Amsterdam changed the cost of visiting on 1 January 2026, and not in the way most guides mention. The tourist tax gets the headlines, but a quieter change did more to your bill. Here is what a trip actually costs now, what the city has restricted, and which widely-repeated "facts" are out of date.
The big change nobody talks about: VAT on accommodation nearly tripled
On 1 January 2026 the Dutch VAT rate on lodging rose from 9% to 21%. That is the Dutch tax authority's own figure, and it applies nationwide, not just in Amsterdam. Breakfast sold separately stays at 9%.
Stack it with Amsterdam's tourist tax, which stayed at 12.5% of the room price for 2026, and the combined tax burden on an Amsterdam hotel night comes to roughly 33.5%. On a €150 room that is about €50 of tax.
Day visitors and cruise passengers pay a separate charge: €15.00 per person per day from 1 January 2026, up from €14.50.
The city has proposed raising the accommodation tax to 16% in 2027 and towards 20% by around the end of the decade, but that has not been adopted and the end date is reported inconsistently. Treat it as signalled, not settled.
A rare piece of good news on price
Amsterdam hotel rates have been falling. Industry analysis published in July 2026 found average room rates dropped in both 2024 and 2025 with further softening into early 2026, and that revenue per available room in central Amsterdam sits about 13% below 2019 levels in real terms. The forecast for 2026 is a further 2–5% decline as operators absorb the VAT rise by discounting rather than passing it all on.
So the tax went up, but the underlying room rate has been coming down to meet it. Amsterdam is not as punishing as the tax percentages alone suggest — though it is far from cheap.
For scale: the Netherlands hosted 52.2 million accommodation guests in 2025, and Amsterdam took 9.5 million of them, up 2% — the largest increase of any major Dutch city.
What the city has actually restricted
Amsterdam's crackdown on overtourism is real, and these measures are in force:
- A city-wide hotel bed stop. No new hotels, and no adding extra rooms or beds to existing ones. The bed count is effectively frozen.
- Holiday rentals cut to 15 nights a year in the city centre and De Pijp, down from 30. Fewer Airbnb-type options, and they book out earlier.
- Cruise calls capped at 100 a year from 2026, down from 190, with one berth at a time. Shore power becomes mandatory in 2027 and the passenger terminal moves from Veemkade by 2035. A proposal to ban sea cruise ships outright was raised in early 2026 but has not been adopted.
- The city has also pledged to stop actively promoting itself as a tourist destination.
The overnight-stay figure of 20 million a year is often described as a legal cap. It is not — it is a target, and the city has said it may raise the tourist tax further if it is exceeded.
Two things most guides still get wrong
The Red Light District 3am closing time was reversed. Window brothels have been permitted to stay open until 6am since February 2024; the mayor said the earlier closing put sex workers at risk. The part that did survive is that bars and cafés still close at 2am. Plenty of published guides still quote 3am for the windows.
The large erotic centre is not being built. The plan was scrapped in mid-2026 by the incoming city coalition and is not in the coalition agreement.
The museums: prices, and the booking rule that matters
- Anne Frank House — €16.50 adult (including a €1 booking fee), €7 for ages 10–17, €1 for under-10s. Tickets are sold online only. There are no door sales. The release pattern is fixed: every Tuesday at 10am Central European time, all tickets become available for a visit six weeks later. If you want this one, put that in your calendar.
- Rijksmuseum — €25 adult, free for under-18s. Open daily 09:00–17:00 including public holidays. All visitors book a start time.
- Van Gogh Museum — €25 adult, free for under-18s, €16 for EU/EEA students. Online with a compulsory timed slot — the ticket is only valid on the date and time you picked.
- Moco — €19.95 adult, €17.95 for students and ages 7–17, free under 7. Up to €5 off for early or late slots.
The I amsterdam City Card is now two products — and one big exclusion
This has changed, and getting it wrong costs real money. The card now comes in two forms:
- Total Experience — unlimited access to everything on the card, and unlimited GVB tram, metro, bus and ferry travel.
