Maritime Museum in Amsterdam – Admission, Opening Hours & Info

✅ Amsterdam Maritime Museum – Tickets online – The history of the metropolis of Amsterdam is closely linked to seafaring due to its location, as the city’s maritime museum, known as Het Scheepvaartmuseum, impressively reminds us.

With its numerous exhibits from different eras of the history of shipping and one of the largest libraries on this subject, the National Maritime Museum in Amsterdam is one of the most interesting attractions you can visit in the Dutch metropolis and impresses with its loving design.

The museum has been housed in the Zeemagazijn (sea warehouse) of the former Admiralty of Amsterdam, a historic warehouse, since 1973. It inspires you with an atmosphere that gives you the feeling of being transported back to the glory days of seafaring.

Admission prices for the Maritime Museum

The following table summarises the entrance fees for the Maritime Museum:

✅ A canal cruise and a visit to the maritime museum also go well together.

The appropriate tickets are available here – Canal cruise and maritime museum.

✅ A harbour cruise through one of Europe’s largest ports is also an experience on the water.

A museum with historical flair

The beginnings of the Amsterdam Maritime Museum, which has been located at its present site on the island of Kattenburg in the middle of Amsterdam since 1973, go back to 1922, when the museum was opened by the then Queen of the Netherlands. As the collection of the house became very extensive over the years, efforts were made to find larger quarters for the Amsterdam Maritime Museum so that all the collection’s very interesting exhibits could be displayed permanently.

The former Dutch Navy arsenal is a very impressive building, which, as you will see, provides a worthy setting for the sometimes valuable individual pieces in the exhibition. In particular, the four-year renovation of the Amsterdam Maritime Museum, which began in 2007, and its subsequent reopening, have made it one of the most popular and beautiful museums in Amsterdam.

Opening times of the Maritime Museum

The following table shows all opening hours of the Maritime Museum:

✅ So there’s no need to worry about opening hours! The museum is open almost 365 days a year. It is only closed on May 27 (King’s Day), Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.

Waiting times at the Maritime Museum

The Maritime Museum is not as important as the Rijksmuseum or the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, but it is still one of the city’s most popular museums. Visitors who want to avoid waiting at the ticket office should definitely buy an online ticket in advance.

✅ This is especially true for weekends, holidays or during the holiday season.

Buy online tickets for the Maritime Museum

Seafaring in the Netherlands

The very diverse exhibits on display at the Amsterdam Maritime Museum provide a comprehensive insight into the eventful history of seafaring in the Netherlands and impress with their uniqueness.

The exhibition, which is structured chronologically from the beginnings of shipping in the Netherlands to the most recent developments, features many everyday objects from maritime life, but also impressive individual items such as the radar room of a 1946 gunboat and some very rare navigation devices. The beautiful Amsterdam Maritime Museum not only offers you classic maritime exhibits, but also has various interactive elements that allow you to get an impressive bird’s eye view of the port of Amsterdam, for example.

The numerous souvenirs that seafarers have brought back from ports around the world over the centuries are also very interesting and provide unique insights into the often arduous everyday life of seafarers and whalers in the days of sailing ships. For example, in the Maritime Museum you can marvel at the many intricately carved works made of whale bone, which were produced during the often very long voyages of the whalers.

A tour on the “Dutch East Indiaman”

The highlight of the museum is easy to spot! Included in the entrance fee is a tour on a Dutch East Indiaman, a typical sailing ship that plied the oceans trading with Asia in the 17th and 18th centuries.

It’s an experience, of course – during the tour on the Dutch East Indiaman you can see the living conditions of the seafarers at the time and imagine what it must have been like to be at sea for months. The round trip to Asia took about 8 months.

History of the National Maritime Museum

The 17th century was Amsterdam’s golden age. Due to the rapid growth in population, the city grew incessantly. The canal belt with its houses, which were high for those times, was created, as well as three so-called Eilanden in 1650. These are three artificially raised islands on which warehouses, apartments and shipyards were built.

The Admiralty’s naval magazine was built on the island of Kattenburg to store ship’s equipment, cannons and much more. The building was destroyed by fire in 1791. After it was rebuilt, the Dutch navy moved into the building in 1795. It officially remained a naval warehouse until the beginning of 1970.

