The Anne Frank House at Prinsengracht 263 is one of the most-visited and most-affecting museums in the Netherlands. It is also the hardest-to-book attraction in the country. This complete 2026 visitor guide covers exactly how the new ticket-release system works (every Tuesday at 10am Dutch time, six weeks in advance), what you’ll see inside the Secret Annex, how long the visit takes, what to know about photography, bag rules, accessibility, age guidance for children, and how to get the most from one of Europe’s most powerful museum experiences.
The essential answer: Anne Frank House tickets are sold online only at annefrank.org. There are no walk-up tickets. They release every Tuesday at 10:00 AM Amsterdam time for the whole week exactly six weeks later, and popular slots sell out within minutes. The average visit takes about an hour, photography is banned inside, and the Secret Annex involves steep staircases that are not wheelchair-accessible. Below is everything you need to book, prepare, and get the most from one of Europe’s most powerful museum visits. Prices and hours are 2026 estimates; confirm on the official site.
| Detail | What to know |
|---|---|
| Tickets | Online only at annefrank.org — no door sales |
| Release | Tuesdays, 10:00 AM Amsterdam time, six weeks ahead |
| Price | ~€16.50 adult, ~€7 child (10–17), ~€1 under 10 |
| Hours | 9:00 AM–10:00 PM daily, all year; shorter on a few holidays |
| Duration | About an hour on average |
| Photography | Not permitted inside |
| Accessibility | Annex not wheelchair-accessible; lower exhibition is |
| Best slot | First of the day (9 AM) or after 7 PM |
The Story in One Paragraph
In July 1942, 13-year-old Anne Frank and seven other Jewish people went into hiding from the Nazis in a concealed annex above her father Otto Frank’s business at Prinsengracht 263 in Amsterdam. For just over two years they lived in eight small rooms behind a bookcase, helped by Otto’s employees. On 4 August 1944 they were betrayed and arrested. Anne and her sister Margot died at Bergen-Belsen in early 1945, weeks before liberation. Only Otto survived. After the war, Otto published Anne’s diary — the most-read account of the Holocaust ever written. The house itself was preserved and opened as a museum in 1960. Today well over a million people visit each year.
How to Get Anne Frank House Tickets in 2026
Tickets are sold exclusively online at annefrank.org. There are no walk-up tickets, no on-the-door tickets, no third-party kiosks, no skip-the-line passes, and no exceptions. Anyone selling Anne Frank House tickets in person is running a scam.
This matters more than for any other attraction in the city, because the demand is relentless and the supply is genuinely limited; the house is tiny and the route is one-way, so the museum can only admit so many people an hour. That’s why the rolling six-week release exists, and why the difference between getting in and missing out usually comes down to being ready at exactly the right moment rather than luck. If you’re booking a whole Amsterdam itinerary, slot this in first and build the rest of your days around it. Our things to do in Amsterdam guide can help you fill the gaps once your Anne Frank slot is locked in.
- Ticket release: Every Tuesday at 10:00 AM Amsterdam time, tickets release for the ENTIRE week exactly six weeks later.
- Price: €16.50 adult, €7 child (10–17), €1 (under 10).
- Demand: tickets sell out very fast, so be online the moment the Tuesday release opens.
- What you book: a ticket with a fixed start time. You can stay inside as long as you like, though most visits last around an hour.
- Last-minute slots: returned tickets go back on sale in the week before the visit date. Refresh annefrank.org daily.
The Tuesday-10am Drill
- Set a calendar alert for 9:55am Amsterdam time on the Tuesday six weeks before your visit.
- Be logged into annefrank.org and ready on a desktop browser. Phone-app booking is slower.
- Have two browser tabs open: one for an early-morning slot (9–11am) and one for late evening (after 7pm) as backup.
- Use the date filter; ignore single-day pop-ups and select your exact date from the calendar.
- You’ll need email + name; have credit card details on hand.
- Mobile-friendly tickets — they arrive as a PDF and QR code by email.
Practical Information
A little logistics planning goes a long way here, because the house has firm rules and almost no on-site storage. The biggest practical catch is bags: only bags smaller than an A4 sheet can be carried inside, and while the cloakroom takes coats, small bags and buggies, there’s nowhere to store a large bag, backpack or suitcase, so travel light or leave luggage at your hotel or at Centraal Station before you come. Be at the entrance in time for the start time on your ticket, since entry is timed. The audio guide is free through the official app, so download it before you go to save fiddling with the wifi at the door.
- Address: Prinsengracht 263–267. The visitor entrance is around the corner at Westermarkt 20.
- Opening hours: 9:00 AM – 10:00 PM daily. Closed on Yom Kippur (21 September in 2026), with shorter hours on a handful of days such as New Year’s Day, King’s Day, 4 May and Christmas.
- Visit duration: an hour is typical. Some visitors stay longer; the museum doesn’t push you out.
- How to get there: 20-minute walk from Centraal Station. Until February 2028 no tram stops at Westermarkt, so take a tram to Dam Square and walk about 10 minutes.
- Bag rules: only bags smaller than an A4 sheet of paper allowed inside. No backpacks. There are no lockers on site — leave luggage at your hotel or Centraal Station storage.
