There are four sightseeing passes sold to visitors in Amsterdam and they work in four completely different ways. One is a flat-rate all-you-can-visit card with public transport thrown in. One is an annual museum membership that Dutch households buy and tourists can use in a restricted form. One is a credit system where you pick a fixed number of attractions. One is a discount book with a couple of free tickets attached. They are marketed as if they were versions of the same product. They are not, and choosing the wrong one is the most expensive planning mistake we see people make.
This Amsterdam city pass comparison does the arithmetic rather than the sales pitch, with 2026 prices, and it reaches an uncomfortable conclusion: for the most common Amsterdam trip — two or three days, the big three museums, a canal cruise — no pass beats buying tickets individually. Passes win in specific, identifiable circumstances, and we will show you exactly what those are. The two facts that wreck most pass calculations are that the Anne Frank House is not on any pass at all, and that the Van Gogh Museum came off the I amsterdam City Card in June 2022 and has not returned.
The four passes at a glance
Prices checked September 2026 on the operators’ own sites. All four change their inclusion lists annually, so verify the specific attractions you care about before buying.
| Pass | 2026 price | How it works | Transport |
|---|---|---|---|
| I amsterdam City Card | €67 / €94 / €115 / €130 / €140 for 24–120h | Unlimited entry to its list, for a fixed run of hours | Yes, GVB included |
| Museumkaart | €75 a year adult, €39 up to 18 | Free entry to 500+ Dutch museums; visitor version capped | No |
| Go City All-Inclusive | From €79 for one day, €59 child | Unlimited from 55 attractions, for a fixed run of days | No |
| Go City Explorer | From €44 for three, €29 child | Pick 3–5 attractions from 43, any time in 60 days | No |
| Holland Pass | €40 / €55 / €75 for 3 / 4 / 6 credits | Credit system split into gold and silver tiers | Airport train included |
| No pass | GVB day ticket €10 / €16 / €21.50 for 24–72h | Buy each ticket online, transport separately | Buy separately |
What each pass actually is
The I amsterdam City Card
The city’s official card, sold by hours rather than days: €67 for 24 hours, €94 for 48, €115 for 72, €130 for 96 and €140 for 120. It bundles unlimited GVB tram, bus, metro and ferry travel, a canal cruise, and free entry to a long list of museums and attractions.
Its strength is the bundle: transport plus a cruise plus museums, on one card, with no thinking required. Its weakness is the two enormous holes in the list. The Van Gogh Museum has not been included since 1 June 2022 and the Anne Frank House never has been. Those are the two attractions most visitors have at the top of their list, and buying a card that excludes both is how people end up spending €94 and still paying €41.50 in cash.
The clock is the other trap. It starts on first use, not at midnight, so a card first tapped at 15:00 on Friday dies at 15:00 on Saturday. We work through whether the card is worth it on its own terms in our dedicated I amsterdam City Card verdict, which goes deeper on that one product than we can here.
The Museumkaart
Not a tourist pass. It is a Dutch annual museum membership, €75 for adults and €39 for under-19s, covering more than 500 museums across the Netherlands. It is astonishing value for anyone living here, and for visitors it comes with a catch that the resellers rarely lead with.
The permanent card requires a Dutch address. What a visitor can buy at a museum desk is a temporary card, and that temporary card is capped at five museum visits within 31 days. Five visits, €75, so €15 a visit. Against Amsterdam museum prices of €22.50 to €25 that is a real saving — but only if you genuinely use all five, and only on museums that take it. The Van Gogh Museum, Rijksmuseum, Stedelijk, Rembrandt House, De Nieuwe Kerk, NEMO and the Royal Palace all do. The Anne Frank House, Moco Museum, Heineken Experience, A’DAM Lookout and ARTIS all do not.
This is the pass for the museum-heavy trip, and only that trip. Our museums guide has the full list of what is worth your five visits.
Go City, in two flavours
Go City sells two products that get confused with each other constantly. The All-Inclusive pass is unlimited entry from a list of about 55 attractions for a set number of days, from €79 for a single adult day and €59 for a child aged 3 to 12. The Explorer pass lets you pick a fixed number of attractions — three for €44 adult, €29 child, with four- and five-attraction tiers — and use them whenever you like within 60 days of activation.
