(Rewritten and expanded August 2026)
Okay, so they might not be secret.
But they are definitely not the museums most first-time visitors think of when they arrive in Amsterdam.
Amsterdam has an almost ridiculous number of museums. Of course you have to visit Rijksmuseum, Stedelijk Museum, Van Gogh Museum and Anne Frank’s house. But you don’t need me to tell you that!
What I find more interesting are the museums that tell you something different about Amsterdam and the Netherlands – the places that explain how the city became what it is, where its wealth came from, what happened to its people, and how the Dutch see themselves and the world. That is where Amsterdam starts becoming more than a pretty city with canals.
So if you’ve already done the big four, here are my recommendations for some of the best lesser-known museums in Amsterdam.
And yes, I have a bit of a museum bias. I’ve been to Amsterdam 3 times – and 2 of those were work trips. That is as a museum professional on study trip speaking with directors and curators. Amsterdam will not disappoint the museum-lover.
The Best Lesser-Known Museums in Amsterdam
List of museums
AMSTERDAM MUSEUM
If you want to understand Amsterdam, start here.
The Amsterdam Museum is one of my favourites because it doesn’t just throw a collection of old objects at you and expect you to figure out why they matter.
It tells the story of the city: its past, present and future, using objects, films, sound and interactive exhibitions.
When I visited, Amsterdam DNA gave a chronological introduction to the city, with a clear timeline, films and sound. You could even hear the bells of the city’s towers.
The section on Amsterdam’s Golden Age was particularly interesting. It explained how the city became extraordinarily wealthy through shipping and international trade. And importantly, it didn’t present that wealth as some uncomplicated Dutch success story.
Part of the wealth came from slavery and forced labour, while countless other professions benefited from the enormous trading network. Carpenters, cartographers, artists and merchants were all part of a city being transformed by money and influences arriving from around the world.
From around 1600 onwards, Dutch power, wealth and culture developed at remarkable speed. The Netherlands really did become a European superpower.
And then there were the children...
One of my favourite parts of the museum was the exhibition about the building’s former life as an orphanage.
The Amsterdam Museum’s historic main building was once the city’s Burgerweeshuis, and the museum used that history to let children experience what life in an orphanage might have been like.
You got a rubber bracelet from the information desk and then followed an interactive route through the old orphanage, activating stories along the way. Naturally, I activated every single one I could find.
There was only one problem: Some of the activities required a child. I had to invent one.
And watch out for the rats.
Important update
The Amsterdam Museum is currently undergoing a major transformation. Its historic main location on Kalverstraat is closed for renovation, and its temporary Amsterdam Museum on the Amstel location closed at the end of 2025. The museum now operates as a network, including Amsterdam in Motion at Westergas and the Willet-Holthuysen House.
So check the museum’s current locations before visiting rather than relying on my original experience.
MUSEUM OF THE CANALS
Want to understand why Amsterdam looks the way it does? Come here.
The Museum of the Canals (Grachtenmuseum) is housed in a 17th-century canal house on the Herengracht, right in the middle of Amsterdam’s famous canal belt. It tells the story of how the canals were planned, constructed and gradually transformed Amsterdam.
And this is exactly why I like it.
You don’t just look at beautiful canal houses from the outside. You understand why and how the city was built like this in the first place.
The exhibition explains the enormous urban-planning project behind the canal belt in order to create a modern and perfect city.
There are also period rooms where you can see how people actually lived inside these magnificent houses.
For me, this is one of the best museums to combine with walking around the canal belt itself.
See the museum first, then walk outside and suddenly the city makes much more sense.
And it is in an absolutely brilliant location: just a couple of minutes from the Nine Streets and within the UNESCO-listed canal belt.
My verdict: One of the best choices if you want history
HET SCHEEPVAARTSMUSEUM – The National Maritime Museum
Continuing on the water theme. Amsterdam’s history is impossible to understand without the sea.
Het Scheepvartmuseum tells the story of shipping and seafaring – arguably the single most important ingredient in Amsterdam’s rise to wealth and international importance. Without ships, there would have been no Dutch Golden Age in quite the same way.
The museum is huge and has exhibitions covering everything from maritime technology and trade to exploration and life at sea.
But the real highlight for me was outside.
Behind the museum you can find the Amsterdam, a full-scale reconstruction of an 18th-century Dutch East India Company ship. The original ship was built in 1748 for the VOC and was supposed to sail to Asia. Instead, it sank off the English coast near Hastings on its maiden voyage.
Today you can walk aboard the reconstruction. You can see the cannons, explore the cramped captain’s quarters and smell the tar.
I did not go downstairs. I got seasick. Yes, on a ship that wasn’t even moving.
There is also a replica of the Royal Barge, which is almost absurdly elaborate.
