Amsterdam Museum Pass: Every Option Compared (2026)

Which Amsterdam museum pass should you buy?

An Amsterdam museum pass makes sense the moment you plan to visit three or more museums, and the right one depends on how long you are staying and how many cities you plan to see. The I amsterdam City Card wins for Amsterdam only trips that also want transport included. The Museumkaart wins for longer stays or trips that reach beyond Amsterdam. Go City wins if the Rijksmuseum and the Heineken Experience both sit at the top of your list. And single tickets win for visitors doing one or two museums and nothing more. The comparison below runs every option side by side so you can match your own trip to the right choice.

The four options compared side by side

Pass	Price from	Duration	Transport included	Museum coverage	Best for
I amsterdam City Card	EUR 67	24 to 120 hours	Yes, unlimited GVB trams, buses, metros, ferries	70+ Amsterdam museums and attractions	Amsterdam only trips wanting museums plus transport
Museumkaart (national museum card)	Around EUR 30 for the tourist digital option, check the official site	31 days for the tourist digital card	No	400+ museums across the Netherlands	Longer stays or multi city trips
Go City All Inclusive Pass	EUR 79	1 to 5 consecutive days	No	40+ attractions including the Rijksmuseum and Heineken Experience	Visitors who want Rijksmuseum plus experience style attractions
Single tickets	Rijksmuseum about EUR 22, NEMO about EUR 17, and similar per venue	Per visit	No	Only what you buy	Visitors doing one or two museums total

Prices move over time on every product, so treat this table as the shape of the market rather than a locked in number, and confirm live prices on each linked page before booking.

What does the I amsterdam City Card cover?

The City Card is the only pass on this list that bundles unlimited public transport with museum entry, which makes it the strongest all around option for a trip confined to Amsterdam itself. Free entry covers more than 70 museums and attractions, including the Rijksmuseum, the Stedelijk, NEMO Science Museum, ARTIS Royal Zoo and the Rembrandt House, plus a canal cruise and a full day of bike rental. The card also reaches slightly beyond the city, with free entry at the Zaans Museum near Zaanse Schans, museums in Haarlem, and the Volendam to Marken ferry, so it is not purely a city center product. Our worth it verdict runs the exact break even math against your own itinerary.

What is the Museumkaart, and is it worth it for tourists?

The Museumkaart is the Netherlands’ national museum card, run by the country’s museum association, and it works differently from every other option here. Instead of covering one city for a few days, it covers more than 400 museums across the whole country, which makes it the strongest choice if your trip includes Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht or anywhere beyond Amsterdam, or if you are staying long enough to visit museums on separate weeks. The historic version of the card is aimed at residents and gets mailed to a Dutch address, but a digital option built specifically for tourists, valid for 31 days without needing a Dutch mailing address, has made the card realistically usable for a longer visit. It includes no public transport, unlike the City Card, so budget separately for trams if you choose this route. Check current pricing and eligibility directly on the official Museumkaart site before buying, since tourist terms and prices can change.

What does Go City include that the City Card does not?

Go City’s biggest single advantage is the Rijksmuseum plus the Heineken Experience on one pass, which the City Card cannot match: the Rijksmuseum is free with the City Card too, but the Heineken Experience is only a 25 percent discount there, not a free entry. Go City also leans harder into experience style attractions: Madame Tussauds, A’DAM Lookout, THIS IS HOLLAND, and in season the Keukenhof gardens with a shuttle bus. What it drops is transport, since no Go City product includes GVB, and its museum long tail is thinner than the City Card’s, which covers dozens of smaller specialist houses. Our full Go City review sits inside the pass comparison guide if you want the deeper matchup.

When do single tickets beat any pass?

Single tickets win in one clear scenario: you plan exactly one or two museums for the entire trip. At that point no pass can beat the simple math, since the pass price assumes you visit enough venues to spread the cost across, and one or two visits rarely clears that bar. The Rijksmuseum alone costs about EUR 22 and NEMO about EUR 17 at the door, both bookable directly without any pass commitment, which is the right move for a short layover or a trip centered on one specific gallery rather than a museum heavy itinerary.

