Museum of Illusions Amsterdam

Museum of Illusions Amsterdam offers over 60 interactive illusions, challenging your perception and providing a fun experience for all ages.

Planning your visit

Amsterdam's Museum of Illusions sits on Herengracht in a canal house, which gives it a setting the franchise's other branches lack — the building is seventeenth-century, with the steep narrow staircases that come with it, and the contrast between the historic shell and the installations inside is part of the experience.

Over 60 exhibits cover holograms, stereograms, an Ames room, a rotated room, an infinity room and tables of mechanical puzzles, with brief explanations of the perceptual science behind each.

Its practical value in Amsterdam is specific. The city's major museums require timed tickets booked well ahead and are heavily oversubscribed; this is somewhere you can usually get into at short notice, it takes about an hour, and it works with children who have reached their limit at the Rijksmuseum.

The canal house layout means the rooms are small, so weekends produce genuine bottlenecks at the popular installations.

Bookable options are entry tickets. Note that a separate branch operates in Maastricht, so confirm Amsterdam when booking. Current availability is listed below.