In this guide
💡 The Short Version: Our judgement, because the right city depends on what you want to stand in front of. For one great collection, Amsterdam or Paris: the Rijksmuseum is €25 (€26.50 from 1 January 2027) and the Louvre €32, both for a booked time, and the Louvre is shut on Tuesdays. For art without paying, Madrid: the Prado is free in its last two hours and the Reina Sofía on weekday evenings. For the Renaissance, Florence: the Accademia’s David costs €20 plus a €4 reservation, and the Uffizi €29 booked. For the ancient world, Athens, Berlin or Rome: the Acropolis Museum is €20, Berlin’s Museum Island €24 for a day, and the Vatican Museums €25. For palaces and the Habsburgs, Vienna. For Munch and Finnish art, Oslo and Helsinki: MUNCH is NOK 220 for a timed ticket and the National Museum, with The Scream, is shut on Mondays; the Ateneum is €23 at the desk and Kiasma is free on the first Friday of the month. For something unlike the rest, Tokyo: the Ghibli Museum is 1,000 yen and sells only on the 10th of the month before. The thing that ruins a plan is the closed day, because it falls on a different day in each city. Or book: the Louvre Mona Lisa and masterpieces tourad, from €98, or the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel tourad, from €64 (GetYourGuide).
⚠️ Check the closed day before you book the flight. Monday shuts the Uffizi and Accademia, the Musée d’Orsay, Berlin’s Museum Island, the Borghese Gallery in Rome, the National Museum in Oslo and the Ateneum and Kiasma in Helsinki. Tuesday shuts the Louvre, the Reina Sofía and the Leopold Museum. The Vatican Museums are shut on every Sunday except the last of the month.
Prices are each operator’s own, in local currency. The comparisons are our judgement.
The cities side by side
The cities are in the order of the entries below. Each is a link to the city’s own guide.
| City | Book first | Closed | Does a pass pay? | What decides a visit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paris | Louvre, €32, timed slot | Louvre Tuesday, Orsay Monday | Museum Pass from about the fourth paid sight | The pass still needs a booked slot at the Louvre and Orsay |
| Amsterdam | Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum, €25 each, timed | Rijksmuseum none | Explorer 3 saves €20, but neither card covers the Van Gogh or the Anne Frank House | The Anne Frank House releases tickets every Tuesday for a visit six weeks later |
| Madrid | Reina Sofía free ticket for the evening window | Reina Sofía Tuesday | Paseo del Arte saves €8.20, and the free hours beat it | Three art museums with free windows inside two hours of closing |
| Berlin | Museum Island, €24 a day | Museum Island Monday, Humboldt Forum Tuesday | Museum Pass €32 pays from the third paid museum | The Pergamon Museum is closed until 4 June 2027 |
| Vienna | Kunsthistorisches Museum, €22 online, timed | Leopold and Imperial Treasury Tuesday, Secession Monday | None on a short stay | Every big ticket is for a fixed time, from the KHM to Schönbrunn |
| Florence | Accademia and Uffizi, timed | Monday for the state museums | The Firenze Card costs €13 more for the big three | The Duomo is outside the card, so the dome needs its own €30 pass |
| Rome | Vatican Museums, €25 | Sundays except the last of the month | Roma Pass breaks even at about four paid sights in three days | The Vatican is not on the Roma Pass |
| Athens | Acropolis €30, timed | Cycladic and Byzantine museums Tuesday | There is no official pass; the three big sites are €70 | The Acropolis and state museums are free on two Sundays a month from November to March |
| Tokyo | Ghibli Museum, 1,000 yen | Tokyo National Museum Monday, Ghibli most Tuesdays | None needed | Ghibli tickets sell out on one morning a month |
| Oslo | MUNCH, NOK 220, timed | National Museum Monday | Oslo Pass, NOK 580, pays on three paid sights in a day | The Viking Ship Museum is closed, and the new museum is planned for late 2027 |
| Helsinki | Nothing; the Ateneum is €21 online or €23 at the desk | Ateneum and Kiasma Monday | Helsinki Card pays on a museum-heavy 48 hours, loses on a light one | The National Museum is closed for renovation until spring 2027 |
If you would rather book a guide
A guide books the slot for you and gets you past the first hour of working out where to go. The prices are GetYourGuide’s lowest “from” prices, and they move with the date.
- Paris: the Louvre tour, Mona Lisa and iconic masterpiecesad is from €98. The official ticket is €32, and a Louvre guide on top of it is €12 (Louvre tickets).
- Amsterdam: the Rijksmuseum guided tour with entryad is from €74.80 for two hours, against €7.50 for the museum’s own one-hour highlights tour on top of entry (Rijksmuseum tickets).
- Florence: the Uffizi small-group tourad is from €75 (Uffizi tickets).
- Rome: the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel and Basilica tourad is from €64, for a Monday to Saturday that is not a closed day (Vatican Museums tickets).
