The short answer
The roof is free and most people paying 21,50 EUR at the desk do not realise they could have had the view for nothing. Access to the rooftop costs nothing, it keeps the same hours as the museum, and you reach it by the stairs on the east side without going through the entrance. The museum underneath is a hands-on science centre: good, busy, and built around doing rather than looking.
- Free roof, Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 17:30, reached by the stairs on the east side. There is a restaurant up there and a viewing point above it.
- Six different cards get you in free, from the Museumkaart to the I amsterdam City Card. That is the longest list of any museum we have priced here, and the opposite of the Moco Museum, where the Museumkaart is worth 30 percent rather than entry.
- Arriving late is explicitly not a problem. Asked directly, the museum answers “Not at all”. No other museum on this site says that.
- Go after 14:00 on a weekday in term time. That is the museum's own advice about when it is quietest, not ours.
The roof, which is the part nobody charges you for
Search for NEMO and one of the questions people ask most is whether the rooftop is free. It is, and the museum says so plainly: access to the roof is free of charge. It opens Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 17:30, the same hours as everything else, and the way up is the stairs on the east side, so you never pass a ticket desk.
What is up there is a restaurant, a vantage point above it, planting, and air and soil sensors you can read. The stepped terrace is the thing in the photograph at the top of this page, and on a clear day it is one of the best open views of the city centre available without paying for a tower. If you are weighing it against the Heineken rooftop, the difference is that this one is free and that one is part of a ticket.
What the inside costs, and the six free passes
Entry is 21,50 EUR from age 4, and free for ages 1 to 3. A CJP card or a university card brings it to 14,00 EUR. People accompanying a visitor with a disability, and holders of an Autipas, go free.
Then there is the list that matters if you are in town for several days. These six get you in for nothing:
What you pay at NEMO
| Who | Price |
|---|---|
| Adults and children from age 4 | 21,50 EUR |
| Children aged 1 to 3 | Free |
| CJP card or university card | 14,00 EUR |
| Museumkaart | Free |
| VriendenLoterij VIP card | Free |
| Amsterdam Stadspas | Free |
| I amsterdam City Card | Free |
| ICOM card | Free |
| NEMO Jaarpas | Free |
| Accompanying a visitor with a disability, or an Autipas | Free |
Swipe to see the rest of the table.
Prices, card policies, opening hours, the Monday dates, the age rules and the rooftop opening times read from nemosciencemuseum.nl on 19 October 2026, across its plan your visit page, its Rooftop Square page and its FAQ. The rating is the one Google showed the same day.
It is the most generous card policy of any museum priced on this site, and worth holding against the Moco Museum, where a Museumkaart is a 30 percent discount rather than free entry, and the Anne Frank House, where it still costs you a euro. One condition applies to all of them: you still have to book a ticket with a start time, and bring the physical card. Turn up without it and you pay full price.
Whether the card that covers it is worth 131,62 EUR
Five of those six passes you either have or you do not. The sixth, the I amsterdam City Card, is sold to visitors, and the question it raises is whether it pays for itself. Here is the same sum with the prices measured for this site rather than the ones on the sales page.
Paying separately, against 131,62 EUR for 72 hours
| What a three-day visitor actually pays for | Separately |
|---|---|
| NEMO | 21,50 EUR |
| Rijksmuseum | 25,00 EUR |
| The cheapest canal cruise on the platform | 16,49 EUR |
| Three days of trams and metro at the OVpay daily cap | 31,50 EUR |
| Total | 94,49 EUR |
| The card, 72 hours | 131,62 EUR |
| Difference | 37,13 EUR worse with the card |
Swipe to see the rest of the table.
Card price, rating, review count, inclusions and exclusions from the Viator API on 19 October 2026. Every figure in the comparison is one measured for this site: the NEMO and Rijksmuseum entries from each museum, the cruise from the cheapest of the six operators we priced, and the transport from GVB's OVpay daily cap.
So on that itinerary it loses by 37,13 EUR, and there is a second thing worth knowing before anyone does the sum more generously: the card excludes the Van Gogh Museum and the Anne Frank House. Those are the two most searched museums in the city, and you pay for them separately whatever else you hold. To get ahead you need roughly four or five paid attractions inside 72 hours, none of which can be those two. Some people do travel that way. Most people who buy it do not.
The one museum where being late does not matter
Every big Amsterdam museum sells tickets with a start time, and they do not mean the same thing by it. NEMO's FAQ asks whether arriving earlier or later than your time is a problem and answers: “Not at all”.
What the time on your ticket actually commits you to
| Museum | What happens if you are not on time |
|---|---|
| NEMO | Arriving early or late is not a problem |
| Moco Museum | Five minutes of grace, and outside it entry is not guaranteed |
| Anne Frank House | The slot is the slot, and tickets are non-refundable |
Swipe to see the rest of the table.
NEMO's wording is from its own FAQ, which answers 'Not at all' to whether arriving early or late is a problem. The Moco and Anne Frank rules come from our own pages on each, measured earlier this month.
