Anne Frank House

The Anne Frank House is the most visited and the most moving historic site in Amsterdam, and it needs planning like no other. At Prinsengracht 263, in the warehouse and offices of her father Otto Frank's business, thirteen-year-old Anne Frank, her parents and sister, and four other Jewish people went into hiding in July 1942 in the rooms at the back of the building, the Secret Annex, reached through a door concealed behind a hinged bookcase. For more than two years they lived in silence during working hours, helped by a small group of Otto's employees who brought food and news, while Anne wrote the diary that would become one of the most widely read books in the world. In August 1944 they were discovered and arrested; Anne died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in early 1945, months before the end of the war. Otto, the only one of the eight to survive, returned to Amsterdam, was given Anne's diary by one of the helpers, and published it in 1947. The museum opened in 1960. The visit follows the route through the front house and the warehouse, through the bookcase and into the annex, where the rooms have been left unfurnished at Otto's request — the emptiness is the point — though the wall where Anne pasted her film-star pictures and the pencil marks charting the girls' growth remain. Quotations from the diary, film fragments and objects tell the story, and the visit ends with the original red-checked diary and the museum's wider reflections on discrimination. Tickets are sold exclusively through the official Anne Frank House website, for a specific time slot, and there is no box office at the door.

Booking is the single most important thing to get right. The museum sells tickets only on its own website, releasing new time slots every Tuesday at 10:00 Amsterdam time for visits six weeks later, and popular times can sell out within hours of release, particularly in spring, summer and around school holidays. Resellers and tour companies do not sell standard museum entry, so be wary of anyone offering tickets elsewhere. Count back six weeks from your visit, set a reminder for that Tuesday morning, book the moment slots open, and keep the QR code on your phone. Payment is by card only, tickets are non-refundable and non-transferable, and even young children need a booked time slot. A thirty-minute introductory programme in English, about Anne's life and the context of the Second World War, can be booked with your ticket and is especially valuable for younger visitors and anyone unfamiliar with the history. The museum is open daily from morning into the evening, with exceptions for a few holidays.

Practicalities: the annex is reached by steep, narrow seventeenth-century staircases, so the house is not accessible for wheelchair users beyond the modern sections, and visitors with limited mobility should read the museum's accessibility information first. Bags are restricted and there is a small cloakroom. Given the subject matter, the visit is best suited to children aged about ten and older, and the museum has prepared material for families and schools. Allow an hour or so; the route is one-way and moves at a steady pace, and there is a café overlooking the Westerkerk and a bookshop at the end. Photography is not permitted in the house, which helps keep the atmosphere respectful.

Around the museum, the Westerkerk next door, whose bells Anne wrote about in her diary, holds Rembrandt's unmarked grave, and its tower can sometimes be climbed in the warmer months for views over the Jordaan. The Homomonument, the world's first memorial to gay men and lesbians persecuted by the Nazis, sits on the Westermarkt outside, and a small statue of Anne stands by the church. Afterwards, many visitors want quiet time: a walk through the Jordaan's lanes, a coffee on the Prinsengracht or a visit to the Dutch Resistance Museum near the zoo deepens the story. If you cannot get tickets, the Holocaust Memorial of Names in the Jewish Cultural Quarter and the National Holocaust Museum are powerful alternatives.