- Photography: not permitted anywhere inside the museum.
- Audio guide: free via the official Anne Frank House app — download before you go (free wifi at the entrance).
- Languages: the museum offers audio in English, Dutch, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic and Hebrew.
- Accessibility: the Secret Annex itself is reached by steep stairs and a high step. Not wheelchair-accessible. The lower-level exhibition area IS accessible.
What You’ll See Inside
The museum is organised as a one-way route, so you can’t backtrack and you set your own pace within the flow. You move from the front office building through the famous moving bookcase, into the Secret Annex where eight people lived in silence for 25 months, then back down through the education and historical exhibits. The whole thing is designed to build, deliberately, from the everyday to the unbearable, and it works. Take your time on the staircase up; that threshold is the emotional centre of the visit.
Front House — Otto Frank’s Business
Otto ran a spice and pectin business called Opekta from the front part of the building. You walk through the warehouse, the office where his employees worked unaware or complicit, and the spaces that kept the operation looking normal to the outside world. The mood here is quietly historical, almost ordinary, and that ordinariness is deliberate; it’s what made the hiding place possible, and it makes the moment you step through the bookcase land all the harder.
The Bookcase & the Secret Annex
The original hinged bookcase, designed and installed in the summer of 1942, still stands at the entrance to the annex. You walk through it onto a steep, narrow staircase that opens into the rooms where the Franks and four others hid for 25 months, never able to open a window, flush during working hours, or make a sound that the warehouse staff below might hear. It is smaller and barer than almost everyone expects, and that emptiness is exactly the effect Otto Frank wanted when the museum opened.
- The rooms are left unfurnished, and the void is itself the point.
- Anne’s bedroom still has the postcards and magazine cuttings (of Greta Garbo, Deanna Durbin, the British royal princesses) she glued to the walls.
- The pencil marks on the wall in Otto and Edith’s bedroom track Anne’s and Margot’s growth.
- The map of the Allied advance on the wall, marked by Otto with pins as the news came in.
- Anne’s diary itself is on display in the lower exhibition.
Lower Exhibition
After the annex you exit into the educational exhibits: the diary itself, Otto Frank’s letters, the timeline of the family’s deportation and deaths, and contextual material on the Holocaust in the Netherlands. The most powerful moments are often here rather than in the annex. Seeing Anne’s actual notebooks, the looping teenage handwriting, the pages she rewrote when she dreamed of publishing after the war, is what stays with most visitors. Otto’s own words about reading his daughter’s diary for the first time after the war are quietly devastating.
How to Prepare Before You Visit
- Read the diary first. Even a 30-minute skim improves the experience tenfold. The annotated The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition is the standard text.
- Watch the official Anne Frank House YouTube channel: short documentaries that contextualise what you’ll see.
- Download the Anne Frank House app before you arrive — at the museum the wifi is good but airport-style downloads can be slow.
- Plan around an emotional reset: don’t book back-to-back with Anne Frank and then a comedy show or party event. Plan something quiet afterwards — a Jordaan walk, Vondelpark sit, a slow lunch.
- Bring water and a snack for before or after; you can’t eat or drink inside.
- Tissues. Most visitors will need them.
Visiting with Children
Bringing children is worthwhile but takes a little thought. The museum recommends a minimum age of ten, and that’s sound; younger kids tend to find it overwhelming and miss the meaning, while children who’ve read an age-appropriate version of the diary first often get a great deal from it. Talk about what you’re going to see on the way in, let them ask questions, and don’t rush them through the lower exhibition afterwards.
- Recommended minimum age: 10. Younger children find it overwhelming and don’t get much from it.
- Read an age-appropriate adaptation first — the illustrated graphic-novel version of the diary works well for 9-14 year olds.
- Talk about it on the way in and the way out. Allow questions; let them set the pace.
- Strollers are not permitted inside; you can leave them at reception.
Best Time to Visit
If you have any choice in the matter, the slot you book changes the experience as much as anything. The first slot at 9am gives you the freshest start, with the morning light in the front rooms and the rest of the day still ahead of you. Evening slots are the other sweet spot, and they run all year because the museum stays open until 10pm every day; with the day’s sightseeing behind you, a late visit can be the more reflective one.
- First slot of the day (9:00 AM) — calmest, lightest tourist mood, freshest experience. Best for impact.
- Last slots of the day (after 7 PM) — the museum stays open until 10 PM all year round.
What’s Around the Anne Frank House
The house sits at the top of the Jordaan, Amsterdam’s prettiest neighbourhood, which makes it easy to turn your visit into a calm half-day rather than a rushed in-and-out. Many people find they need a quiet hour afterwards, and the streets right here are made for it: tree-lined canals, brown cafes, small galleries, and far fewer crowds than the centre. A slow wander west into the Jordaan, or a coffee on the Prinsengracht watching the houseboats, is the natural decompression. Several of the spots below also turn up in our guides to hidden gems in Amsterdam and free things to do in Amsterdam.
- Westerkerk — directly next door. Anne mentions its bells repeatedly in the diary. Climb the tower for the best view of the Jordaan and canal belt (April–October only, no booking needed at the church door).
