Really awesome museum also known as the National Museum of Antiquities. Great museum for Egyptian…read morebuffs with lots of mummies and hieroglyphics. History goes through the Greeks in early middle ages. Plan to spend about 3 hours with the audio tour. Lots to see. They have a decent gift shop and cafe.

This Rijksmuseum location is MUCH smaller than Amsterdam's, but we were staying with friends in…read moreLeiden and visited it first. If we were not in Leiden because our expat friends live there, this museum would not have been on our radar at all. This museum is fairly low key and was NOT crowded on a Friday afternoon. Locker rentals are available to store coats/belongings and are included with the admission cost. For a small museum, there's a ton to see, and in two hours, we didn't make our way through everything. On our visit, they had an exhibition on the Year 1000, which was advertised throughout Leiden, and it was neat to learn about The Netherlands in the Middle Ages. The first floor is mostly Egyptian art which was also fascinating. From Amsterdam, the easiest way to get to Leiden is via train from Centraal station. If you want to explore a Dutch small town/college town, it's worth it to visit Leiden and check out the Rijksmuseum.

The owner hung a sign saying closed due to illness. He didn't even email me or have someone do that…read moreto save me four hours on a train to get there. He has my ticket money too. A property owner next to him hinted he was not sick until seeing a sign on the door... covering for him no doubt. I looked in the windows and it appears to be nothing but dusty books and junk artifacts. What a waste. Do not go.

A museum unlike anything you've ever seen, the American Pilgrim Museum seems to be a labor of love…read moreof one man, Prof. Jeremy Bangs. This is not the kind of place where you wander around with an audio guide. Instead, it's essentially a cramped, 13th-century, one-room home in which you chat with Prof. Bangs about anything Pilgrim-related. This guy is a serious scholar whose bone-dry sense of humor is not for everyone. Honestly, I can't imagine stumbling in here if you're not actually interested in the Pilgrim Fathers, their era, or some aspect of their history. But if you're a history buff, an American, or both, this can be a wonderful side trip. You will learn tons and really imagine what it daily life was like for the Pilgrims in the years between England and the New World. Just to examine furniture, housewares, and plumbing (!) of the period is eye-opening.

This is a lovely museum where we're currently viewing a special young Rembrandt exhibit. It's…read morewonderful. I am also impressed that we are able to use a free locker (with key) to store our winter coats. Excellent museum option outside of Amsterdam's mad crush of tourists. Beware, their reader could not accept our US credit cards that work everywhere else across multiple countries. Clearly their POS software was setup wrong.

an excellent collection of a detailed history of Leiden. Leiden has a rich and extensive history…read more There are many rooms that you walk into, mainly on the second floor that bring you several centuries back. If you don't know much about Leiden, by the time you are done with this museum, it will change. Leiden is quite special.

This is where you go for culture. Not only is it dotted with several museums, but there's also a…read morelovely garden with tons of different paths, fountains, and places to rest and relax.

We bought the museum park for access to all museums in this park cost 27€. For one entry would be…read more14€. Pretty awesome

A well laid out museum with a large collection of masterpieces from artists like Rembrandt, Vermeer…read moreand Ruebens. The famous Girl with the Pearl Earring is captivating but there are many others worth viewing. Check out the lower level and its presentation about how the museum dealt with occupation during WWII.

I'm not typically an art fan but as it houses some very famous paintings I decided it was a must…read moresee! It's well laid out and easy to move around even when it's busy. I recommend going when they open to avoid any crowds around the girl with the pearl earring. It was amazing to see The Bull in person. I never realised the scale of the paining but it's fast and incredible to see in person. Very friendly and knowledgeable staff and a fun gift shop if you're into trinkets and educational books. Well worth a visit, even if you're not a museum/art person.

Fantastic visit and one of the best museums I have been to…read more Professional and educational.