The museum does a particularly good job of combining objects with films, sound and interactive elements. You can even experience aspects of life as a trading sailor. And if you’re interested in the less comfortable side of Dutch maritime history, don’t skip the exhibitions dealing with colonialism, trade and exploitation.
TROPEN MUSEUM
Tropen Museum is a museum about cultures – but it is also something else.
The museum grew out of the Netherlands’ colonial history and its collections include objects from places such as Indonesia, Suriname and New Guinea. But the way the museum presents these collections has changed considerably.
When I visited, an employee described it as a museum about how we talk about other cultures. That is a pretty good description.
That distinction is important. Rather than simply dividing the world into neat geographical sections, exhibitions increasingly look at themes and questions that cross borders.
There were exhibitions on subjects such as rhythm and roots, body art and the impact of war and displacement.
I particularly liked the attempt to avoid simply putting objects from another culture behind glass and declaring, Here is how these people live.
Instead, the museum tries to ask who is telling the story and how that story is constructed.
And yes, there were some wonderfully bizarre objects. Including a corset for pregnant women.
Bring the kids?
Absolutely.
The children’s exhibitions and activities are particularly good. When I visited, there was even a Morocco exhibition with cooking workshops – although, naturally, it was only open to school groups on the day I was there.
Rats! Kids get all the fun.
NEMO SCIENCE MUSEUM
And to continue along that line – kids get all the fun. NeMo is not a new concept. I’ve been to science museums all over the world, and many use the same formula: make science playful and let visitors experiment rather than simply read about it.
It works. Not just for children, but also for the rest of us.
NEMO is particularly good if you’re travelling with children.
The building itself looks like a giant green ship rising out of the water, and inside there are experiments, games and interactive installations everywhere.
When I visited, you could guess which brain belonged to which animal, launch a rocket and conduct chemistry experiments. There was even a proper laboratory with lab coats.
Which brings me to my usual complaint:
Why are adults never allowed to do the fun stuff?
We guessed most of the brains correctly, though, so clearly our scientific careers were still on track.
If you have children, put NEMO high on your list.
If you don’t, you can still have fun.
Just try not to get elbowed out of the way by a seven-year-old who understands the experiment better than you do.
ARTIS - Groote Museum
The first thing I see is a real dead fox. Tongue out of its mouth. Then small digital and projected insects start the decomposition. In the end new life grow out of the dead fox. What a poetic way to show the circle of life.
This one is a little harder to categorise. It isn’t an art museum, history museum or traditional natural-history museum. The ARTIS-Groote Museum is an interactive museum about the relationship between humans and the natural world.
And I actually think that makes it interesting for adults as well as children.
Nature isn't something outside us. We are part of it.
The museum is housed in ARTIS’s historic Main Building, which was originally built as a museum in the 19th century. The current Groote Museum explores how humans, animals, plants and microbes are connected through an interactive collection of around a thousand large and small examples.
You are encouraged to use more than your eyes. You can hear, smell and touch your way through parts of the exhibition.
The central idea is simple but surprisingly effective:
That makes this a very different experience from walking through a traditional collection of stuffed animals or botanical specimens. Don’t get me wrong, there are stuffed animals cut in half and a lion’s heart. It might not be the best natural history museum ever (London, Berlin etc), but I like the way it blends art and cultural history.
And if you’re already visiting ARTIS, there is another reason to stay around. ARTIS also has the zoo and Micropia, the world’s first museum dedicated entirely to microbes. Because apparently Amsterdam wasn’t satisfied with having museums about paintings, ships and canals. It also needed one about things you can’t see.
FOAM – Photography Museum Amsterdam
FOAM is an internationally operating photography organisation based in Amsterdam, with exhibitions spread over several floors.
This was actually the museum I was most excited about.
Unfortunately, Amsterdam had other plans.
They were changing exhibitions when I arrived, so only one floor was open.
I had walked for about 30 minutes through the rain to get there.
So naturally I went to the café and drank a very large cup of mint tea before venturing back outside into the horrible weather.
And then I discovered that they opened the new exhibitions about an hour after I left.
With free wine.
Aaargh!
So my experience of FOAM is perhaps not the most objective museum review in the world.
But I would still include it because the museum has an excellent reputation for contemporary and historical photography, and it is exactly the kind of place where the temporary exhibition matters.
Oh, and when I visited:
No pictures allowed.
Which, for a photography museum, seemed almost cruel.
Castles Worth Visiting as a Day Trip from Amsterdam
If you have more time in the Netherlands, there are two spectacular castles worth considering as day trips from Amsterdam. They are very different experiences, though – and that is exactly what makes both interesting.
Paleis Het Loo
Het Loo was one of my favourite day trips. There is enough here to keep very different travellers happy: royal history, beautiful interiors, exhibitions, architecture, gardens – and plenty for children.