All-Inclusive at €79 a day is a serious commitment. To break even you need roughly €79 of attractions in a single day, which in practice means four or five, which means a genuinely punishing pace and no time for a long lunch or a wander. Some people enjoy exactly that. Most people book it, do three things, and lose money.
Explorer is the more sensible product and the one worth a proper look, because it removes the clock. It only works, though, if the three or four attractions you choose are expensive ones. Three attractions at €44 means €14.67 each; pick the Heineken Experience at €24.95, A’DAM Lookout at €16.50 and the Moco Museum at around €18 and you are ahead. Pick three €14 attractions and you have paid full price for the privilege of pre-committing.
The Holland Pass
The odd one out, and the one most people have never heard of. You buy credits — three for €40, four for €55, six for €75 — and spend them on entry tickets over a full month, which is far more relaxed than any of the others. It also throws in train tickets to and from Schiphol and one free hop-on hop-off bus ride or canal cruise, and gives 10 to 50 per cent discounts at attractions beyond your credits.
The catch is the tier system, and you need to understand it before buying. Credits come in gold and silver, and the attractions everyone actually wants — the big museums — are gold. Your tier determines how many gold tickets you get, and it is fewer than the headline number. Read the current gold list against your own shortlist first. If your plan is the Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh and Stedelijk and your tier gives you one gold credit, the pass is not what you thought you bought.
The included airport train is a genuine €12 or so of real value for two people, and the month-long validity suits a longer or slower trip. That free hop-on hop-off ticket is worth having only if you would have bought one anyway.
We compare the bus and boat versions properly in our hop-on hop-off Amsterdam guide.
No pass at all
The option nobody sells you, and the right answer more often than the pass industry would like. Buy each attraction ticket online in advance, and buy a GVB day ticket for transport if you need one: €10 for 24 hours, €16 for 48, €21.50 for 72, €27.50 for 96, €34 for 120. Children aged four to eleven pay €5 a day.
Or skip the transport ticket entirely. Central Amsterdam is small, walkable and mostly flat, and a great many visitors buy a transport pass they use three times. Contactless OVpay charges roughly €1.50 to €3 a ride, and unless you are staying outside the centre or travelling with people who cannot walk far, pay-as-you-go usually wins. Our public transport guide and OV-chipkaart guide cover the mechanics.
The four rules that break every pass calculation
Before any arithmetic, these are the constraints that decide the answer more often than price does.
1. The Anne Frank House is on no pass
None of them. Not the I amsterdam City Card, not the Museumkaart, not Go City, not the Holland Pass. Tickets are €16.50, online only, released in batches, and they sell out. If the Anne Frank House is on your list — and for most first-time visitors it is — that €16.50 sits outside every calculation on this page. Our Anne Frank House guide explains the release system, which is the thing that actually matters.
2. The Van Gogh Museum left the City Card in 2022
This is the single most common source of disappointment at a ticket desk in Amsterdam. The Van Gogh Museum has not been on the I amsterdam City Card since 1 June 2022. It is on the Museumkaart, and it is fully timed-entry regardless of what you hold, so you need a slot booked in advance either way. Our Van Gogh Museum guide has the booking windows.
3. A pass is not a queue jump
No pass in Amsterdam gets you past a timed-entry system. The Van Gogh Museum needs a slot. The Anne Frank House needs its own ticket. The Rijksmuseum wants a start time. Holding a card does not exempt you from reserving, and several passes require you to reserve through their own portal, which is slower and has less inventory than the museum’s own site. Buying a pass and turning up is how people miss things.
4. Passes reward a pace most people do not want
Every unlimited pass is a bet by the operator that you will do less than you think. Break-even on a €115 three-day I amsterdam card or a €79 Go City day means three to five paid attractions a day, every day, with the walking between them. That is a lot of museum. If your ideal trip includes sitting in a brown cafe for two hours, a slow lunch and an afternoon in the Jordaan, buy individual tickets and enjoy yourself.
Three worked examples, with the actual numbers
Trip A: the classic first-timer, two days
Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh Museum, Anne Frank House, one canal cruise, some tram travel.
- No pass: €25 + €25 + €16.50 + about €20 for a cruise + €16 for a 48-hour GVB ticket = about €102.50.