The Naturalis Museum, or, to give it its English name, the Museum of Natural History, is an…read moreenormous natural history museum in the city of Leiden, in the Netherlands. The museum is a new building, situated on 4 floors and is located near to the university, opposite the site of the famous mental hospital. I apparently houses over 10 million objects. Upon entering the museum there's an option to plan your visit using a map on the wall, get a coffee from the cafe, or use the toilets. There's a reception desk for purchasing tickets for entry into the museum, though this is rather small and queues are large. There's no way of the staff actually making sure everyone who enters has paid, as it's on one side of a large foyer, which is always crowded with people going in all different directions, or just standing around. After the reception area is a shop which mainly sells books on things related to natural history - dinosaurs, animals, fish, plants etc, but also a few toys and games and the usual gift shop items. Further on is a section on dead animals. There are a lot of wooden drawers filled with bones. It's interesting, in a sense, but I thought it a bit boring to have to open lots of drawers looking at bones. Past this section there's a bridge and in the centre of the bridge there's a bull, called Hermann, who was the first genetically-modified cow in the world. Further on is nature theatre, with displays of all types of stuffed animals, including dinosaurs. The other floors focus on specific topics and exhibitions, such as rocks and crystals, or the Earth. There are various interactive elements and games, in Dutch, English, German and French, which adds an interesting element to the museum. Everything is very colourful which gave me the impression that the museum is aimed at young children.

A very unique experience, though a bit pricey at around $24 USD (€20-22). It's important to know…read morethat this isn't a traditional museum; it's a high-tech art storage center that happens to be open to the public. The focus is really on the "behind-the-scenes" of art preservation--how pieces are crated, cleaned, and stored in climate-controlled rooms. The building itself is a masterpiece. It spans several floors, and while the individual sections feel small, the central atrium with its zig-zagging staircases is massive. There's an elevator if you want to skip the stairs! They offer free 10-minute "walk-in" tours of the storage compartments, plus more detailed "behind-the-scenes" tours that are worth the extra look. The top floor has a great cafe/restaurant (Renilde) and an outdoor space with a forest of birch trees. The 360-degree view of Rotterdam is breathtaking. If you love architecture or are curious about how museums actually work, it's worth the price. If you just want to see a standard art gallery, you might find it a bit expensive.

The Boijmans is the main art museum in Rotterdam. It opened in 1847, originally with the collection…read moreof Frans Jacob Otto Boijmans. Since then, it has grown and now contains some of the preeminent works of art. Not just Dutch artists, the collection includes Rembrant, Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, René Magritte and Salvador Dalí. And those are just the more famous. There are Rubens and Bosch and many more! A friend of mine had visited a few months ago and found the Rembrant/Dali wing was closed. That wing was open this time, but the Kandinsky wing was closed. I'm a big fan of Kandinsky and I have a few posters of his work and his contemporaries. I was bummed. Even bummed, I still enjoyed the Bruegel "Tower of Babel", one of the most famous paintings in Rotterdam. And the Rodin sculptures. Amazing artworks! The museum wasn't particularly crowded on this weekday and they had no issue with photographs, as long as the flash was disabled. An audio tour is available, which I strongly recommend. Note: The museum is a member of the Museumkaart system, so if you're planning on visiting more than three or four museums in the Netherlands, get the card!

Loved this museum. It's a small museum but very interesting. It captures storytelling of Escher's…read morelife and how it is portrayed in his art. Loved how the rooms are laid out for this purpose as well. Good labeling on the pieces and useful to have the free audio tour accessible via phone.

Fantastic museum for any one who appreciates interesting art or is an Escher lover. The museum has…read morea QR code that you can scan which provides a free overview of the most popular prints. You can read or listen to the guide. This was very helpful in getting the background story on the art and covers the top 12. There are 2 floors of prints from Escher and artists who were inspired by him. No parking.

I went here with my cousin, sister, aunt, and mother, and had an amazing time looking at the new…read moreexhibit. All of the staff was extremely kind and helpful and the exhibit was extraordinary. The photo s were gorgeous and shocking and educational all at the same time. The Indonesia exhibit was also very interesting with helpful guides and ornate artifacts. I'm sorry I didn't get to see the rest of the museum and the gift shop. I guess that has to wait for next visit!