That is a real planning difference. With children, a museum that does not mind when you arrive is worth more than one that is ten minutes closer. And since the ticket has a start time but no end, you can stay until 17:30 whatever hour you booked.
When to go, by the museum's own admission
NEMO issues timed tickets specifically to spread visitors through the day, and it tells you where the gap is: fewer visitors from 14:00 on weekdays and outside the school holidays. Combine that with the open-ended ticket and the plan writes itself, which is to start early in the afternoon on a term-time weekday and stay as long as it holds up.
It opens Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 17:30, and also on Mondays during school holidays, public holidays, and every day from March to 24 August. For the rest of this year the Mondays it opens are 12, 19 and 26 October; 2 November; 21 and 28 December. On New Year's Day it is open 12:00 to 17:30 on 1 January.
Is it just for children
This comes up constantly and the museum's answer is that it is for all ages, giving “a fun and educational experience for both adults and children”. Two details underneath that are more useful than the slogan: some activities are only for visitors aged 6 and over, and under 13s cannot visit without an adult, which is in its terms and conditions rather than buried in a sign.
The honest version: it is a science centre built around pressing, pulling and trying things, so whether it works for you has more to do with appetite than with age. It holds 4.5 on Google across 38,000 reviews, the largest sample of any museum on this site. And if you are not sure, the roof is free, so you can go and look at the building before deciding to go in.
Questions people actually ask
Is the NEMO rooftop free?
Yes. Access to the roof is free of charge, in the museum's own words, and you do not need a museum ticket. It opens Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 17:30, the same hours as the museum, and you get up there by taking the stairs on the east side of the building rather than going through the entrance. Up top there is a restaurant, a viewing point above it, planting and a set of air and soil sensors you can read. It is one of the best open views of Amsterdam and it costs nothing.
How much does NEMO Science Museum cost?
21,50 euros from age 4, and free for children aged 1 to 3. A CJP card or a university card brings it down to 14. Six cards get you in free: the Museumkaart, the VriendenLoterij VIP card, the Amsterdam Stadspas, the I amsterdam City Card, an ICOM card and NEMO's own annual pass. People accompanying a visitor with a disability, and holders of an Autipas, also go free. If you hold any of those you still need to book a ticket with a start time, and bring the card itself: without it you pay the full rate at the door.
Does the Museumkaart work at NEMO?
Yes, admission is free with a Museumkaart. Book a ticket online with a start time anyway and show both the booking and the card at the entrance. This is worth knowing if you are planning a museum day, because the card does not work the same everywhere: at the Moco Museum, which is privately owned, it gets you 30 percent off rather than free entry. At NEMO it is the full discount.
How long do you need at NEMO?
The museum does not publish a figure, and the reason is in how the ticket works: you book a start time but not an end. Its own words are that you can take as long as you want and are welcome to stay until closing. So treat the time on your ticket as the moment you go in and plan the rest around how the children are doing rather than around a slot.
Is NEMO worth visiting for adults?
The museum's own answer is that it is a museum for all ages and provides a fun and educational experience for both adults and children. Two practical details sit behind that: some activities are only for visitors aged 6 and over, and under 13s cannot come in without an adult. The honest framing is that it is built around doing things rather than looking at things, so if you like that, age is not the issue. And the roof is worth the walk whatever you decide about the inside, because it is free.
What time is NEMO least busy?
The museum says it directly: there are generally fewer visitors from 14:00 on weekdays and outside the school holidays. Tickets carry start times precisely to spread people through the day. Since the ticket does not have an end time, an early afternoon start on a term-time weekday gets you the quietest building and still leaves you until 17:30.
Do I need to book NEMO tickets in advance?
You can buy at the counter, but only if tickets are still available for that slot, so booking ahead is the way to be sure of getting in on the day and time you want. The good news is that NEMO is unusually relaxed about the time itself: asked whether arriving earlier or later than the start time on your ticket is a problem, the museum answers 'Not at all'. That is not how the Moco Museum or the Anne Frank House work.
About this guide
Written by Diego Fresno, who spent five days in Amsterdam in November 2018 and publishes this guide independently. Checked for this page: the prices and the six free cards, the opening hours and the exact Mondays NEMO opens for the rest of 2026, the age rules, the quiet-hours advice, the fact that the ticket has a start time but no end, and that the rooftop is free and reached by the east stairs. All read from nemosciencemuseum.nl on 19 October 2026 across its plan your visit page, its Rooftop Square page and its FAQ. That NEMO is not sold on Viator: checked with two separate searches the same day. Not checked: the exhibitions themselves. Nobody on this site has been inside NEMO, so there is no description of what is in the halls and no opinion on whether a given child will enjoy it. The 4.5 is other people's verdict, quoted with its sample size. And the roof is outdoors, so everything good said about the view assumes weather we cannot promise. Corrections sent to hola@diegofresno.com get published, not quietly edited. About the author.