Marie Tussaud was 16 when the French Revolution started, 28 when she was forced to make death masks of guillotined friends, and 74 when she set up her first permanent London waxworks. She died in 1850 having personally sculpted portraits of Napoleon, Benjamin Franklin, Voltaire, and Robespierre. Her Amsterdam branch opened 120 years after her death, in 1970, on Dam Square — and still uses the same hand-making process she developed in 18th-century Paris.
Entry is around €28, the visit takes 60-90 minutes, and it sits on Dam Square next to the Royal Palace and Nieuwe Kerk. Nobody lists Tussauds as essential Amsterdam — but a surprising number of visitors who thought they’d hate it leave with 30 photos and a grudging admiration for the craftsmanship. The figures are very good. That’s the whole thing.
In a Hurry?
- Best overall: Standard Madame Tussauds Amsterdam Entry — €28 timed-slot ticket. The default pick.
- Best value combo: Tussauds + Canal Cruise Combo — €39 combined, saves ~€12, cruise dock is 6 minutes away.
- Best for families: Super Saver: Tussauds + 1-Hour Cruise — Viator combo with flexible dates.
- In a Hurry?
- What You See Inside
- The Three Ticket Options
- 1. Amsterdam: Madame Tussauds Ticket — from €28
- 2. Amsterdam Combo: Madame Tussauds and Canal Cruise — from €39
- 3. Super Saver: Madame Tussauds + 1-Hour Cruise — from €37
- A Short History of Madame Tussauds
- How Long You’ll Actually Be Inside
- When to Go (and Days to Avoid)
- How the Timed-Entry System Works
- Combining Tussauds with Other Dam Square Attractions
- Is Tussauds Worth It? (Honestly)
- What’s Different About the Amsterdam Location
- What to Bring (and Not Bring)
- Accessibility
- Photography Tips
- For Amsterdam First-Timers: Where Tussauds Fits
- What’s Nearby for Food
- Common Mistakes
- How Tussauds Compares to Other Amsterdam “Light” Attractions
- Who Loves It, Who Doesn’t
- The Short Version
What You See Inside
Five floors. Elevator to the top, walk your way down. Each floor has a theme, and themes rotate based on what’s trending — expect a mix of Dutch national figures (Cruyff, Verstappen, the royal family) alongside international celebrities that change every 2-3 months.
Top floor — World Leaders and History. Nelson Mandela, Barack Obama, Queen Elizabeth II. Several have been on display 10+ years and are technically excellent — the hand-painted veins on the Mandela figure’s forearms are particularly good.
Royalty floor. The Dutch royal family (King Willem-Alexander, Queen Máxima) get prominent placement. Dutch kids treat this like a greatest-hits lineup. Non-Dutch visitors often don’t recognise the cast.
Culture/Music floor. Rotating pop stars. When I visited, Harry Styles, Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Drake were all there. Add your own 2026 guesses.
Film floor. Hollywood plus Bollywood. Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp, Nicole Kidman next to Shah Rukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai. The Bollywood inclusion reflects Amsterdam’s increasingly international visitor mix.
Sport floor. Where Dutch national pride quietly takes over. Max Verstappen (Formula 1), Johan Cruyff (football legend, still worshipped), Sven Kramer (speed skater), Usain Bolt. If you’re a football fan, the Cruyff figure is unexpectedly moving — he died in 2016 and the figure was updated shortly after.
Ground floor — Party/Meet. Interactive section. Audio-visual setups where you can appear “on stage” with a musician or “in the studio” interviewing a celebrity. Cringe factor depends on your tolerance; most people who try one end up trying several.
The Three Ticket Options
1. Amsterdam: Madame Tussauds Ticket — from €28
The default ticket. 15-minute arrival window, scan QR code, you’re in. Miss your slot and staff will usually accommodate within an hour of booked time; after that it’s discretionary. Full review walks floor by floor.
2. Amsterdam Combo: Madame Tussauds and Canal Cruise — from €39
The smartest use of a Dam Square morning. Tussauds takes 90 minutes; cruise takes 75 minutes; walk between them is 6 minutes. Half a day on one ticket. Cruise leaves from Prins Hendrikkade near Centraal. Full review has dock details.
3. Super Saver: Madame Tussauds + 1-Hour Cruise — from €37
Same idea as option 2, sold by Viator. Cruise is 60 minutes rather than 75 — some prefer it. Viator’s flexibility is the reason to pick this: easier rebooking up to 24 hours before if plans shift.
A Short History of Madame Tussauds
Marie Tussaud was born Marie Grosholtz in Strasbourg, 1761. Her mother was the housekeeper of Dr Philippe Curtius, a physician who made anatomical wax models. Curtius taught Marie the technique. By her 20s she was sculpting wax portraits of Voltaire (1777), Benjamin Franklin (1779), and the French royal family.
Then came 1789. During the French Revolution she was forced to make death masks from the severed heads of guillotined figures — including Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI, and Robespierre, people she had personally known. She was briefly imprisoned and nearly executed herself. After the revolution she inherited Curtius’s collection and, in 1802, took it on tour through Britain and Ireland. She never returned to France.