Which pass covers your must see museum list?

Different passes cover different lists, and checking your own priorities against this breakdown avoids an expensive mismatch.

• Rijksmuseum: free with the I amsterdam City Card (with a timeslot booking), free on the Go City All Inclusive Pass, and typically included on the Museumkaart. It is the one major museum all three passes agree on.
• Van Gogh Museum: included on no pass at all, City Card, Go City or Museumkaart. It sells its own timed tickets separately, and demand means it sells out days ahead in high season.
• Anne Frank House: also included on no pass, and it sells its own strictly limited timed tickets through its own official channel months ahead in busy periods.
• Stedelijk, NEMO, ARTIS Royal Zoo, Moco Museum: free with the I amsterdam City Card, not included on Go City’s list, generally covered by the Museumkaart.
• Heineken Experience: free entry only on Go City; a 25 percent discount, not free entry, on the I amsterdam City Card.

Ready to pick your pass? Compare the I amsterdam City Card and the Go City Amsterdam Pass side by side, or read the full worth it verdict for the City Card specifically.

Does any pass include the Van Gogh Museum or Anne Frank House?

No, and this is worth repeating because it surprises more visitors than any other fact on this page. No Amsterdam museum pass includes the Van Gogh Museum or the Anne Frank House, not the City Card, not Go City, not the Museumkaart. Both museums sell exclusively through their own official timed ticket systems, and both are genuinely at risk of selling out if you wait until you land to book. Whatever pass you choose from the table above, treat these two tickets as a separate, fixed line item in your budget, booked as early as your travel dates are confirmed.

Which pass wins for a typical 3 day trip?

For the most common visitor pattern, a 3 day trip focused entirely on Amsterdam with the Rijksmuseum, a couple more museums and daily tram use, the I amsterdam City Card wins on total value because it is the only option folding transport into the same price. If the Rijksmuseum and the Heineken Experience are both non negotiable, Go City edges ahead despite the missing transport. If the trip continues on to Rotterdam or The Hague afterward, the Museumkaart starts to make more sense than either city specific option, since its coverage keeps paying off after you leave Amsterdam.

How to decide in under a minute

Ask three questions. Are you staying in Amsterdam only, or visiting other Dutch cities too? Other cities point to the Museumkaart, Amsterdam only points to the City Card or Go City. Do you need public transport included? Only the City Card has it. Is the Heineken Experience on your must do list alongside the Rijksmuseum? Only Go City bundles both for free. Answer those three and the right amsterdam museum pass for your trip is almost always obvious. The Amsterdam city pass overview lines up all of these options and more in a single comparison table.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best museum card in Amsterdam? For most Amsterdam only trips, the I amsterdam City Card wins because it is the only option combining 70+ museums with unlimited transport. Go City wins specifically if the Heineken Experience matters as much as the museums.

Does any museum pass in Amsterdam include the Van Gogh Museum? No. The Van Gogh Museum is excluded from every pass on this page and sells its own timed tickets separately, so budget it as a fixed extra cost regardless of which pass you choose.

Is the Museumkaart worth it for a short Amsterdam trip? Usually not for a 3 or 4 day Amsterdam only visit, since it includes no transport and the City Card’s Amsterdam specific coverage plus transport typically wins the math. It becomes worth considering once your trip spans multiple Dutch cities or several weeks.

Can I use more than one museum pass on the same trip? Yes, though it rarely makes financial sense unless your itinerary genuinely splits between Amsterdam and other cities on separate weeks, since most museum coverage overlaps heavily between the City Card and the Museumkaart within Amsterdam itself.

Which pass includes the most museums for tourists? By raw count the Museumkaart covers the most museums nationwide, over 400, but the I amsterdam City Card covers the deepest list specifically inside Amsterdam, which is what most short trip visitors actually use.

Dig deeper into each option in this silo: the museum card Netherlands guide covers the Museumkaart for tourists, the Rembrandt card explainer clears up a persistent search myth, the ICOM card guide serves museum professionals, and the free museums Amsterdam list covers what costs nothing at all.