Best Museums In Amsterdam : Our Top Picks This Month
Amsterdam is home to around 75 museums and art galleries. The Rijksmuseum was the first museum in Amsterdam after relocating to the city in 1808 from The Hague. For locals, visitors, people of all ages there is guaranteed to be a museum suited to your preference. As part of our Amsterdam Museum series we are featuring the best museums in Amsterdam, providing you with the ultimate guide, expect our top picks every single month. This month we are taking you from West To North and South of the city Centre.
If you wish to see how centuries of culture meet modern technology, get a ticket to Fabrique des Lumières. Housed within the 17-meter industrial walls of the former Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam West, this museum is the younger Dutch sibling (opened in 2022) of Atelier des Lumières in Paris.
Fabrique des Lumières is the largest immersive art center in the Netherlands. In 2023, the centre officially welcomed 1 million visitors and is now positioned as a top 5 Amsterdam attraction. Interesting fact is that it is visited by Dutch Citizens more so than the millions of tourists who visit Van Gogh and Rijksmuseum.
The 2,800 m2 of space and more than 100 state-of-the-art projectors take visitors on a journey through the history of art. Since opening, the museum has hosted immersive shows about Van Gogh, Vermeer, Mondriaan, and even the art of ancient Egypt. The show Dutch Masters remains a permanent highlight, while new exhibitions are regularly added to the program.
Ready for more experiments? Nxt Museum is all about exploring new ways of perceiving art. Its immersive shows combine art, science, and technology to present installations by “pioneering living artists.” Part of the mission is questioning how technology impacts humans through art. The first such institution of its kind in the Netherlands.
Cutting edge tech and socio-political urgency are paramount and visitors can expect to discover a programme featuring diverse artists.
All exhibitions share the mission of promoting the positive, educational use of technology. The museum features a world class production team to transmit the messaging.
The museum’s audiovisual equipment is housed within 2,100 square meters of a former TV production studio in Amsterdam Noord. Since 2020, Nxt’s exhibitions have also been guided by their social value, moral weight, and political message. For example, Marco Brambilla’s works Heaven’s Gate and Creation offered a satirical take on capitalism (Artnet News, 2023, as cited in Nxt Museum, 2024). Another majorexhibition, UFO – Unidentified Fluid Other, explored the multifaceted identity of individuals in virtual and social media spaces.
The latest exhibition explores redefining our sensory experiences, sound reshaping space and image processing – from complex algorithms to our own perception. Curated by Bogomir Doringer and featuring seven visionary artists, this unique centre sitting proudly on the IJ is a must visit.
Home to a collection of over 100 works of art showcasing Warhol, Banksy Kusama and Basquiat. With an impressive Banksy, Modern Masters, Digital and immersive art exhibitions all year round the museum now welcomes hundreds of thousands of visitors.
If you prefer seeing original works rather than digital interpretations or replicas, the Modern Contemporary (MoCo) Museum is a great choice. Open since 2016 in a historic townhouse on Museumplein, MoCo targets young adults with exhibitions of modern and contemporary art that spark discourse on global social issues.
One of the most beloved permanent exhibitions is Banksy: Laugh Now, which is partly housed outdoors in the MoCo Garden—a perfect spot for your Tik Tok and Instagram Reels.While MoCo focuses on contemporary art, technology also plays a role in how artworks are constructed and displayed, both mechanically and digitally. Here you can explore pieces by Warhol, Basquiat, Kusama, Haring, Koons, Hirst, and many more icons of pop, street, and digital art.
The vast majority of our fleet are open top, meaning they have no roof, this lets you really experience the number one canal cruise in the city. However, we are prepared for all weathers to sail on the calm waters of Amsterdam. We have an adjustable roof and heating – we can sail in almost any weather!
Can I bring food and drink on board during my canal cruise?
We do not allow any food or drink on board our boats. Our boats come with a fully stocked bar and we have options for food.
Do your boats have a toilet?
The vast majority of our boats have toilets, however we do have boats which do not have a lavatory. We cannot guarantee that your specific boat will have a toilet on board.
Where are the departure locations for the canal cruise?
Our boats leave from the most central locations, you can select your preference when booking. We offer the following departure location Centraal Train Station.
Where do we get off?
We will drop you off at the centrally located Anne Frank House.
Does the captain provide commentary during the boat tour?
Yes – our captains are local experts and provide a live guide. Expect to hear humour, history and general information about Amsterdam during your cruise.
Which languages do your boat crew speak?
We have an international boat crew on board our boats, on average we hire crew who are fluent in multiple languages such as Italian, Spanish, French, Mandarin, Portuguese, Danish, Russian, Ukrainian, Norwegian, Czech, Arabic, Thai, Hindi, Urdu, Turkish, Japanese, Finnish, Polish, Romanian, Slovak, German, Maltese, Hungarian, Greek, Czech, Croatian, Bulgarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Korean, Vietnamese, Indonesian.
Do I need to book the canal cruise in advance? Yes. We highly recommend booking in advance – our canal cruises regularly sell out.
I haven’t received my ticket?
Upon booking confirmation, you should have received your e-ticket to the address entered in during the booking process. Firstly, check your spam and junk folders. If you are still yet to receive a ticket after booking, you can contact us on support@completeamsterdam.com and one of our team will look into this for you.
My question is not listed here?
You can always reach out to us directly if your question is not listed here – feel free to contact us via email support@completeamsterdam or contact us through message on WhatsApp, telegram or our socials like Facebook, instagram, Tik Tok or Twitter.
Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