- Explorer — you pick 3, 5 or 7 activities, and it does not include public transport at all.
The exclusion that catches people: the Van Gogh Museum is not included on either card, and neither is the Anne Frank House. The Rijksmuseum is included. A great many published guides still say the card covers the Van Gogh Museum. It does not — you book and pay for that separately.
Getting around
Contactless works. Under OVpay you can tap a contactless debit or credit card, or a phone or watch, to check in and out on tram, metro, bus and train. For a short visit there is no need to buy a transit card at all.
From Schiphol, the train to Amsterdam Centraal takes 17 minutes with up to eight departures an hour, and costs around €5.50 one way — Dutch rail fares rose an average 6.52% in January 2026, so older guides quoting €4.90 are out of date. The Amsterdam Airport Express bus (line 397) is €6.50 one way or €11.75 return, from stop B17.
If you want a single ticket covering the wider region, the Amsterdam & Region Travel Ticket is €23 for one day, €34 for two and €44 for three, valid on GVB, Connexxion, AllGo and EBS services plus regional trains.
Free, and genuinely worth it
- The IJ ferries behind Centraal are free — for pedestrians, cyclists and mopeds, across to Amsterdam Noord. The Buiksloterweg crossing rarely has more than a few minutes' wait, and other routes serve the EYE Filmmuseum, Tolhuistuin and NDSM Wharf. It is the best free thing in the city.
- Begijnhof — free, daily 10:00–18:00. Note it is closed to tourists on King's Day, 27 April, groups are capped at 12, and no bikes, dogs, luggage, eating or drinking.
- Vondelpark, and its open-air theatre, which is free through summer.
- Rijksmuseum gardens (daily 09:00–17:00) and the NEMO rooftop, both free without a museum ticket.
- Free Wednesday lunchtime concerts at the Royal Concertgebouw, and monthly Tuesday lunch concerts at Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ.
One warning. The Civic Guards Gallery appears on almost every "free Amsterdam" list. The Amsterdam Museum's Kalverstraat building that houses it is closed for a major rebuild with no announced reopening date. The museum is operating from two other sites only. Do not walk there expecting to get in.
Getting there from Australia
There is no nonstop service from Sydney or Melbourne to Amsterdam, and none has been announced. Australians reach Amsterdam on a one-stop itinerary, typically via a Southeast or East Asian hub, the Middle East, or another European gateway.
Qantas's 2026 European expansion does not include Amsterdam — it added a daily Perth–Rome and took Sydney–Paris from three to five weekly, rerouted via Singapore. One aviation analyst quoted at the time estimated up to 30% of Australia–Europe capacity had been removed industry-wide because of Middle East airspace disruption, and thought the Qantas changes unlikely to bring fares down.
When to go
Mid-March to mid-May is tulip season and the city's prettiest stretch, with King's Day on 27 April the single busiest day of the year. Late May to August brings the warmest weather and the longest evenings, along with the biggest crowds. September is the quiet sweet spot — still mild, noticeably calmer. October to February is grey and cold but the cheapest, and the museums are at their most civilised.
We could not find official month-by-month occupancy or rate data for Amsterdam, so we are not going to name a "cheapest month". What is documented is that rates overall have been falling since 2024 and are forecast to fall again in 2026.
The short version
Lodging VAT jumped from 9% to 21% in January 2026, and with the 12.5% tourist tax that puts about 33.5% of tax on a hotel night — though underlying room rates have been falling since 2024, which softens the blow. Book the Anne Frank House the moment tickets drop, Tuesdays at 10am Central European time for six weeks ahead; there are no door sales. Do not assume the I amsterdam card covers the Van Gogh Museum, because it does not. Tap a contactless card for all transport. Take the free ferry to Noord. And skip the Civic Guards Gallery — the building is shut.
Tax rates, admission prices, transport fares and restrictions above were checked in September 2026 against the Dutch tax authority, the official Amsterdam local-regulations register, the museums' own ticketing pages, the official I amsterdam site and Statistics Netherlands. Prices and rules change; confirm before you travel.