What does the Scheepvaartmuseum actually get you into?
The National Maritime Museum — Het Scheepvaartmuseum — stands at Kattenburgerplein 1, a 17th-century Admiralty arsenal of 1656 rebuilt around a glass courtyard, a fifteen-minute walk east of Centraal. Its subject is the machinery of the Dutch Golden Age: the VOC, the maps, the atlases, the painted ship models, and moored at the quay a full-scale replica of the East Indiaman Amsterdam, the 18th-century cargo ship you can climb through end to end. Tickets run from $23 booked, under-17s often go free with family tickets, and it is the museum that turns Golden Age paintings into something you can stand inside. It fills the eastern corner of our guide to the museums in Amsterdam.
About This Experience
Kattenburgerplein 1, 1018 KK Amsterdam — the arsenal square east of the centre
Bus 22 from Centraal to Kattenburgerstraat, or a 15-minute walk; tram 14 to the Plantage edge
Daily 10:00–17:00; the ship deck closes in high wind and the quays flood gracefully in storms
Booked from $23; Museumkaart and City Card accepted; family tickets at the desk
The replica ship Amsterdam at the quay — three masts, gun deck, hammocks and all
Check Live Availability & Prices
Skip-the-line entry checked live below.
Which Ticket to Pick and Why It Matters Less Than the Tide
One entry ticket covers everything: the galleries, the glass courtyard, the Interactive Voyage game floor and the ship. The booking decision is trivial — the planning decision is not. The replica East Indiaman's deck closes in high wind, the quay is exposed, and the ship is the museum's whole argument, so check the weather rather than the ticket calendar.
Inside, the two hours split cleanly: the VOC and map floors for context, the whale-hunt and ship-model rooms for the craft, the courtyard café for the recovery.
- Standard skip-the-line entry — from $23; everything including the ship.
- Family format — under-17s free with desk family tickets; the Interactive Voyage floor is built for it.
- Museumkaart / City Card — both valid; the courtyard becomes your standard rainy-Tuesday fallback.
Maritime Museum Tickets & Pairings
Entry via the comparison platforms, plus the two museums that share the eastern museum day.
from $23
National Maritime Museum Ticket
Skip-the-line entry to the Scheepvaartmuseum, the national maritime museum covering the Dutch seafaring century, with the replica ship Amsterdam moored alongside.
- Golden Age seafaring
- Replica East Indiaman
- Skip-the-line entry
from $23
Rembrandt House Museum Ticket
Entry to the canal-front house where Rembrandt lived and worked at his peak, with demonstrations of etching and paint-grinding in his own studio rooms.
- Rembrandt's actual house
- Demos in his studio
- Etchings on display
from $20
Dutch WWII Resistance Museum Ticket
Entry to the Verzetsmuseum, which shows the Dutch resistance under occupation through the choices of real people, resisters and bystanders alike.
- Everyday resistance stories
- Plantage Kerklaan location
- Top-rated, sober
What You'll See
The arsenal's brick floors hold the best Golden Age map collection anywhere — charts the VOC sailed by, atlases with the world half-guessed — plus the painted ship models, the whale fishery rooms, and the gallery of sea paintings that explain why the Rijksmuseum's marine canvases look the way they do. The 2011 glass courtyard, a florette of steel and light by Ney & Partners over the arsenal's well, is the architectural moment. Then the quay: the 1990-replica Amsterdam, an 18th-century East Indiaman that foundered on her maiden voyage and now sails nowhere at full standing rigging, gunports, hammocks and the smell of tar.
- The replica ship Amsterdam — clamber below decks; the hammock gun-deck is the photograph of the visit.
- The map rooms — VOC charts and atlases, the Golden Age's argument that the world was worth measuring.
- Ship models & the whale rooms — the craft and the cruelty, both well told.
- The glass courtyard — the modern roof over the 17th-century well; the café under it is the rain plan.
- Virtual Voyage — the interactive floor children treat as the main event and parents as the reward.
The arsenal and the replica East Indiaman at the quay — the museum's whole argument, moored and climbable.
How a Visit Flows
-
Arrival
Ship first if the wind allows
The quay deck closes in gusts; if the ship is open, climb it before the galleries while the legs are fresh.
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First hour
Maps and models
The VOC floors reward the attention they ask; the audio guide keeps it to the essentials.
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Midday
Courtyard lunch
Under the glass florette — the museum café is better than its reputation and the room does half the work.
-
Afternoon
Virtual Voyage or the whales
Families split here: children to the interactive floor, adults to the whale fishery rooms; both exit satisfied.
Know Before You Go
- Daily 10:00–17:00; booked from $23; Museumkaart and City Card accepted; family tickets at the desk.
- The ship's deck closes in high wind — plan it first, not last, on breezy days.
- Bus 22 from Centraal drops you at the square; the walk along the Oosterdok is nicer in dry weather.
- The Plantage's other museums — the Holocaust and Resistance museums — are ten minutes west if the day wants a second chapter.
- Lockers take the bags the ship's stairs will not allow.
Where You're Headed
Maritime Museum FAQ
How much are National Maritime Museum tickets?
Booked skip-the-line tickets run from $23, with family tickets and under-17 free-entry offers at the desk. Museumkaart and I amsterdam City Card holders enter free with the usual reservation.
Can you go on the ship at the Maritime Museum?
Yes — the replica East Indiaman Amsterdam at the quay is included in the ticket, climbed bow to stern along the same route a passenger would have taken in the 1770s. The deck closes in high wind, so do it early in the visit rather than saving it.
Is the Maritime Museum worth it with kids?
It is the best family museum after NEMO: a real ship to climb, an interactive voyage floor, and enough painted ships and maps to satisfy adults simultaneously. Under-17 family offers make it cheaper than most alternatives in the centre.
How long do you need at the Scheepvaartmuseum?
Two hours covers the ship, the map rooms and the courtyard properly; families running the interactive floor should plan half a day. It sits comfortably as the anchor of a Plantage day with the Jewish Cultural Quarter.
What Visitors Say
The ship made the whole museum — climbing through the decks was the highlight of our Amsterdam days for the kids.
Superb map collection, more interesting than expected, and the glass courtyard is stunning. Easy half day.
Skip-the-line worked exactly as promised and the family ticket made it painless. The virtual voyage floor earned its keep.