Van Gogh Museum

What it is

The Van Gogh Museum stands at Museumplein 6, on the square it shares with the Rijksmuseum and the Stedelijk, and its main entrance faces that square. It is a single-artist museum: the permanent exhibition is built around Vincent van Gogh's own paintings, drawings and letters, arranged so that his development as a painter can be followed through the galleries rather than presented as a row of famous pictures with labels. The museum's own account of the permanent display puts the weight on ideas and ambitions — Van Gogh's wish to paint farming life, his search for colour, his personal reading of landscape — and carries the well-known canvases along inside that argument. The collection does not stop at Van Gogh himself. Works by the generation that came after him, among them Maurice de Vlaminck and Kees van Dongen, are shown to make the point that his manner was absorbed quickly and widely. Two things visitors often arrive expecting are not here, and the museum says so plainly on its own pages: Starry Night belongs to the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and Terrace of a Cafe at Night hangs at the Kroller-Muller Museum in Otterlo, well outside Amsterdam. Both absences catch people out, and neither is a temporary loan situation.

Checked 2026-08-26 · Source

What's inside

The permanent exhibition is always on view and holds the pictures most people come for: The Potato Eaters of 1885, Sunflowers of 1889, Almond Blossom and Irises of 1890, The Bedroom, The Harvest and The Sower of 1888, and the two 1887 self-portraits in the grey felt hat and the straw hat. Alongside the paintings the galleries give permanent room to drawings and to letters, which is the part of the museum that rewards slowing down; the letters carry the argument the paintings only imply. Temporary exhibitions run in parallel and are covered by the same ticket — the museum states that there are no separate exhibition fees and that one entrance ticket admits the holder to the whole building. In the summer of 2026 the temporary programme is Vincent's Path to Fame, 12 June to 6 September, on how the artist's reputation was built and the part his family played in it, and The ReFramers present: In Search of an Anchor, 22 May to 20 September. From 1 October the Japanese printmaker Yoshitoshi takes over, followed by a Whistler retrospective from 16 October. An audio tour in fourteen languages is sold separately and collected at the Audio Desk in the Atrium.

Checked 2026-08-26 · Source

How long to spend

The museum answers this itself: on average visitors spend two to three hours seeing the permanent collection and the temporary exhibition, and that figure already includes time in the cafe and the shop. Two and a half hours is the sensible number to hold a slot around, and it is the duration this guide records. The reason to decide before booking rather than after arriving is that entry is by timed slot, so the visit is planned backwards from the closing time rather than forwards from the door. A 9 am slot on a day the museum shuts at 6 pm leaves nine hours of theoretical room and no pressure at all; a 4 pm slot on a November day that closes at 5 pm leaves an hour, which is enough for the masterpieces and nothing else. There is one hard constraint on stretching a visit: leaving the building and coming back later is not permitted, so a break for lunch means either eating inside or ending the visit. Anyone who wants the letters and the drawings as well as the paintings should treat three hours as the realistic floor and book a morning slot to have the room to overrun.

Checked 2026-08-26 · Source

Season and crowds

The museum opens at 9 am every day of the week and there is no weekly closing day. Through September 2026 it closes at 6 pm, with a late Friday until 9 pm — that Friday evening is the one genuinely long window in the week, and it is the slot to take if the choice is open. The published hours then shorten as the year turns. From 1 October most days still run 9 am to 6 pm with the Friday late, but 15 to 18 October close at 5 pm on weekdays; from 2 November the standard closing time drops to 5 pm with Fridays until 9 pm; and December is a patchwork, with 19 to 23 December and 27 to 30 December back at 6 pm, and 24, 25, 26 and 31 December closing at 5 pm. A few Fridays are named as exceptions to the 9 pm late opening, 25 September and 27 November among them, so a Friday-evening plan is worth checking against the museum's own page for the specific date. Because every ticket carries a start time and the day can sell out, choosing a date is a booking decision made in advance, not a decision made on the morning.