One collection, booked to the hour
This grouping is our judgement. In each of these the sight is a single collection, and the work is getting a time for it.
Paris
Louvre €32, closed Tuesdays · Orsay €16 online, closed Mondays · Museum Pass €85 for 48 hours
The Louvre ticket is €32 for visitors from outside the European Economic Area, and €22 for those inside it, for a time slot that cannot be changed or refunded. Under-18s go free but still book a slot. Everyone is free on the first Friday of the month after 18:00, except in July and August, and on 14 July, with a free slot booked at ticket.louvre.fr (Louvre tickets).
The Musée d’Orsay is €16 online and €14 at the museum, shut on Mondays and open to 21:45 on Thursdays, and free on the first Sunday of the month with a reserved ticket. The Orangerie, with the Water Lilies, is €12.50 online and shut on Tuesdays. The Paris Museum Pass, at €85 for 48 hours, €105 for 96 and €125 for 144, still needs a free booked slot at the Louvre, Orsay, the Orangerie, Sainte-Chapelle and the Conciergerie (Paris Museum Pass, where to stay in Paris).
Amsterdam
Rijksmuseum €25, €26.50 from 1 January 2027 · Van Gogh Museum €25, €26 from 1 January 2027 · Anne Frank House €16.50
The Cuypers Library in the Rijksmuseum. Photo: Sebastian Koppehel, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.
Three tickets set the trip, and none of them can be bought on the day. The Rijksmuseum is open every day from 9:00 to 17:00, and every visitor needs a start time, city card holders included. The Van Gogh Museum sells no tickets at the door and has no waiting list: you cannot enter before your slot, and you have 30 minutes after it. The Anne Frank House is sold only on annefrank.org, and every Tuesday at 10:00 Dutch time it releases all the tickets for a visit six weeks later.
Plan the days around that third ticket. Neither I amsterdam City Card includes the Anne Frank House or the Van Gogh Museum, which together are €41.50 at the museums’ 2026 prices (Rijksmuseum tickets, Van Gogh Museum tickets, Anne Frank House tickets, where to stay in Amsterdam).
Florence
Accademia €20 plus a €4 reservation · Uffizi €29 booked, €25 on the day · shut Mondays
The Renaissance sits in two timed rooms. Michelangelo’s David at the Accademia needs a reserved time, and without one the museum says the wait may be long. The Uffizi is €29 booked ahead and €25 on the day, with an Afternoon ticket for entry from 16:00 at €16, or €20 booked. Both are closed on Mondays, along with the Pitti Palace, the Bargello and the Medici Chapels.
A Monday is not lost. The Museo Galileo, the Brancacci Chapel, Palazzo Medici Riccardi, the Museo Novecento and Palazzo Vecchio are open, and the Uffizi is free on the first Sunday of the month with no reservation, which means a queue (Uffizi tickets, Accademia tickets, Florence museums, where to stay in Florence).
Rome
Vatican Museums €25 · shut Sundays except the last · Borghese €16 plus a €2 fee
The Vatican Museums sell one official ticket, €25 at tickets.museivaticani.va, for the Museums and the Sistine Chapel on its date only. They are closed every Sunday except the last of the month, when entry is free from 9:00 to 14:00 and crowded, and the Sistine Chapel takes no photographs. The Borghese Gallery lets nobody in without a time slot, 180 people at a time for two hours, and is closed on Mondays (Vatican Museums tickets, Borghese Gallery tickets, where to stay in Rome).
The first Sunday of the month is free at the Colosseum, the Pantheon, Pompeii, Ostia Antica and Castel Sant’Angelo; the Colosseum and Pantheon free tickets are collected on the day, not booked.
Tokyo
Ghibli Museum 1,000 yen · Tokyo National Museum 1,000 yen, shut Mondays · Edo-Tokyo Museum 800 yen
Tokyo has the strictest ticket in this guide. Every Ghibli Museum ticket is dated and timed, sold only through Lawson Ticket’s English site or on a Sunrise Tours JTB bus tour, and resale is banned. A month’s tickets go on sale at 10:00 Japan time on the 10th of the month before, so December’s go on sale on 10 November 2026 and January’s on 10 December. The museum is closed from 4 to 18 November and 27 to 31 December 2026, and on most Tuesdays (Ghibli Museum tickets).
The rest is by the door. The Tokyo National Museum in Ueno is 1,000 yen and the Edo-Tokyo Museum in Ryogoku 800 yen, and both are shut on Mondays, as is Shinjuku Gyoen. Rikugien and Koishikawa Korakuen gardens, 300 yen each, are open on Mondays (Tokyo museums, where to stay in Tokyo).
Free hours do the work of a pass
This grouping is our judgement. In these two the cheapest way in is a free window, and both have a rule that catches a visitor out.
