Museums in Noord-Holland

Noord-Holland has 176 official museums across 60 towns. Forty-seven are in Amsterdam, which leaves 129 that most visitors never hear about.

Ninety of the 176 accept the Museumcard, more than any other province in the country. If you are travelling with the card, this is the province where it earns its keep.

Where the museums actually are

• Amsterdam, 47. The national collections, and the largest cluster in the Netherlands.
• Haarlem, 13. Including Teylers, the oldest museum in the country, and the Frans Hals Museum across two sites.
• Zaanse Schans, 7. Seven museums within walking distance, most of them working mills.
• Den Helder, 7. Naval history, the lifeboat museum and Fort Kijkduin.
• Enkhuizen and Zaandam, 5 each. Old harbour towns with the collections to match.
• Alkmaar, Hoorn and Medemblik, 4 each. Cheese, the Golden Age and a working steam railway between the last two.

The ones worth planning a day around

• Teylers Museum, Haarlem. Opened in 1784 and barely changed since, right down to the daylight-lit oval room.
• Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem. The definitive collection of the painter, split across two buildings in the city.
• Kasteel Muiderslot, Muiden. A moated medieval castle half an hour from Amsterdam.
• Museumstoomtram Hoorn to Medemblik. A working steam railway, and a museum you travel through.
• Marinemuseum, Den Helder. Dutch naval history including a submarine you can go inside.
• Museum van de Geest, Haarlem. The history of psychiatry in the former Dolhuys asylum.

Three days in the province

Day one, Haarlem

Twenty minutes from Amsterdam by train, and every museum within fifteen minutes on foot. Teylers in the morning while the daylight is good, the Frans Hals Museum after lunch, and Museum van de Geest if you still have the appetite for it.

Day two, the Zaan and the north

The Zaanse Schans has seven museums in walking distance of each other, which makes it the densest museum square kilometre outside a city centre. Combine it with Zaandam, or push north to Alkmaar for the cheese museum.

Day three, the old Zuiderzee

Hoorn, Enkhuizen and Medemblik sit on what was the inland sea, and the steam tram runs between the first and last of them. This is the day that shows you what Noord-Holland was before the dyke closed in 1932.

Before you go

• Forty-seven of the 176 open every day, far more than any other province, because Amsterdam’s museums keep seven-day hours.
• Outside Amsterdam that changes sharply. Village and harbour-town museums close on Mondays and many run seasonal hours.
• Ninety take the Museumcard, the highest count in the country.
• Most of the province is within an hour of Amsterdam, so one base works for all three days above.

Visiting with a private guide

We build private days across this province around the museums you actually want to see, with driving, tickets and timing arranged so the day works rather than sprawls.

Plan your tour, or see all our private tours.

This page is part of our complete guide to museums in the Netherlands, covering all 1,167 of them.