Anne Frank House guide: tickets, what to expect and how to prepare

What the Anne Frank House is

The Anne Frank House at Prinsengracht 263 in Amsterdam is not a museum in the conventional sense. It is a memorial site preserved around the actual building where Anne Frank, her family, and four others hid in a concealed back annexe from July 1942 to August 1944. During that time, Anne kept the diary that was later published as “The Diary of a Young Girl” and has become one of the most widely read books in history.

The building is preserved as it was found after the war — the Franks removed almost all furnishings before going into hiding to avoid suspicion from visitors to the building. What you experience is the emptiness of the rooms, the scale of the concealed annexe, and the physical reality of a space where eight people lived in complete secrecy for 25 months. The original diary is displayed in the house. The experience is unlike anything else in Amsterdam.

The non-negotiable: advance booking

Visiting the Anne Frank House requires a timed entry ticket booked in advance. There are no walk-in tickets. The museum operates a timed entry system and the capacity per time slot is strictly limited to preserve the quality and solemnity of the experience.

Booking window: Tickets become available online approximately 2 months in advance. In peak season (April–August), the popular morning slots (9:30–12:00) sell out within hours of release. Afternoon and evening slots last slightly longer but also sell out. Check availability as soon as your travel dates are confirmed and book immediately.

Price (2026): Adults approximately €16, children 10–17 approximately €7.50, under-10 not admitted. The museum recommends children be at least 10 years old — the subject matter is not appropriate for younger children.

Not included in I amsterdam City Card (since 2022): The Anne Frank House is excluded from the card’s covered attractions. You must purchase a separate ticket regardless of which city pass you hold.

Small-group guided tour including Anne Frank House area

What to expect inside

The visit is self-guided with a free audio guide (available in multiple languages via the house app). The route takes approximately 60–80 minutes and is more emotionally demanding than physically difficult.

The warehouse (ground floor and first floor): You enter through the front house — the offices and warehouse where Opekta (Otto Frank’s pectin business) operated. The Anne Frank House has maintained the business context: you see the office where Otto Frank’s employees worked, unaware of what was happening in the annexe behind the bookcase.

The moveable bookcase: On the second floor of the front house, the bookcase that concealed the entrance to the annexe is preserved in place. Walking through it into the annexe is the physical moment that most visitors remember most clearly from the visit.

The Secret Annexe (Het Achterhuis): The annexe comprises two floors above the warehouse rear extension. Eight people lived here — the Frank family (Otto, Edith, Margot and Anne), the Van Pels family (Hermann, Auguste and Peter), and Fritz Pfeffer. The rooms are small: the combined living room and kitchen, two smaller bedrooms, and a tiny attic. Blackout curtains covered the windows throughout. Daily life involved total silence during working hours to avoid detection by warehouse workers below.

Anne’s room: Anne shared the smallest bedroom with Fritz Pfeffer. The walls she decorated with photographs of her favourite film stars and Dutch royalty are visible — the images themselves have been removed for preservation but the outlines remain. This room, more than any other in the building, makes the occupation of the space by a specific person real.

The original diary: Displayed in a case near the end of the route. The actual diary Anne received as a birthday present on 12 June 1942 — a red and white checked autograph book — is shown alongside the loose sheets she used when the original diary was full.

The final section: The end of the tour covers what happened after the arrest on 4 August 1944 — the deportation to Auschwitz, the separation of the family, and the deaths of Edith, Margot and Anne. Anne died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen in late February or early March 1945, approximately 2–3 months before the Netherlands was liberated. She was 15 years old. Of the eight people in the annexe, only Otto Frank survived.

Emotional preparation

Guidebooks sometimes understate the emotional impact of visiting the Anne Frank House. It is a demanding experience for many visitors. The combination of the physical cramped reality of the hiding space, the presence of the original diary, and the photographic documentation of what happened after the arrest creates an encounter with history that can be genuinely distressing.

This is not a reason not to go. But it is a reason to:

• Not visit immediately after a long journey, when you are tired or rushed
• Allow time afterward for quiet reflection — the benches along the Prinsengracht outside the building are used for exactly this purpose
• Consider the emotional readiness of children aged 10–14 and discuss the history with them before the visit

The museum has created an experience that is appropriately serious without being emotionally manipulative. It trusts visitors with the unmediated reality of the place.

Combining the Anne Frank House with other experiences

The Anne Frank House is in the Jordaan neighbourhood, one of Amsterdam’s most pleasant areas for walking. After the visit, walking north along the Prinsengracht toward the Brouwersgracht, then east through the canal ring, gives you time to decompress while experiencing Amsterdam’s beauty in direct contrast to what you have just seen.

Nearby: the Westerkerk (3-minute walk), open for visiting (free) and offering tower climbs in summer; the Jordaan’s brown cafés for a quiet coffee or beer; the Jordaan neighbourhood walking route.

For the broader context of Amsterdam’s Jewish history and WWII heritage, our Amsterdam walking tours section includes guided tours of the Jewish Quarter and the WWII resistance history.

Jewish Quarter walking tour Jewish Quarter and Anne Frank area tour

The diary: what it is and what it is not

Anne Frank’s diary is often described as if it were a straightforward daily record. It is more complex than that, and understanding this changes the experience of seeing the original.

Anne received a red and white checked autograph book as a birthday present on 12 June 1942. She began writing in it immediately and continued through two further school exercise books and eventually loose sheets when she ran out of space. She kept the diary in Dutch.

In March 1944 Anne heard a radio broadcast by the Dutch minister of education in exile, urging people to keep records of life under occupation that could be preserved after the war. This prompted Anne to revise and expand her diary with the intention of publication. She began a second, revised version (the “b” version) on loose sheets of paper, rewriting and editing the original entries. When the German security police raided the house on 4 August 1944, both versions — the original notebooks and the revised loose sheets — were among the papers left on the floor after the searchers left. Otto Frank’s secretary Miep Gies collected them.

