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The Best Time to Visit Amsterdam

Amsterdam's weather is unremarkable and fairly grey for most of the year, which means the month you pick is really a choice between three things: tulips, long evenings, or low prices. You rarely get more than two at once, and April buys you flowers at the cost of the year's worst crowding.

See hotels in AmsterdamLive prices for your dates
By Alice5 min readPublished
Table of contents
A canal-side street corner in Amsterdam with elm trees in spring leaf
Photo: Fons Heijnsbroek · CC0

In Brief

When is the best time to visit Amsterdam?

May and September are the best months to visit Amsterdam - mild at around 18-20°C, long daylight, cafe terraces open and noticeably fewer visitors than midsummer. April is the month for tulips and King's Day but is the busiest and priciest of spring. January and February are the cheapest by a wide margin, cold and dark but with the museums at their quietest. Expect rain in any month; it is spread evenly across the year.

Key takeaways

  • May and September are the sweet spot - mild, long days, terraces open and thinner crowds than June to August.
  • Tulip season runs roughly late March to mid-May, peaking in mid-April at Keukenhof.
  • King's Day on 27 April is the biggest party of the year - book months ahead or avoid it entirely.
  • Rain falls year-round rather than in a wet season, so pack a jacket whenever you come.

Best time to go

May & September

Cheapest time

January-February & November

When to avoid

Late December holidays

Amsterdam climate at a glance

Avg daytime high (°C / °F) · rainfall · season
Peak seasonGreatShoulder / valueOff-peakmore drops = wetter
  • 6°43°F
    Jan
  • 7°45°F
    Feb
  • 10°50°F
    Mar
  • 13°55°F
    Apr
  • 17°63°F
    May
  • 20°68°F
    Jun
  • 22°72°F
    Jul
  • 22°72°F
    Aug
  • 19°66°F
    Sep
  • 14°57°F
    Oct
  • 10°50°F
    Nov
  • 7°45°F
    Dec

Find your month

Every month in Amsterdam is rated for weather, crowds and price. Drag the slider to find your sweet spot - the greener the month, the better value the trip.

Sweet spot - best value

Cheapest window: January-February & November

January: $ · Low crowds · 6°C, cold, grey

See January hotels
Flights to AmsterdamCompare fares for your month on Trip.comHotels in AmsterdamBook earlier for peak-season datesThings to doTours & tickets in Amsterdam

Amsterdam month by month

Every month rated for weather, crowds and price, so you can match the trip to the month.

Peak seasonGreatShoulder / valueOff-peak
MonthWeatherCrowdsPriceWhat it's like
Jan6°C, cold, greyLow$The cheapest month and the quietest. Short dark days, but the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh are close to walkable without queues.
Feb7°C, cold, greyLow$Still cold and dark with occasional frozen canals, and still very cheap. Good for museums and brown cafes.
Mar10°C, cool, changeableModerate$$Spring stirs and the first tulips appear late in the month. Weather swings hour to hour; prices start climbing.
Apr13°C, mild, showersPeak$$$Tulip season peaks and King's Day on the 27th turns the whole city orange. Spectacular, and the busiest month of spring.
May17°C, mild, pleasantHigh$$$One of the two best months - warm enough for terraces, long evenings, late tulips and gardens in full bloom.
Jun20°C, warm, long daysHigh$$$Daylight until nearly 11pm and the canals at their best. Busy and pricey, but the city feels alive.
Jul22°C, warm, showersPeak$$$Warmest month and full of visitors. Canal-side terraces are the point; expect queues at every major museum.
Aug22°C, warm, showersPeak$$$Still peak, with Pride's canal parade early in the month - one of the biggest events in the city's year.
Sep19°C, mild, pleasantModerate$$The other best month. Summer warmth lingers, crowds thin after the first week and prices ease noticeably.
Oct14°C, cool, wetModerate$$Autumn colour in the Vondelpark and a quieter city, though the days shorten fast and rain picks up.
Nov10°C, cold, wetLow$Grey, wet and cheap. The Museum Night and the start of the winter light festival give the month a lift.
Dec7°C, cold, dampHigh$$$The Amsterdam Light Festival runs along the canals and Christmas markets open, but the holiday fortnight is expensive.

When to book Amsterdam

On the table above, Jan, Feb and Nov sit in the bottom price band and Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug and Dec in the top one. Find the row that sounds like your trip.

