission is EUR 25 as of 2026 per the official site; some third-party sites still list EUR 27 or other figures, so verify at rijksmuseum.nl before paying a reseller. Visitors under 18 enter free. CJP/EYCA card holders pay EUR 11.25; Museumkaart, ICOM and Friends members enter free. Every visitor, including free-entry visitors, must book a start time online.

Prices compiled from rijksmuseum.nl and public records, last updated 18 September 2026. They change without notice — confirm before you travel. How we write these guides

Best time to visit Rijksmuseum

Quiet
Moderate
Busy
Very busy

09:00 - 10:30
Opening Slots
Advance-booked first slots move quickly through security, and the Gallery of Honour is passable if visitors head to The Night Watch first.
Moderate
10:30 - 14:00
Midday Peak
Tour groups and independent visitors overlap, and the room around The Night Watch holds a dense crowd for most of these hours.
Very busy
14:00 - 16:00
Afternoon Steady
Crowds stay heavy through the seventeenth-century rooms, easing slightly in the upper floors that cover later centuries.
Busy
16:00 - 17:00
Closing HourBest time to go
Most day visitors leave before closing, so the Gallery of Honour empties enough to view The Night Watch from a distance.
Quiet

History of Rijksmuseum

The Rijksmuseum was founded on 19 November 1798 in The Hague and moved to Amsterdam in 1808, first into the Royal Palace on Dam Square and later to other premises. Pierre Cuypers, who also designed Amsterdam Centraal, won the commission for the present building, which opened in 1885 with Gothic and Renaissance elements, stained glass and painted ceilings.

A renovation that ran for about ten years and cost €375 million closed most of the building until the reopening on 13 April 2013. The project restored Cuypers's original circulation, opened the two courtyard atria and kept the cycle passage that Amsterdam residents insisted on. The separate Philips Wing, which shows Dutch architectural history through salvaged fragments of demolished buildings, sits at one side of the main block. Visitor numbers reached 2.2 million in 2013 and 2.47 million in 2014, making the Rijksmuseum the most visited museum in the country.

Rules & etiquette at Rijksmuseum

The Rijksmuseum requires a booked start time for every visitor, including holders of a Museumkaart, with exceptions only for Friends members and ICOM or ICOMOS pass holders. Arriving within the slot matters more than arriving early, because staff at the entrance check the time printed on the ticket.

Large bags, backpacks and coats are held in the cloakroom lockers near the entrance, and staff can ask visitors to leave bulky items there; verify current size limits at the official site. Photography without flash is generally allowed in the permanent galleries, but tripods and selfie sticks are not, and the room around The Night Watch is the one place where crowds make even phone photography awkward. Food and drink stay out of the galleries, and the cafe and the Michelin-starred RIJKS restaurant serve the ground floor.

Tips for visiting Rijksmuseum

1
Rijksmuseum visitors who go straight to The Night Watch on entering meet the densest crowd of the day; walk the Gallery of Honour in reverse order, starting from the far end, or view the painting after 16:00. Rembrandt's group portrait is the fixed point of the visit, but The Milkmaid and the small Delft street scenes reward a slower look.
2
Book the earliest slot at 09:00 on a weekday and plan a two-to-three-hour visit rather than a full day. The Rijksmuseum Garden, on the Museumplein side, can be entered separately and holds bronzes and a formal parterre. The Vondelpark starts a five-minute walk west, and the Van Gogh Museum stands across Museumplein, so a booked pair of timed tickets can share one day without a tram.

How to reach Rijksmuseum

The red star is Rijksmuseum; the numbered pins are the 8 nearest places in our guides, each showing its rank in its city. Tap a pin for details.

Museumstraat 1, 1071 XX Amsterdam, NetherlandsDirections in Google Maps

From Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS)
15 km · 35-45 min
About EUR 5.40 train one-way plus about EUR 3.40 tram (2026 secondary sources; verify at ns.nl and gvb.nl)
From Amsterdam Centraal
3 km · 15-20 min
About EUR 3.40 single GVB fare or contactless OVpay tap (verify at gvb.nl)
From Museumplein
0.3 km · 5 min
Free on foot

Nearest airport

From Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS)

about 15 km; 20 minutes by train to Amsterdam Centraal or Amsterdam Zuid plus a short tram ride.

Nearest station

From Amsterdam Centraal

about 3 km; tram 2 or 12 stops at Rijksmuseum, or Vijzelgracht metro (line 52) is a 10-minute walk.

Rijksmuseum FAQs

How much does the Rijksmuseum cost in 2026?

The Rijksmuseum charges EUR 25 for adults as of 2026 and is free for visitors under 18. CJP and EYCA card holders pay EUR 11.25, and Museumkaart holders enter free with a booked start time. Some resellers list different prices, so verify at rijksmuseum.nl.

Do you need to book a start time at the Rijksmuseum?

Yes. All visitors must book a start time, including Museumkaart holders, with exceptions for Friends members and ICOM or ICOMOS pass holders. Weekend and school-holiday slots sell out earliest.

What are the Rijksmuseum opening hours?

The Rijksmuseum is open every day of the year from 09:00 to 17:00, including public holidays. There are no weekly closing days, so a Monday visit is possible.

Where is The Night Watch in the Rijksmuseum?

The Night Watch hangs at the end of the Gallery of Honour on the first floor, in a dedicated room. Rembrandt painted it in 1642, and the room is busiest between 10:30 and 14:00.

Compiled with AI assistance from official sources and public records, and published only after the checks in How we write these guides. Nobody from Traveliac has visited this place. Last updated 18 September 2026. How we rank and check places