Best time to visit Anne Frank House

It's best to go straight to the source and see what is available during your visit--it books up well in advance.

Since a reservation is required, it really doesn't make any difference. I would go in the am just because it is cooler.

My dates haven't opened up yet so I'm asking in advance of having all options availanble to me at time of booking.

Barry, this is the website if you don't already have it:

https://www.annefrank.org/en/

Looks like August dates up to the 13th are already sold out. Are you going after the 20th?

Unless you’re visiting in the very low season, the Anne Frank house will be completely sold out on the day of your visit. So it doesn’t really matter which time slot you book, as all of them will definitely sell out.
The first time slot of the day has the advantage that you’ll be among the first visitors to enter the house, so there won’t be a lot of visitors already in the house, but that’s it.

I would suggest you choose the first time slot in the morning.

I assisted friends two months ago for a recent visit. The time slots filled up very quickly once they are available for their chosen date. It’s best to attempt to secure choice tickets within minutes of being released (definitely not hours or days). I would have chosen early morning or first available. They were not disappointed with the afternoon entry tickets.

First thing, 9:00 am. We visited in April and were one of the first in line for the 9:00 am time slot. We had the luxury of having rooms to ourselves or at the most only shared the small spaces with one or two other family groups. The museum sells out daily so I wouldn’t expect there to be an afternoon lull or closing time crowd thinning.

To get the 9:00 am tickets you do need to buy as soon as they are available. Here’s an excerpt from another thread https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/netherlands/anne-frank-house-tickets-4d1884ee-c262-4251-a5d2-d9e08a575462
where I detail my ticket buying experience:

In my personal experience and from what others have written here on the forum, tickets sell out very quickly, within minutes quickly. Before I went to bed on the Monday night before my date was available, I set an alarm to wake up at 12:59 am PST (9:59 am Amsterdam time), purchased my tickets by 1:20 am PST, closed my laptop and went to sleep. When I awoke at 8:00 am PST, I checked back just to see if my time slot was still available — and it was sold out. Sacrificing that little bit of sleep paid off. Familiarizing myself with the website and going through the process of doing a “dummy” booking prior to my purchase morning was also very useful.

From the Anne Frank House's website:

"Tickets become available every Tuesday at 10:00 am CEST for a visit in six weeks. Sold out dates are red. The dates of tickets that have not yet been released are grayed out."

I just went on line and saw that there were a few tickets available on August 13, 2023 @ 8:30 PM. More times on the other days through August 20, 2023, but nothing at 9:00 AM. If you need a specific time, you need to follow JenS's post and handle like she did. Any time is good from my point of view.

Thank you all for your informative responses. Based on the replies I will be shooting for the first time slot. I will also be getting up at 4:00AM my time to insure I have the best opportunity for my chosen dates and time.

OP, one last tip - arrive early for your time slot to get in line to be ahead of the scores of other people with your same entry time. I can’t remember exactly what time we arrived, maybe 8:40am-ish for 9:00 am time and there were already maybe 10 people ahead of us. We had regular tickets not the add on 1/2 orientation tickets.

What is the downside to not waiting in line ahead of my timeslot?
Will I have to wait a period of time (how long?) before I can get in? I have a 10:30am entry time.
If this is the case, it means the wait comes after the entry time as opposed to before.. if I arrive early.
Why is this advantageous?

Alcoh71, good question. My advice was specific to the first entry of the day. As I was there first thing, I don’t know how subsequent entries were managed.

However, (someone else may have actual experience), this strategy may have some validity if there is a line holding period between entry times to allow rooms to clear, as opposed to a constant stream of entries. I’ve experienced this at other museums with timed entry and those at the front of their time slot had a bit of breathing room. If it’s just a constant stream, then I would assume no advantage.

There was no timed entry when I went the first time though that was May 1993.

Just curious, Barry, when are you going? I am so glad I read this thread, because I misunderstood when tickets for our visit would become available. Just went to the site, and tickets were on sale for our dates! And TONS of availability. This is for the first week of September. I'm not saying you shouldn't set your alarm, but I am wondering if tourism is dropping in September... (Not to mention our flight from Atlanta is more than half empty as of now...) Hopefully you'll easily get the date and times you want. Good luck!

We are also in Amsterdam the first week of September. I had originally planned to go to Anne Frank House in the second week of our visit, but in checking the website again, and clicking on "exceptions to the opening hours" I noted that it is closed September 12-14/23. So I set the alarm for 4am this past Tuesday to book an afternoon slot for the introductory program + museum visit, on September 9/23. In retrospect, I didn’t need to be on the website right at 10am CEST, as in checking the website over the past couple of days, there were many slots available for the "intro plus" ticket, and even more for the museum alone ticket. This appears to be quite different from the situation in the June-August time frame. That said, the first morning time slot still books up quickly on every day.

I read somewhere the suggestion to visit the Anne Frank House in the evening because it is open when other museums and sites are closed. Has anyone gone late in the day or in the evening? I will be there the first week on October when sunset is a little after 7pm.

Any advice on how far in advance one needs to get Van Gogh museum and Rijksmuseum tickets? My impression is that a week in advance should be ok (in October) for those. I have the 6-week advance date on my calendar for the Anne Frank House.

“ I read somewhere the suggestion to visit the Anne Frank House in the evening because it is open when other museums and sites are closed. Has anyone gone late in the day or in the evening? I will be there the first week on October when sunset is a little after 7pm.”

I’m sorry, but it’s not clear to me what it is you want to know. Why are you mentioning sunset in relation to visiting the Anne Frank house? That’s completely indoors… Or do you mean to say that you’re concerned about safety after sunset?

“Any advice on how far in advance one needs to get Van Gogh museum and Rijksmuseum tickets? My impression is that a week in advance should be ok (in October) for those. I have the 6-week advance date on my calendar for the Anne Frank House.”

It depends on the day, weekends will be busier and the early time slots will always sell out first. As your visit gets closer, you should continue to check out the websites of both museums to see what time slots still remain available for your dates.

"That said, the first morning time slot still books up quickly on every day."

Oddly, the 9am time slot on our date (9/3/23) had 33 tickets available! So we were easily able to snag two. And that was just last night!