The story begins in 1684, when Stadtholder Willem III and Princess Mary bought the existing Oude Loo and built a new summer residence next to it. When Willem and Mary became King and Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland in 1689, Het Loo was expanded into a proper royal palace. Mary, however, had to remain in England and never saw her beloved palace again before her death at just 32.
The palace remained connected with the Dutch royal family for centuries. It was even occupied by Louis Napoleon, Napoleon Bonaparte’s brother and King of Holland, in the early 19th century. He made substantial changes to the palace and replaced the original Baroque gardens with a landscape garden.
Today, the old palace has beautifully restored royal rooms and some excellent exhibitions downstairs.There is an exhibition on the royal family of Orange. The name that gave the Netherlands its colours. It’s fairly traditional, but see it anyway. Remember to go upstairs for the royal death part.
Like other castles it has a famous staircase, and parts of the palace have the grand, theatrical feel of a miniature Schönbrunn.
Then there are the gardens. They were never simply decoration: for Willem and Mary, the gardens were a way of displaying royal wealth and power. The reconstructed 17th-century Baroque gardens are remarkably formal and symmetrical, with the King’s Fountain once reaching more than 13 metres – reportedly the highest fountain in Europe at the time. In summer there is an ice-cream wagon, and there are activities for children, making this much more than a palace visit.
If you only have time for one castle, this would be my choice. It works equally well for history lovers, royal-watchers, garden enthusiasts and families.
Kasteel de Haar
Kasteel de Haar is a completely different experience from Het Loo.
It looks less like a castle that simply survived from the Middle Ages and more like someone had a childhood dream of the perfect Gothic castle – and actually had the money to build it.
There was a medieval castle here, dating back to the 13th century, but by the 19th century it had fallen into serious disrepair. Baron Etienne van Zuylen van Nijevelt and his wife Hélène decided to resurrect the family castle, commissioning architect Pierre Cuypers, who also designed Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum and Central Station.
Between the 1890s and the early 20th century, Cuypers didn’t simply restore the ruins. He created an entire fantasy world: the castle, interiors, chapel, gardens and even parts of the surrounding village were designed as one enormous Gesamtkunstwerk.
And it shows.
There are towers, turrets, pointed arches, elaborate decorations and so many tiny details that in places the castle looks almost like a Gothic church. At the same time, the Van Zuylens filled it with the latest 19th-century luxuries, including central heating, hot and cold running water, electricity, a Turkish bath, a modern kitchen and even a lift.
It was also very much a place for entertaining.
From the 1900s, the family traditionally spent September at De Haar, holding lavish parties for aristocrats, artists, writers, wealthy friends and international celebrities. The guest list is extraordinary: Coco Chanel, Maria Callas, Brigitte Bardot, Gina Lollobrigida, Joan Collins, Yves Saint Laurent, Roger Moore and Gregory Peck all visited.
The children’s tour is excellent and gives younger visitors a much more playful way of exploring the castle, although unfortunately it is only available in Dutch. The gardens are lovely too, with activities for children during the summer.
For me, Kasteel de Haar is less about authentic medieval history and more about the fantasy of what a spectacular castle should look like. And that is precisely why it is so much fun.
Het Loo is the better all-round day trip; De Haar is the one to choose if you want something spectacular, eccentric and a bit more quirky.
So, which Amsterdam museum should you choose?
The best museum in general: Museum of the canals or Het Scheepvartsmuseum
If you only have time for one or two, I would choose according to what you want to understand.
- For Amsterdam’s history: Amsterdam Museum or Museum of the Canals
- For the Dutch Golden Age: Het Scheepvaartmuseum
- For Amsterdam’s darker history: Tropenmuseum
- For the city’s UNESCO status: Museum of the Canals
- For something unusual: ARTIS-Groote Museum
- For science nerds: NEMO
- For photography: FOAM
- For the royal history: Het Loo
Why I love Dutch museums
I have visited museums all over the world, and one thing I particularly appreciate about museums in Amsterdam and the Netherlands is the attention to communication.
They don’t always assume that the visitor already knows the story. Objects are combined with films, sound, interactive installations, reconstructions and sometimes downright weird experiences.
And when it works, you don’t just learn what something is. You understand why it matters.
That’s what makes a good museum for me. And please let the adults in on the fun.
And Amsterdam has a lot of them.
So yes, visit the Rijksmuseum and see the Van Gogh Museum. Go to the Anne Frank House. (I actually haven’t been here, because it’s so difficult to get tickets. Crying emoji)
But once you’ve done the obvious ones, start looking beyond the usual list. You might find that the museum you almost skipped tells you more about Amsterdam than the one everyone told you that you had to see.
Love museums? You might also enjoy my guides to the best museums in Stockholm and the most unusual museums in Warsaw.