Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum with kids – Family Quest review
With around 8,000 items covering 800 years in its collection, it’s easy for adults to become overwhelmed by how much there is to see in Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, let alone if you’re visiting the Rijksmuseum with kids.
So as we set off to review the Rijksmuseum Family Quest game, it wasn’t only my daughter who felt slightly relieved. One of several ways to explore the Rijksmuseum with kids, it’s aimed at age 7+ – I’d say it’s best for up to age 12, but having tried it with my 13-year-old, it’s still well worth considering for younger teens (and overwhelmed adults).
For a few Euros per person, and a minimum of two players needed, you get a series of challenges taking you through the museum’s main collections, plus a few of the big highlights, all within around an hour.
When you pick up the game at the multimedia desk (where you can also find audio guides), you start your visit a quick introduction from the museum’s curator who immediately gets into a bet for some cake over whether kids really can solve the puzzles involved.
Then after posing in a specific position for a photo – all will be revealed as to why – you’re given the first letter in the anagram you need to solve, and it’s time to set off to take on the first challenge.
Helpfully the guide walks you through the museum too, so you needn’t worry too much about getting lost.
Starting in the Gallery of Honour, we had also been given a reproduction of the first painting as the original is currently on loan, before being posed a few questions and getting chatting about what we thought the right answer was.
I loved the fact that different players get different questions and challenges, so you’re often trying to work out different information rather than competing against each other.
If do you want to make a few detours along the way, there’s no time limit to complete the Family Quest, so I strolled off to check out some of the Vermeers nearby, not realising we would return to them later. That, incidentally, is where you learn why you took that photo at the start as you’re virtually inserted into the painting.
There’s nothing to stop you exploring more afterwards either, so you can decide whether to pause if something catches your eye, or play the game through to the end first and return to particular rooms and galleries later as we chose to do.
Our next stop was Rembrandt’s famous Night Watch, one of the best-known pieces in the whole museum, and high on my own list.
It’s currently being restored, so you’re actually limited as to what you could see – which led to a bit of lucky guesswork on my second challenge – but it’s fascinating to watch the restorer at work, removing layers of old varnish to uncover the original paint applied almost 400 years ago.
There is also a recreation of the painting on a nearby wall, so if you do want to look at all the details, you still can.
It’s easy to think the Rijksmuseum is only about its artworks and Dutch masters, but there’s actually a lot more held in the collections, from watches and musical instruments to model ships, guns, china and clothing.
And it’s here that you’ll spend most of your time as you complete the Rijksmuseum Family Quest.
The eight challenges are all different, so you can find yourself doing anything from discussing details of a particular artwork to trying to work out the ingredients for gunpowder or how to unlock a particularly intricate lock.
At each stage you’re given another letter for the anagram; older kids won’t find it too tricky to crack the answer and you can get a little prize when you return your guide if you want.
In the end, we spent a little over an hour playing the game, which ends with a ‘call’ from the museum’s director congratulating you on your success… and a chance to see the curator getting to enjoy his victory cakes. A rather cute touch for younger kids, especially the suggestion that you can get your own (or a nice apple) in the museum café.
As well as introducing us to the museum’s collections and seeing some of the highlights, the Family Quest also helped us get our bearings.
So if you’re not quite ready to leave and discover more of the things to do in Amsterdam with kids at this point, you can head back into the museum to check out some of the areas you’ve missed – needless to say, there is still a lot to discover.
On our wandering, we’d also spotted a chance to get creative, with easels set up and still life flowers to inspire your own artwork. Free to join in, it’s not only for kids, but there were plenty of families among the artists trying their own hand at creating something.
One room you shouldn’t miss houses the museum’s dolls’ houses, although these are a far cry from the average toy for children.
In fact these meticulously crafted miniature houses were designed for wealthy women to enjoy during the 17th and 18th centuries, rather than for kids to play with. It’s a chance to gaze inside a genuine fashionable house of the period, just scaled down, with tiny pans in the kitchen to miniature porcelain shipped specially from China.
For adults, if you’ve read The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton, Petronella Oortman’s doll’s house is the one which helped to inspire it.
It’s well worth picking up a map of the museum when you start your visit, so you can work out where else you want to stop off – with collections over four floors, and 28 rooms on the second floor alone, you’ll do a lot of wandering otherwise.
The maps also pick out various highlights, such as a Rembrandt self-portrait on display next to a string of his other works, plus pieces by other Dutch masters, including a portrait of Mary Stuart, Princess of Orange.
There’s also a series of works by Van Gogh and Goya, along with Renaissance art. With 80 galleries in total, it’s very possible for art-lovers to spend hours, probably days, walking through all the collections.
If you’re visiting the Rijksmuseum with kids, that’s pretty unlikely, but having seen a lot of the museum as we played the game, it meant I could focus on a few other key rooms that I wanted to explore before museum fatigue overwhelmed my daughter and we headed back to the streets of Amsterdam.
You could also try one of the other options for exploring the Rijksmuseum for families, including the Snap guide (aimed at teens), various self-guided tours on the app (which also lets you create your own visit to spot particular highlights), regular activities and even family guided tours at weekends.
So if you thought a visit to the Rijksmuseum with kids was a bad plan, think again – with so many options to encourage families to explore, from the youngest visitors to teens, this should be an unmissable part of your Amsterdam trip.
Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum with kids: Need to know
Tickets to the Rijksmuseum must be prebooked with hour-long entry slots. You can also buy tickets on the day, but prebooking is a good idea, especially at busy periods, and also means you can prebook the Family Quest game to collect (2.50 Euros per person).
Museum entry costs 25 Euros for adults, but all under 18s have free admission. Open from 9am-5pm daily.
You can also buy tickets with free cancellation to the Rijksmuseum, or entry is included with the I Amsterdam city card – book a free time slot online, then just show your card to be scanned at the door.
The Rijksmuseum is on Museumplein, not far from the Van Gogh Museum, Stedelijk Museum and Moco Museum. Look out for the sparkly Diamond Miffy statue here too, if you’ve got small fans.
It’s a short walk from the Vondelpark and the shopping streets around Leidsestraat and Nieuwe Spiegelstraat, or there are several tram stops nearby, with three routes stopping at the front of the Rijksmuseum and another four routes passing through Leidseplein.
The museum has a café and a smaller espresso bar, plus a fancier restaurant, as well as several sets of toilets, and a free cloakroom. You need to leave bags over A4 size, although with a big queue during our visit, it’s probably better to avoid it if you can.
There’s no option to leave larger bags or luggage; we used Stasher and dropped our suitcase at a bike shop a short walk away on Kerkstraat, or check out Luggage Hero which has more secure baggage storage points around the city.
You’re welcome to bring buggies and strollers into the museum, but backpack carriers aren’t allowed, and must be left in the cloakroom. Buggies are also available to borrow (subject to availability), with lifts between floors.
There are changing facilities near the toilets and a breastfeeding room if you want (details from the information desk). Or find more details on exploring the Rijksmuseum for families on the museum’s website.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links – any purchases you make are unaffected but I may receive a small commission
Main image/Vondelpark courtesy of Depositphotos, all others copyright MummyTravels