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She set up a permanent exhibition in London in 1835, at age 74. It expanded, moved locations several times, got bombed during WWII, and eventually spun off into the international franchise we know today. The Amsterdam branch opened in 1970 at a Kalverstraat location, moved to Dam Square in 1991, and has been there ever since.
The figures are still made at the Tussauds workshop in London — Acton specifically, not at the Baker Street museum. Each figure takes roughly four months. Hair is real (human or yak), eyes are glass, skin is silicone. Maintenance is ongoing: because visitors touch figures constantly, each goes back to Acton every 3-5 years for refurbishment.
How Long You’ll Actually Be Inside
Official guidance: 90 minutes. Actual spread:
- Fast (no selfies): 40-50 minutes
- Normal pace: 75-90 minutes
- Full-selfie mode: 100-120 minutes
- Kids who love every figure: 2+ hours
Audio-visual sections in the ground-floor “Party” area add 15-20 minutes if you engage. Skip them if you’re short on time.
When to Go (and Days to Avoid)
Opens daily. Summer hours typically 10am-8:30pm; winter 10am-6pm. Last entry about 90 minutes before closing.
Best time slots: first slot (10am) is emptiest. Second best is the last 90 minutes — after 4:30pm in winter, 7pm in summer. Figures are lit the same indoors either way.
Worst times: Saturday afternoons, Dutch school holidays, the week between Christmas and New Year. Tussauds can hit near-capacity with queue waits even if you have a timed ticket.
Rainy days: Tussauds, Body Worlds, the Sex Museum, and Ripley’s all fill up when it rains. If forecast is wet, book morning at least 24 hours ahead.
How the Timed-Entry System Works
When you book, pick a 15-minute arrival window (e.g., 10:00-10:15). Inside that window, walk up, scan phone, go in. Miss it and the ticket system is automated — it doesn’t care that you had to drag a kid from a canal.
Grace period: staff will generally let you in up to an hour after your slot, space permitting. After that, case by case.
What you’re skipping: the ticket-buying queue at the door. You’re not “skip-the-line” in the sense of walking past entering visitors — on busy weekends the entry queue still runs 15-20 minutes. You’re skipping the separate, longer line at the box office.
Combining Tussauds with Other Dam Square Attractions
Dam Square packs a lot into two minutes’ walking distance. Pair Tussauds with:
The Royal Palace — across the square, €12.50, 75 minutes. Neoclassical interior with the most ornate ceremonial rooms in the country. Tonally very different from Tussauds (quiet, historical) which makes the pairing work. See our Royal Palace guide.
Nieuwe Kerk — also on Dam Square, usually hosting art exhibitions. Ticket varies by exhibition, €15-20.
National Monument — free, outdoor. White obelisk in the middle of Dam Square commemorating WWII victims. 5 minutes to read the plaques.
A canal cruise — the combo ticket covers this, or walk 6 minutes to Prins Hendrikkade and board separately. Our canal cruise guide.
Rembrandt House — 15 minutes east. Serious art history counterpoint after Tussauds. Our Rembrandt House guide.
Is Tussauds Worth It? (Honestly)
Honest answer depends on how much you’ve already seen in Amsterdam.
First trip, 3-4 days: skip it. Too much other essential stuff (Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh, Anne Frank, canals, Jordaan). Tussauds doesn’t crack top 10.
First trip, 5+ days or with kids: worth it. Kids love it. €28 is reasonable for 90 minutes of entertainment. Kills a rainy afternoon.
Second or third trip: actually enjoyable. You’ve done the serious museums. Tussauds feels like a break — walk around, take funny photos, don’t read plaques, leave.
With tweens/teens: genuinely fun. They’ll post the photos immediately. Maybe the best €28 you’ll spend on a cranky 12-year-old on a European trip.
What’s Different About the Amsterdam Location
Madame Tussauds has branches in London, Berlin, Vienna, New York, Bangkok, Shanghai, Sydney, Dubai, and about a dozen other cities. Amsterdam’s is one of the older ones (opened 1970, redone several times since) and distinguished by:
Strong Dutch representation: royals, footballers, speed skaters, Rembrandt. Other locations lean more international; Amsterdam keeps a solid local core.
Smaller scale: London and New York have more figures. Amsterdam is compact — you’ll see it all in 90 minutes without fighting for space.
Dam Square location: the most central possible location for a tourist-facing attraction in the Netherlands.
What to Bring (and Not Bring)
Bring:
- Phone, charged. You’ll take more photos than expected.
- A bottle of water — no café inside.
- Booking email with QR code (saved offline in case of signal issues).
Don’t bring:
- Large backpacks — you can technically bring them but they get in the way. Hotel locker.
- Food — not allowed among the figures.
- Low expectations for the “Party” floor. It’s more fun than it sounds.