After the war, Otto Frank used both the original diary and Anne’s revised version to create the published text known as “The Diary of a Young Girl.” The museum displays the original notebooks, the loose sheets of the revised version, and the published text alongside documentation of this editorial history.

What you see is therefore a layered artefact: a 13-year-old girl’s private diary, later revised by the same girl with publication in mind, then edited further by her father. The layers do not diminish its significance — they make it more interesting.

After the arrest: what happened to the others

Of the eight people in the annexe, only Otto Frank survived. Understanding what happened to the others gives the visit its full weight.

Anne and Margot Frank were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in September 1944 and then transferred to Bergen-Belsen in late October 1944. Both died there of typhus, probably in late February or early March 1945 — approximately 6–8 weeks before Bergen-Belsen was liberated by British forces on 15 April 1945. Anne was 15.

Edith Frank died at Auschwitz on 6 January 1945.

Hermann and Auguste Van Pels died at Auschwitz. Their son Peter Van Pels survived the camp but died during the evacuation march to Mauthausen in early May 1945, days before the end of the war.

Fritz Pfeffer died at Neuengamme concentration camp in December 1944.

Otto Frank was the only survivor. He was liberated from Auschwitz by Soviet forces on 27 January 1945 and returned to Amsterdam. He lived until 1980, working to publish and protect the diary and to promote the Anne Frank House as a memorial.

What the Jewish Historical Quarter covers

Amsterdam’s Jewish Historical Quarter (Joods Kwartier) in the eastern part of the old city centre contains the Jewish Historical Museum, the Portuguese Synagogue (the largest seventeenth-century synagogue in Europe, completed 1675), and the National Holocaust Museum (Hollandsche Schouwburg). Together these form a memorial and educational complex that covers the history of Amsterdam’s Jewish community from the 16th century through the Second World War.

The Jewish Quarter is approximately 20 minutes’ walk or one tram stop from the Anne Frank House. Combining both visits on the same day is possible but emotionally very heavy — many visitors find one significant wartime memorial site per day sufficient.

Practical logistics

Address: Prinsengracht 263, 1016 GV Amsterdam.

Opening hours (2026): Daily 9:00–22:00. Evening slots (after 18:00) are less popular and may be easier to book close to your visit date. The last admission is at 21:15.

Getting there: Tram 13, 17 or 17 from Centraal to Westermarkt (5 minutes). By foot from Centraal: 20 minutes through the canal ring. By bike: 10 minutes.

After your visit: The museum shop on the ground floor has an excellent book selection including editions of the diary in multiple languages, academic works on the Amsterdam Jewish community, and educational materials for children.

The Anne Frank House in the broader Holocaust memory context

The Anne Frank House exists within a wider network of Holocaust memorial sites in Amsterdam that together provide historical context that no single site can offer alone.

The National Holocaust Museum (Hollandsche Schouwburg, Plantage Middenlaan 24) opened in 2023 in the theatre where Amsterdam’s Jewish population was assembled for deportation from 1942 onward. The exhibition covers the Dutch Holocaust in statistical and biographical detail — approximately 102,000 Dutch Jews were killed, roughly 73% of the pre-war Dutch Jewish population, a higher percentage than in most other occupied western European countries. The reasons for this high toll — the efficiency of Dutch civil registration, the relative flatness of the country (no mountains to hide in), and the effectiveness of the German occupiers — are covered honestly.

The Joods Historisch Museum (Jewish Historical Museum) documents 400 years of Amsterdam Jewish life before the war, providing the context for what was destroyed.

The Verzetsmuseum (Dutch Resistance Museum) covers the range of Dutch responses to the occupation — from active collaboration to passive compliance to active resistance. It provides balance to the Anne Frank House’s focus on the experience of the persecuted, showing the choices made by non-Jewish Dutch citizens.

Visiting the Anne Frank House without this context risks creating an isolated emotional experience disconnected from the broader historical facts. Visiting it within this context — even through reading rather than physical visits to each site — makes the experience richer and more historically grounded.

Frequently asked questions about the Anne Frank House

What if tickets are sold out?

If all available tickets online are sold out, check again close to your travel date — cancellations return to the system. Alternatively, some guided tours include guaranteed entry or access to a separate ticket allocation. The small-group tour options linked above sometimes have availability when self-guided tickets are gone.

Can I see the Anne Frank House from outside without a ticket?

Yes. The building exterior is visible from Prinsengracht and the adjacent square (Westermarkt). There is a small monument in the Westermarkt — the Homomonument — that marks a different chapter of persecution history. You can walk the canal path past the building freely. The queue management area outside the building is also visible and gives you a sense of the volume of visitors even without entering.

Is the Anne Frank House appropriate for a school trip?

Yes. The museum has significant educational programming for school groups, including preparation materials and guided educational visits. School groups can book dedicated educational visit slots. Contact the museum directly for group bookings of 10 or more.

How does the Anne Frank House compare to similar memorial sites in Europe?

It occupies a unique position because it is not a monument but the actual undisturbed space where the events occurred. The Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial in Poland is a more expansive historical site; the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin is more architectural. The Anne Frank House is more intimate and personal than either.

Are there outdoor café options near the Anne Frank House for a break before or after?

Yes. The Prinsengracht between the Westerkerk and the Brouwersgracht has several canal-side cafés. Café t’Smalle on the Egelantiersgracht (5 minutes’ walk into the Jordaan) is one of Amsterdam’s best traditional brown cafés and a good choice for quiet reflection after the visit. The Westerkerk garden is a peaceful free space for sitting.