- I amsterdam 48h at €94: covers the Rijksmuseum, the cruise and transport, but not Van Gogh or Anne Frank, so add €41.50 = €135.50.
- Museumkaart temporary at €75: covers Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh, two of five visits used, then add Anne Frank, a cruise and transport = about €127.50.
No pass wins, by a distance. This is the most common Amsterdam trip there is, and the pass industry loses it outright.
Trip B: the museum trip, three days
Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh, Stedelijk, Rembrandt House, Royal Palace, walking everywhere.
- No pass: €25 + €25 + €22.50 + €23.50 + €13.50 = €109.50.
- Museumkaart temporary at €75: all five are covered and five is exactly the visit cap. €75, saving €34.50.
- I amsterdam 72h at €115: no Van Gogh, so add €25 = €140.
Museumkaart wins clearly, and would win by more if you were also visiting museums in Haarlem, Delft or The Hague — the card is national, and the five visits do not have to be in one city.
Trip C: the maximalist, three days
Rijksmuseum, Stedelijk, NEMO, Royal Palace, De Nieuwe Kerk, STRAAT, a canal cruise, trams all day, no Van Gogh and no Anne Frank.
- No pass: €25 + €22.50 + €21.50 + €13.50 + €20 + €21.50 + €20 cruise + €21.50 transport = about €165.50.
- I amsterdam 72h at €115: all of it included. €115, saving €50.
The City Card wins, and wins well — but look at what Trip C requires. Six paid attractions plus a cruise in three days, with no Van Gogh and no Anne Frank, and every attraction chosen from the card’s own list rather than from what you wanted to see. That is the trip the card is designed for. If it is not your trip, the card is not your pass.
Which pass, by the trip you are actually taking
- Two or three days, first visit, the famous things. No pass. Buy tickets individually, book Anne Frank and Van Gogh the moment your dates are fixed, and use OVpay or a single day ticket for transport.
- Three or more days, museum-focused. Museumkaart, if you will make five qualifying visits inside 31 days. Check each museum takes it first.
- Three days, high pace, no Van Gogh or Anne Frank. I amsterdam City Card, 72 hours. This is its real market.
- Two or three specific expensive attractions, relaxed pace. Go City Explorer, if your three are expensive ones.
- A long or slow trip, arriving by air, wanting one cruise. Holland Pass, after checking the gold list against your shortlist.
- Travelling with children. Usually no pass. Under-18s are free at the Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh and Stedelijk and under-13s at STRAAT, which quietly destroys most family pass maths. See our Amsterdam with kids guide.
- Budget trip. No pass, and read our free things to do guide and backpacker budget instead.
Do the maths yourself in five minutes
Do not take our word for it, and do not take the operator’s. This takes five minutes and settles it for your trip specifically.
- Write your actual list. The things you will genuinely visit, not the things you might. Be honest about how many museums you will do in a day; the true number for most people is two.
- Add up the full prices. Our attractions and tickets guide has every current price in one place.
- Strike out anything no pass covers. Anne Frank always. Van Gogh for the City Card. Anything commercial for the Museumkaart.
- Add transport only if you will really use it. Most central trips do not need it.
- Compare that total to the pass price. If the pass is not at least 15 per cent cheaper, buy individually — the flexibility is worth more than a marginal saving, and passes force you into a schedule.
One more thing worth doing at the same time: check opening days. The Royal Palace closes for state functions on around a third of the year, museums have their own closures, and a pass day burned on a closed attraction is a pass day gone. Our booking timeline sets out what needs reserving and how far ahead.
What passes are genuinely good at, beyond price
Money is not the only reason to buy one, and it would be dishonest to pretend otherwise. Three non-financial arguments hold up.
They remove decisions. A card in your pocket that covers the tram and six museums means you stop pricing every choice for three days. For some travellers that is worth €20 of theoretical loss, and if it is worth it to you, that is a legitimate reason to buy.
They push you into places you would have skipped. Nobody pays €13.50 on spec to see a town hall interior, and the people who wander into the Royal Palace because it was already paid for often name it as the surprise of the trip. The same goes for NEMO, the STRAAT Museum and half a dozen smaller places that never make a first-timer’s shortlist.