Accessibility
Tussauds Amsterdam is fully wheelchair accessible — all floors via elevator, wide walkways between figures, accessible toilets on the ground floor. No sensory-overload quiet space but the museum is generally calmer than an art gallery on a busy day. Guide dogs welcome.
Visually impaired visitors: most figures are not touchable — Tussauds has been strict about this historically — but staff can sometimes arrange supervised access to specific figures if you ask in advance.
Photography Tips
This is the core reason most people come, so:
Lighting: each figure is spotlit from above. That makes harsh shadows under noses and chins. Angle your phone slightly down and use portrait mode — the depth effect hides shadow issues.
Flash: usually allowed but makes figures look plastic. Turn it off.
The “trick”: crouch slightly to the figure’s eye level, not looking down. Tussauds designers set figures up expecting this angle.
Crowds in frame: if your photo has random heads in the background, step 30 seconds to the side — most figures are positioned so there’s a clean background if you move a bit.
For Amsterdam First-Timers: Where Tussauds Fits
If you’re on a first visit and wondering whether Tussauds deserves a slot, here’s how I’d rank the “photo experiences”:
- A canal cruise — non-negotiable.
- The Rijksmuseum — Night Watch hall alone is photogenic. See our Rijksmuseum guide.
- Van Gogh Museum — no photos allowed, but the gift shop is arguably the best in the Netherlands.
- A’DAM Lookout — skyline swing. Best photo yield per minute in Amsterdam.
- Tussauds — fifth-rank photo experience. Great for kids, novelty, rainy days.
- Anne Frank House — photos aren’t the point and aren’t allowed.
Put Tussauds in a morning or a wet afternoon slot. Don’t build your day around it.
What’s Nearby for Food
Dam Square itself is tourist-price. Walk 5 minutes in any direction for better:
Lunch: The Nine Streets neighbourhood (Negen Straatjes) is 4 minutes west — cafés, brunch places, boutique sandwich shops at €8-14. Van Stapele Koekmakerij (just south of Dam) sells one single chocolate cookie worth the queue.
Coffee: Café Luxembourg on Spui (6 minutes south) — one of the oldest and best “brown cafés” in central Amsterdam, opened 1985.
Dinner: walk north of Dam Square into the Red Light District for Indonesian (Indrapura, Kantjil & de Tijger) — Dutch national cuisine-by-adoption.
Common Mistakes
Buying at the door. Walk-up is sometimes €5-8 higher online, and on Saturday you’ll queue 30+ minutes to buy a physical ticket. Always book online.
Arriving before your slot opens. You can’t enter early. Hang out on Dam Square or grab coffee.
Trying to do Tussauds + Royal Palace + Anne Frank in one morning. Tussauds and Royal Palace are 2 minutes apart; Anne Frank is 15 minutes’ walk with its own timed slots — logistics rarely work.
Skipping the AV stations because they “look cheesy.” The karaoke-on-stage one is genuinely funny and takes 3 minutes.
Not checking which figures are currently on display. Tussauds rotates and sometimes removes fan favourites for refurbishment. Check the website the week of your visit if there’s someone specific you want to see.
How Tussauds Compares to Other Amsterdam “Light” Attractions
vs. Body Worlds: Body Worlds (plastinated human bodies) is more serious — educational, confronting. Tussauds is pure entertainment. Our Body Worlds guide.
vs. This Is Holland: This Is Holland is a 5D flight simulator — you “fly” over the Netherlands. Fun for 30 minutes, different vibe. Our This Is Holland guide.
vs. Upside Down: Upside Down is a pure selfie museum — installations designed specifically for photos. Most Instagram-worthy of the bunch. Our Upside Down guide.
vs. A’DAM Lookout: A’DAM is the rooftop across the water — the swing and the skyline. Photo experience but of the city, not of celebrities. Tussauds is indoor and about people; A’DAM is outdoor and about view. Our A’DAM Lookout guide.
vs. AMAZE: AMAZE is contemporary audiovisual — projections, motion-reactive rooms. Tussauds is static figures. Our AMAZE guide has the comparison.
Who Loves It, Who Doesn’t
Loves it: families with kids 6-14, teenagers on first European trips, tourist groups, people with 3+ days and slack in the schedule, anyone on a rainy afternoon with already-bought museum passes.
Doesn’t love it: serious art/history tourists, couples on short romantic trips (it’s not romantic), anyone who’s already done the bigger London or Berlin branches.
Genuine surprise converts: people who thought they’d hate it and stayed for 2 hours. More common than you’d think — the interactive Party floor is the one that turns sceptics.
The Short Version
Book the €28 online ticket for a 10am slot, show up on time, take 30 photos, buy the cheesy magnet, combine with a canal cruise if you can (saves €12), out the door in 90 minutes.
If you’re on your second Amsterdam trip and still haven’t done it, this is the trip. On first trip with 3 days, pick the Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh, Anne Frank, and a canal cruise instead — come back for Tussauds next time.
Affiliate disclosure: Some links in this article are affiliate links. If you book through them we may earn a small commission at no cost to you. All recommendations are based on my own visit.