Booking windows for Amsterdam, by what the traveller wants
If you wantMonthsWhy
The best trip for the moneyOctRated good above without hitting the top price band, so you are not paying peak rates for the conditions.
The lowest price, whatever the weatherJan, Feb and NovThe bottom price band. Check the weather column first, because some of these are cheap for a reason.
Peak season anywayApr, May and SepBusiest and dearest. This is the window where booking early changes the price, not just what is left.
Check Amsterdam hotel pricesSee what Oct actually costs for your dates
  • Free cancellation on most rooms
  • No booking fee
  • Prices on Trip.com

Time it right: Amsterdam's seasonal highlights

  • Tulip season & Keukenhof in Amsterdam

    Tulip season & Keukenhof

    Late March-mid May

    The bulb fields south of the city bloom for about eight weeks, peaking in mid-April; Keukenhof gardens open for the season only.

  • King's Day in Amsterdam

    King's Day

    27 April

    The whole country dresses in orange and Amsterdam becomes one enormous street party and canal flotilla. Book months ahead.

  • Amsterdam Pride canal parade in Amsterdam

    Amsterdam Pride canal parade

    Early August

    Boats parade through the canals in one of the world's most distinctive Pride events, filling the city for a week.

  • Amsterdam Light Festival

    December-January

    Illuminated artworks along the canals, best seen from a boat, which makes the darkest months genuinely worth visiting.

Best time to visit Amsterdam: FAQ

The timing questions travelers ask most before booking.

May or September. Both give you mild weather around 17-19°C, long enough daylight for evenings outside, open terraces along the canals, and noticeably fewer people than June through August. May adds the tail of tulip season and gardens in full bloom; September adds lingering summer warmth with prices already easing after the first week. If you specifically want tulips, you need April, and you should accept that it is the busiest and most expensive month of spring.

Roughly late March to mid-May, with the peak usually around mid-April. Exact timing shifts by a week or two each year depending on the winter, so no date can be guaranteed. Keukenhof, the big bulb garden south of the city, opens only for this season and is the easiest way to see them, though the surrounding commercial fields are free to cycle past and often more impressive. Book Keukenhof tickets and any nearby accommodation well ahead - it is the single busiest draw in the Dutch calendar.

January and February, followed by November. Flights and hotels are at their lowest, and the major museums - the Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh, the Anne Frank House - are at their quietest, which is worth a lot in a city where queues are the main frustration. The trade-off is cold days around 6-7°C, early darkness and frequent grey. Avoid the last two weeks of December, which are expensive despite being winter because of the holidays and the Light Festival.

It rains often but rarely heavily, and the important thing is that it is spread fairly evenly across the whole year rather than concentrated in a wet season. There is no month you can book to avoid it. Autumn, from October to December, is the wettest stretch. Locals cycle through it regardless, so pack a waterproof jacket rather than relying on an umbrella - the wind off the canals makes umbrellas close to useless.

It depends entirely on what you want from the trip. On 27 April the entire city dresses in orange, the canals fill with boats and the streets become one continuous party with free markets everywhere. It is genuinely one of Europe's great street events. It is also completely impractical for ordinary sightseeing - museums are jammed or shut, transport is disrupted, and hotel rates multiply with rooms gone months in advance. Come for it deliberately, or deliberately avoid the date.

Three days covers the city well: one for the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum, one for the Anne Frank House and the Jordaan canals, and one for a canal boat, the Vondelpark and simply wandering. A fourth day lets you get out to Keukenhof in season, the windmills at Zaanse Schans, or Haarlem and Utrecht, both under half an hour by train. Amsterdam is small and walkable, so extra days go further here than in a bigger capital.

Staying in Amsterdam? Book the area before the hotel

Picking the month is half of the decision. The other half is the area, because that is what sets how far you walk and what a room costs in Amsterdam. These go into the detail:

Compare all hotels in AmsterdamLive rates for the dates you picked
  • Free cancellation on most rooms
  • No booking fee
  • Prices on Trip.com

Continue Planning Your Trip

Photo credits (3)

Photos via Wikimedia Commons, used under their respective licences.

  • Tulip season & Keukenhof: Sylwia Forysińska jareth21st - CC0 · source
  • King's Day: Mariia Khristosenko - CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
  • Amsterdam Pride canal parade: Bert Gerlagh - CC0 · source