Visit Van Gogh Museum: Overview & Info

Visit Van Gogh Museum | Online Tickets | When visiting Amsterdam, visiting the famous van Gogh Museum is a must! No other museum in the world exhibits as many works by Vincent van Gogh as the museum in the Dutch capital. Here, you can admire 500 drawings and over 200 paintings of the famous Dutch painter. Also, some works of other artists have found a place here.

Not only are the works worth a visit, but the building in which the museum is located is an architectural masterpiece. It is located directly on Museumplein and consists of two buildings connected by underground passages.

Important information in advance: Tickets can only be purchased online. There are no box offices.

The museum is one of the most famous sights in Amsterdam and is visited by thousands of tourists every day, about 1.6 million annually! This makes it one of the 25 most famous museums in the world.

The collection at the Van Gogh Museum

The world’s most extensive collection contains over 200 paintings, 500 drawings, and approximately 750 written documents by Vincent van Gogh.

The works are arranged chronologically according to the periods in which they were created: Netherlands, Paris, Arles, Saint-Remy, and Auvers-sur-Oise. As a visitor, this makes it particularly easy to follow the artist’s evolution in the different periods during the visit and find it in his paintings.

There are several options if you want to visit the museum:

You can explore the collection independently and take in the works at your leisure. If you want more information about the painter and his works but still want to explore the museum at your own pace, a multimedia tour is available in ten languages. The audio guide explains how van Gogh worked and what motivated him – get to know the painter from a new perspective. One of the advantages of this tour is that it can be flexibly adapted to your interests. The equipment needed for the tour can be reserved in advance or rented on-site.

Entrance fees Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam

The museum is one of the most visited exhibitions in the world, along with the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

Tickets can only be ordered on the Internet!

The crowd of visitors is always enormous. With online tickets purchased in advance, there are few waiting times.

* More info on admission prices also in Van Gogh Museum admission prices.

Persons under the age of 18 are admitted to the museum free of charge, except for the cost of the audio guide.

When purchasing a ticket online for the Van Gogh Museum, a date and time must be set for the desired access. The stay afterward in the museum is unlimited.

Van Gogh Museum entrance with a City Pass

The Amsterdam Pass from Tiqets entitles you to free admission to several museums, including the Van Gogh Museum. Details for a selected visit to the Van Gogh Museum can be found on the provider’s site. Free admission is also available for holders of the I Amsterdam City Card. All essential details can also be found here on the respective provider page.

The current ticket prices for the van Gogh Museum and the other major attractions of Amsterdam are costly. Still, they are commonly compared to other European metropolises, such as Paris, London, or Barcelona. The current prices of the respective providers always apply. More affordable prices can only be obtained through possible discounts or the purchase of City Passes.

Van Gogh Museum entrance with a combination ticket

Another option is to buy a combination of tickets with another sight or attraction, such as one or more other museums. Combi tickets usually include the main attractions that are part of the must-see program for an Amsterdam trip and are, therefore, often worthwhile. This is also true for the van Gogh Museum.

Combination tip: Rijksmuseum + Van Gogh Museum or still in combination with the Stedelijk Museum.

How much time should you plan?

If you’re an art enthusiast, you’ll want to spend hours in this incredible museum to learn about van Gogh. But even if you’re more of an art buff, you’ll want to spend a few hours wandering through the various exhibition rooms to admire his paintings and drawings.

Due to the large number of works on display, you should visit the Van Gogh Museum in detail for about three hours, depending on your interests.

Opening hours of the Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam

The museum is open all year round, even on holidays. Visits to the other exceptional museums on the Museumsplein can be combined well. The opening hours are as follows.

For more information about the opening hours, you can also visit the separate information page about the opening hours of the Van Gogh Museum.

What are the waiting times?

As with many other famous sights in Amsterdam, there were long waiting times for admission. Up to two hours were not uncommon. Those who wanted to avoid this had to be on-site in the morning between 09.00 and 11.00 or come only after 3 o’clock. As mentioned above, tickets can now only be purchased in advance online. There are no box offices.

People often underestimate the problem of waiting times at the most important attractions of Amsterdam and lose a lot of time to discover many other great things in this fantastic city.

Online tickets for the museum

Tickets for the museum are only available online.

This procedure, which allows tickets to be bought online in advance, has many advantages: Queues are now very short at any time of year. The flow of visitors in the museum can also be better controlled. Overall, this procedure has had a very positive effect on much-visited sights!

Tickets can be purchased directly on this page. As a rule, the tickets are emailed quickly after booking and payment. They can then be printed out at home or downloaded to the smartphone. The tickets can all be purchased online with the usual payment methods.