They make short visits guilt-free. Twenty minutes in a museum you have already paid for is fine; twenty minutes in a €22.50 museum feels like a waste, so people stay too long in places they are not enjoying. A pass quietly fixes that.
Set against those: every pass constrains you to its own list, every one puts a clock on your holiday, and the operators price them knowing most buyers overestimate their own stamina. If you buy for the convenience, buy with your eyes open, and buy the cheapest tier that covers your real plan rather than the one that covers your ambitious plan.
Mistakes we see repeatedly
- Buying a card, then discovering Van Gogh is not on it. The most common one, and entirely avoidable.
- Activating an hours-based card in the afternoon. The I amsterdam clock runs on hours from first use. Start it first thing in the morning or you lose most of a day.
- Assuming a pass includes a reservation. It does not. Timed-entry attractions still need slots, and pass inventory is often thinner than the museum’s own.
- Buying a five-day transport bundle for a central trip. If you are staying inside the ring, you will walk more than you ride.
- Buying a Museumkaart for a two-day trip. Five visits in two days is theoretically possible and practically miserable.
- Buying a pass at the airport on arrival. Decide before you travel, with the list in front of you, not at a desk after a flight.
Keep Exploring
- Amsterdam attractions and tickets: every current price
- Is the I amsterdam City Card worth it? The full verdict
- The complete Amsterdam museums guide
- What an Amsterdam trip actually costs
- Public transport for visitors
- What to book, and how far ahead
- Tourist tax and the other hidden costs
- The three-day Amsterdam itinerary
Frequently asked questions
Which Amsterdam pass is best value?
It depends entirely on your list. For a museum-heavy trip of three days or more, the Museumkaart at €75. For a high-pace trip that skips Van Gogh and Anne Frank, the 72-hour I amsterdam City Card at €115. For the standard two-day first visit, no pass at all — individual tickets come out cheaper.
Does any Amsterdam pass include the Anne Frank House?
No. Not one of them. Tickets are €16.50, sold only through the museum’s own site, and released in batches that go quickly. Budget for it separately whatever else you buy.
Is the Van Gogh Museum on the I amsterdam City Card?
Not since 1 June 2022. It is covered by the Museumkaart. Either way it is fully timed-entry, so you need a booked slot.
Can tourists buy a Museumkaart?
Yes, in a limited form. The permanent card needs a Dutch address; visitors get a temporary card at a museum desk, valid for five visits within 31 days. At €75 that is €15 a visit, which beats Amsterdam museum prices if you use all five.
Is the I amsterdam City Card worth it?
For a specific kind of trip, yes — three days, fast pace, transport-heavy, and content to work from the card’s own list. For most visitors, no. We go through it properly in our City Card verdict.
What is the difference between Go City All-Inclusive and Explorer?
All-Inclusive is unlimited attractions for a set number of days, from €79 a day, and needs a hard pace to break even. Explorer is a fixed number of attractions — three for €44 — usable any time within 60 days, and is the more forgiving product.
Is the Holland Pass worth buying?
It can be, on a longer or slower trip, because the credits last a month and the airport train is included. Check the gold and silver split first: the big museums are gold, and your tier gives fewer gold credits than the headline number suggests.
Do passes let you skip the queue?
No. Timed-entry attractions still require a reserved slot, and several passes make you book through their own portal, which can have less availability than the museum’s site. A pass is a payment method, not a fast track.
Do I need a transport pass in Amsterdam?
Probably not if you are staying inside the canal ring. The centre is walkable and contactless OVpay costs roughly €1.50 to €3 a ride. A GVB day ticket at €10 makes sense on a rainy day or if you are staying further out.
Are passes worth it with children?
Usually not. Under-18s are free at the Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh Museum and Stedelijk, and under-13s at STRAAT, so the paid list a family faces is much shorter than the adult one. Do the sums with the children’s real prices in them, not the adult prices.
When does the clock start on a City Card?
At first use, not at midnight, and it runs in hours. A 48-hour card first tapped at 15:00 on Friday expires at 15:00 on Sunday. Start it early in the morning.
Can I buy a pass after I arrive?
Yes, all four are sold in the city, but decide before you travel. The one decision that reliably costs money is buying a pass at an airport desk without having compared it to your own list first.