- Homomonument — the world’s first monument to LGBTQ+ victims of persecution, on Westermarkt in front of the church.
- Anne Frank statue — a small bronze on Westermarkt by Mari Andriessen.
- Jordaan — Amsterdam’s prettiest neighbourhood starts right here. See our Jordaan Guide.
- Café Papeneiland (Prinsengracht 2) — historic brown cafe from 1642, a short walk away.
- Negen Straatjes — the Nine Streets shopping district, just to the south.
Related Holocaust History in Amsterdam
The Anne Frank House tells one family’s story, but it sits inside a much larger and darker history, and the city has done a serious job of memorialising it. If the visit moves you, the sites below carry it further; together they explain how the Holocaust unfolded in the Netherlands, which lost a higher proportion of its Jewish population than almost any other occupied country in western Europe. The brass Stolpersteine set into pavements all over the city, each marking where a deported resident once lived, turn the whole of Amsterdam into a quiet memorial once you start noticing them. For the wider sweep, our Amsterdam history timeline sets the period in context.
If the Anne Frank House moves you, the city has more powerful related sites:
- National Holocaust Museum (Plantage Middenlaan 27) — opened in March 2024 in a former Jewish teachers’ college, across the street from the Hollandsche Schouwburg memorial. The Netherlands’ first dedicated national Holocaust museum.
- Resistance Museum (Verzetsmuseum) (Plantage Kerklaan 61) — the story of Dutch resistance and collaboration during occupation.
- Hollandsche Schouwburg Memorial — the former Jewish theatre used as a deportation centre, now a memorial.
- Portuguese Synagogue — completed in 1675 as one of the largest synagogues in the world; survived the war intact and is still an active place of worship.
- Stolpersteine — small brass plaques set into pavements across Amsterdam mark where Jewish residents lived before deportation. Especially dense in the Plantage neighbourhood.
- Auschwitz Monument — a broken-mirrored memorial in Wertheim Park, designed by Jan Wolkers.
- Dockworker Statue (Jonas Daniël Meijerplein) — commemorates the February 1941 General Strike against Jewish deportations, widely regarded as the only mass protest of its kind against the persecution of Jews in occupied Europe.
If You Can’t Get a Ticket
Don’t despair if the slots vanished before you could book; it happens to plenty of people, and there are real fallbacks. Cancelled tickets go back on sale, so checking annefrank.org daily, and especially from Tuesday afternoon in the week before your visit, is worth the effort. Failing that, the city offers other ways to engage with the same history, and the area around the house is rewarding in its own right. A slow Prinsengracht walk, or a small-boat canal cruise past the very facade where the family hid, gives you a different angle on the story; our guide to Amsterdam canal cruises compared covers the options.
- Refresh annefrank.org daily — cancellations release throughout the week.
- Check for returned tickets from Tuesday afternoon in the week before your visit.
- Visit Westermarkt for the Anne Frank statue, Westerkerk and the Homomonument — all free.
- Go to the National Holocaust Museum instead — opened 2024, equally important, much easier to book.
Visiting Etiquette
- Keep your voice low. The rooms are small; even normal conversation feels disruptive.
- No photography, including phones. Staff will ask you to stop.
- Don’t touch surfaces. The rooms are fragile and meant to be seen, not handled.
- Allow people to move at their own pace. Don’t push past slow visitors; the rooms are tight.
- If overwhelmed, sit on the benches in the lower exhibit and take time before leaving.
- The shop sells the diary, related books and museum-supporting souvenirs — buying here directly supports the foundation.
Anne Frank House: FAQ
How do I get Anne Frank House tickets?
Only at annefrank.org. Tickets release every Tuesday at 10am Amsterdam time for the entire week six weeks later. They sell out within minutes during peak season.
How much does the Anne Frank House cost?
€16.50 adult, €7 child (10–17), €1 under 10.
How long does the Anne Frank House visit take?
About an hour on average, and you can take as long as you need.
Can I take photos inside the Anne Frank House?
No. Photography of any kind is not permitted anywhere inside.
Is the Anne Frank House accessible?
The Secret Annex itself is not wheelchair-accessible — three steep staircases. The lower exhibition spaces are accessible.
How early should I arrive?
Arrive in time for the start time printed on your ticket; entry is timed.
Should I bring children?
The museum recommends a minimum age of 10 and says it is not suitable for younger children.
Final Thoughts
The Anne Frank House isn’t a comfortable visit. It’s not meant to be. It is, however, one of the most powerful single hours you can spend in any European city — a small, unfurnished space in which an extraordinary teenager wrote about hope while her family hid from systematic annihilation. Book early, prepare by reading the diary, take the first slot of the day, and give yourself a quiet afternoon afterwards. It’ll stay with you for years.
For more, see our Amsterdam Museums Guide, our Amsterdam History Timeline, and our Jordaan Amsterdam Guide.
Related Amsterdam guides
- WWII Amsterdam — occupation, resistance and liberation.
- Pre-booking timeline — what to reserve, and how far ahead.
No reseller carries these tickets, and several lookalike sites sell fakes — our tour booking platforms guide explains how to tell the difference.