Online tickets for the Van Gogh Museum

The History of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam

When Vincent van Gogh died in 1890 at the age of 37, his brother Theo van Gogh inherited his drawings, paintings, and letters because Vincent van Gogh had only been able to sell a few works during his lifetime. When Theo died a year later, his wife, Johanna van Gogh-Bonger, passed the inheritance. She returned to the Netherlands and exhibited van Gogh’s works for the first time, which helped his works gain more public recognition.

The first exhibition took place in the Stedelijk Museum in 1905. When Johanna died, she bequeathed the paintings to her son. He lent the paintings to various museums before establishing the Vincent van Gogh Foundation in 1960. Thus, the paintings were on permanent loan to the Stedelijk Museum before the van Gogh Museum opened in 1973.

Gerrit Rietveld designed the first building part of the museum, but the architect died before the structure’s completion, so his partners finished the building, which was finally opened on June 2, 1973. Today, the permanent collection is housed here and can be visited. In 1999, Japanese architect Kishō Kurokawa supplemented the old building with a design. This elliptical building was augmented 2015 with a spacious entrance and a glass front. The design originates from the architectural office of Kish Kurokawa, who died in 2007.

Security checks in the museum

Since the museum is so busy with visitors, there are a few things to remember during your visit. Only jackets and small handbags may be taken into the exhibition. If you have a bag of A4 size or larger, you must leave it in the museum’s checkroom. However, leaving suitcases and similar large pieces of luggage here is impossible.

If you still need to take your suitcase, drop it off at the Drop & Go station opposite Amsterdam Central Station. It would also be possible to drop off your bag directly at the Luggage Storage at the Museum Square.

Eating and drinking are not allowed in the exhibition! However, you can visit the café in the museum and comfortably review the visit with coffee and cake there.

No animals may be taken into the exhibition. Also, smoking is not allowed on the premises.

Photography and filming are only allowed in certain areas of the museum; please pay attention to the signs in the museum here. However, it is possible to download the pictures from the exhibition on the museum’s homepage. The images taken during the visit may only be used for private purposes. If you want to use the pictures commercially, please get in touch with the museum management.

The entire museum is under video surveillance!

The souvenir store of the Van Gogh Museum

As in any museum, you will also find a souvenir store in the entrance hall. Here, you can also buy copies of the exhibited paintings; all the proceeds go to expanding the museum’s collection.

Furthermore, you can visit the bookstore on the third floor.

If you still need to buy a souvenir after you visit the museum, you can also visit the Museumplein Shop on the Museumplein; you will also find souvenirs from the Rijksmuseum. In addition, you can access the online store via the museum homepage and browse there without time pressure.

Tip: If you have found something special but have no more room in your suitcase, you can also have the items sent to your home. You only pay shipping in addition to the purchase price.

The store is open every day as long as the museum.

Directions to the Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam

For museum visitors, the address is Museumplein 6, 1071 DJ Amsterdam. You can take tram lines 2 & 5 from Amsterdam Central Station and get off at the Van Baerlestraat stop. Lines 3 & 12 of the streetcar also stop at the same station.

If you want to get around in typical Dutch fashion, you can also rent a bike at the train station and ride the 3.5 km from the central station to the Van Gogh Museum.

The walking time, for those who like to explore Amsterdam on foot, is about 40 minutes from the central station to the museum. It is an excellent way to get to know the numerous canals.

The telephone number of the van Gogh Museum is: +31 (0) 20 5705200

The van Gogh Museum is only about 400 meters from the world-famous Rijksmuseum, so all routes are possible. For more information, see Rijksmuseum.

For Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Tour ticket holders, the stop is Museumsplein / Rijksmuseum.

There are a few paid parking spaces for those arriving by car. A supervised parking lot is located right next to the Van Gogh Museum. Q-Park, Van Baerlestraat 33b, entrance next to Concertgebouw. You can also book a secure parking space nearby via Mobypark.

Overall impression of the Van Gogh Museum

Art museums are often considered dull and monotonous. But the Museum of Vincent van Gogh has devised various ways to prove its visitors wrong. Through the structured layout and the guided tours offered throughout the collection, its visitors can follow the artist’s development through the periods without much effort.

The possibility of purchasing tickets online and having the souvenirs sent home without any problems minimizes the stress for its visitors. Thus, the visit becomes a complete success.

Overall, the museum is visitor-friendly and has a very modern setup; for example, parts of the collection have been made available to the public free of charge through the Google Art Project.

Why is it worth visiting the Van Gogh Museum?

If you are in Amsterdam, then you should visit the museum. In no other museum in the world will you learn so much about Vincent van Gogh and the beginning of modern painting as here? Because of the location in the Museumplein, you can visit other museums afterward, if you want. The Heineken Experience is also close for a change of pace.

In addition, you can make the museum visit an experience, thanks to the unique paintings and drawings of van Gogh, the quick access to the museum with easily purchased online tickets, and the purchase of souvenirs in the numerous souvenir stores. Even art buffs will be delighted.