Checked 2026-08-26 · Source

Tickets

Admission is 25 euros per person. Visitors under 18 go free, and students enrolled at an institution in the EU or EEA pay 16 euros on presentation of a student card or proof of enrolment, checked at the entrance. Museumkaart, ICOM, Rembrandt card, Stadspas, VriendenLoterij VIP-KAART and Vincent's Friends all give free entry — but a free ticket with a start time still has to be reserved online, and a card without a booked slot does not get anyone in. There are no discounts for senior citizens, groups or teachers, though groups of six or more must register their visit in advance, which is itself free. One ticket covers everything: the museum states there are no separate exhibition fees and that a valid entrance ticket admits the holder to the whole building. The audio tour is extra, at 3.75 euros for adults, 2 euros for children aged 13 to 17 and free up to 12, and it is added to the booking rather than bought at the desk. A visitor who needs assistance may bring a companion free of charge, and that companion's ticket includes an audio tour. Since 1 June 2022 the I amsterdam City Card is no longer accepted here.

Checked 2026-08-26 · Source

Getting there

No car is needed, and bringing one is the harder option. The nearest tram and bus stops are Museumplein, served by trams 2, 5 and 24 and buses 357 and 397, and Concertgebouw, served by trams 5, 12 and 24 and buses 347 and 357. From Amsterdam Centraal take tram 2, 5 or 24 and get off at Museumplein. From Zuid WTC take tram 5 towards Westergasfabriek to Concertgebouw. From Amsterdam Amstel take tram 12 towards Frederik Hendrik Plantsoen, also to Concertgebouw. From Sloterdijk take tram 19 and change at Leidseplein for tram 2, 5 or 24. The museum points journey planning at 9292, the Dutch national public transport planner. Drivers have one obvious option: Q-Park Museumplein, entered from Van Baerlestraat next to the supermarket, sits directly under the square. On-street parking in the surrounding streets is paid, at central Amsterdam rates. For visitors with a disability the closest public parking bay is on Paulus Potterstraat in front of the Stedelijk, with further bays on Gabriel Metsustraat and by the Concertgebouw, and two private spaces exist inside the Q-Park at extra cost. Bicycle racks outside the museum are limited in number.

Checked 2026-08-26 · Source

What to watch out for

Tickets cannot be bought at the door — not at any hour, not on a quiet day. Everything is sold online at tickets.vangoghmuseum.com or through the five resellers the museum names as official: Tours&Tickets, GetYourGuide, Tiqets, Musement and Klook. The museum warns explicitly that other platforms may sell fraudulent tickets, which is a real problem here rather than boilerplate. If a date is sold out there is no waiting list and no point turning up. The start time is enforced in one direction only: entering earlier than the booked time is not possible, while arriving up to half an hour late is fine. Tickets are not refundable, and a change of date or time is possible only up to 48 hours beforehand, only for tickets bought online, and only through the contact form. Leaving the museum and returning later is not allowed. The cloakroom takes coats, handbags, small backpacks up to 45 by 25 by 25 centimetres and umbrellas in self-service lockers; wheeled suitcases of any size, trolleys, large rucksacks, prams beyond buggies, folding bikes and lithium-ion batteries over 100Wh are refused, and so, potentially, is the visitor carrying them. Payment inside is cashless only, and outside food and drink may not be brought in.

Checked 2026-08-26 · Source

Photography

Photographing the paintings is allowed, with four named exceptions: no flash, no lamps, no tripod and no selfie stick. The museum asks that pictures be taken with regard for other visitors' privacy and without endangering the art, and that they be used for personal, non-commercial purposes only. Filming and video are a separate matter and are not permitted at all without explicit permission from the museum; journalists, photographers and content creators working professionally are directed to the Press Office to request a press visit, and press entry itself needs prior registration and approval. In practice the flash and tripod rules settle how the pictures will look. Handheld shots in gallery lighting want a steady stance and a moment's patience rather than better equipment, and the crowd in front of Sunflowers and Almond Blossom is the real obstacle at midday — the first slot of the morning and the late Friday evening are when the same picture can be taken without three shoulders in it. For a clean reproduction there is a better route than the gallery: the museum's online collection publishes downloadable images of the works, and the same page tells visitors so.

Checked 2026-08-26 · Source

Where it is

Nearby

External links

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