In order to create a museum for Dutch seafaring, collectors, sponsors and private individuals founded the Vereeniging Nederlandsch Historisch Scheepvaart Museum (NHSMA) in 1916 as the future sponsor of the museum. A building located in the Cornelis Schuytstraat, directly behind the current museum quarter, was purchased in 1921.

The Dutch Queen served as patron of the association. The association opened the Scheepvaartmuseum Netherlands in 1922. Since the mid-1950s, the search had been on for a larger building to house the museum’s ever-growing collection, and in April 1973 the official opening of the museum took place in the old Zeemagazijn.

A great experience for children

Many visitors travel to the city on the canals with children. The classic canal tour is still fun, but at the latest in the Rijksmuseum or Van Gogh Museum, it gets boring for the younger visitors. If the weather is bad, a visit to the National Maritime Museum in Amsterdam is just the right idea. Even though it is about the history of Dutch seafaring, the large boats leave plenty of room for children’s imagination. After all, you don’t see a sailing ship like the Dutch East Indiaman every day.

✅ If you visit Het Scheepvaartmuseum and want to see other attractions in the area, then you can also visit the A’DAM Lookout, the nearby Nemo Science Museum or, for something completely different, mini golf in the dark. So even with children, there are plenty of opportunities to spend a fun-filled day in Amsterdam.

Tip: AMAZE, an extraordinary audiovisual experience in Amsterdam, is also very close by. Tickets for AMAZE

The souvenir shop at the maritime museum

The souvenir shop in the maritime museum left a very good impression on me personally!

At other attractions, such as the Amsterdam Lookout, the souvenir shop is a bit drab and the items have little to do with the attraction.

In the Museum of Seafaring in Amsterdam, on the other hand, the souvenir shop, which has its own name, Het Pakhuys, is very much focused on the sea and shipping. There is a special section where children can find a suitable memento of their visit to the museum for every budget.

✅ The Nautical Museum’s souvenir shop, Het Pakhuys, is open daily from 9 am to 5 pm and is also accessible without a ticket to visit the museum!

The restaurant in the museum – Restaurant Stalpaert

A good place to relax after visiting the museum is the restaurant in the same building. It is named Restaurant Stalpaert, after the architect who designed the building.

The stylish restaurant offers healthy and delicious snacks, sandwiches, salads and soups! The kitchen uses only the best regional ingredients and places a great deal of emphasis on pure and organic nutrition for its guests. Free wifi.

The interior design of the dining room is simple but tasteful – all in a very maritime style! The location is directly above the water, so you can enjoy the view over the sea, which of course also adds to the ambience of the restaurant.

My overall impression of the maritime museum

I can say that the National Maritime Museum in Amsterdam is definitely worth a visit! The museum houses great exhibits that explain the history of the seafaring nation very well! The excitingly staged exhibits and a comprehensive overview of the history of seafaring in the Netherlands make the National Maritime Museum in Amsterdam an interesting place to spend a great time in a very pleasant atmosphere.

The excellent impression of the museum is completed by an extensive range of services and a truly wonderful atmosphere, making it one of the most interesting attractions you can visit in Amsterdam.

Another big advantage of the museum is that it is also very interesting for children! The young visitors always react very positively to the impressive ships! You can only see exhibits like these in a few museums, and that’s why children are always very impressed by the great ships!

The highlight is, of course, the tour on the Dutch East Indiaman – that impressed me the most! Here you can really understand how the seafarers lived and what it must have been like to spend weeks on the high seas to cross the vast ocean!

Location & how to find us

✅ The exact address of the museum is as follows: Kattenburgerplein 1, 1018 KK Amsterdam.

The best way to reach the museum from Central Station is to take a 20-minute walk along the water in the fresh sea air. Otherwise, a bus, line 22, runs from Central Station to the Maritime Museum every 10 minutes, stopping at Kadijksplein/Scheepvaartmuseum. The journey takes 5 minutes. Drivers will find paid parking spaces nearby.

A fascinating experience for young and old

Due to its location in an imposing building and the interesting individual pieces on display there, a trip to the Amsterdam Maritime Museum is highly recommended. In particular, the interactive elements within the museum and the extensive explanations provided for the individual exhibits make a visit to the museum a great experience.