Madrid
Prado €15, free from 18:00 · Reina Sofía €12, free 19:00 to 21:00 · Thyssen €14, free Monday 12:00 to 16:00
Madrid’s three art museums stand on one avenue, and each has a window that costs nothing. The Prado is free in its last two hours, 18:00 to 20:00 Monday to Saturday and 17:00 to 19:00 on Sundays and public holidays. The Reina Sofía, home of Guernica, is free from 19:00 to 21:00 on Monday and Wednesday to Saturday and from 12:30 to 14:30 on Sundays, but the free ticket must still be booked online, and the museum is shut on Tuesdays. The Thyssen is free on Mondays from 12:00 to 16:00, the only hours it opens that day, and on Saturdays from 21:00 to 23:00 for the temporary exhibitions, and no ticket is needed in either window (Prado tickets, Reina Sofía, Thyssen).
The three tickets cost €41 separately and the Paseo del Arte card €32.80, one visit to each within a year, but the card is not valid at the Thyssen on Mondays and does not beat the free windows. Our judgement: the cost in Madrid is time, because two hours at the Prado from 18:00 is a different visit from a morning there (Paseo del Arte card, where to stay in Madrid).
Athens
Acropolis €30 · Acropolis Museum €20 · National Archaeological Museum €20 · free first and third Sundays, November to March
Athens has no official pass: the combined ticket ended in March 2025, and each site is priced alone, €30 for the Acropolis, €20 for the Acropolis Museum and €20 for the National Archaeological Museum, which is €70 for the three. From 1 November to 31 March the Acropolis and the state museums are free on the first and third Sunday of each month, so a Sunday visit to the Acropolis and the National Archaeological Museum saves €50. The Acropolis Museum keeps its own rules: it is free on 6 March, 25 March, 18 May and 28 October, and open to 22:00 on Fridays (Acropolis tickets, Acropolis Museum tickets).
The National Archaeological Museum opens at 13:00 on Tuesdays, and the Museum of Cycladic Art, €12, and the Byzantine and Christian Museum, €8, are closed that day. The Acropolis closes at 17:00 from 1 November, so a winter visit is a morning one (Athens museums, where to stay in Athens).
Pay by the island or by the museum
This grouping is our judgement. These two cities have enough museums that a ticket by the museum, or by the day, beats a pass.
Berlin
Museumsinsel €24 a day · Museum Pass €32 for three days · Monday shuts the island
The Bode-Museum on Museum Island. Photo: Flocci Nivis, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.
The €24 Museumsinsel ticket covers the Neues Museum, the Altes Museum, the Alte Nationalgalerie, the Bode-Museum and the Pergamon Panorama for one day, and pays from the second museum, since the five venues cost €70 separately. Every museum on the island is closed on Mondays. The Pergamon Museum itself is closed until 4 June 2027, when the Pergamon Altar and the Museum of Islamic Art reopen; the Panorama, €12, is open now (Museum Island tickets, Pergamon Museum).
Away from the island the Museum Pass Berlin is €32 for three consecutive days at more than 30 museums, and the Gemäldegalerie (€14), Hamburger Bahnhof (€16) and the Humboldt Forum (€9) come to €39 separately, so it pays by the third. It leaves out the DDR Museum, the Stasi Museum, the TV Tower, the Berlin Cathedral and Charlottenburg Palace. The Topography of Terror and the Jewish Museum’s core exhibition are free (Museum Pass or WelcomeCard, Berlin museums, where to stay in Berlin).
Vienna
Kunsthistorisches Museum €22 online · Albertina €20.90 · Imperial Treasury €16, closed Tuesdays
Vienna’s collections are the Habsburgs’, and the tickets are timed. Since 8 September 2026 every Kunsthistorisches Museum ticket is for a reserved time slot, with no limit on how long you stay, €22 online and €24 at the museum. The Imperial Treasury in the Hofburg is a separate timed ticket, €16 online, and is closed on Tuesdays, as are the Leopold Museum (€19) and the Natural History Museum (€18). The Albertina has no closed day and is open to 21:00 on Wednesdays and Fridays. Under-19s are free at the Albertina, the Natural History Museum, the Kunsthistorisches Museum and the Belvedere, and the Secession is free on the first Wednesday of the month (Kunsthistorisches Museum tickets, Vienna museums, where to stay in Vienna).
The passes do not help a short stay. The Vienna Pass is €109 for one day, and four big entries, the Schönbrunn Palace Ticket at €42, the Upper Belvedere at €23, the Kunsthistorisches Museum at €22 and the Albertina at €20.90, come to €107.90 at full price. The Vienna City Card saves €2 to €9 on three days of paid sights and costs more on one (Vienna Pass or City Card).
Northern capitals: a pass that pays only on a full day
This grouping is our judgement. In both cities the museums are priced one by one, and the city card pays only for a visitor who fills the day.
Oslo
MUNCH NOK 220, timed · National Museum NOK 220, shut Mondays · Oslo Pass NOK 580 for 24 hours
MUNCH is a 13-floor tower in Bjørvika, open daily, 10:00 to 18:00 from Sunday to Tuesday and 10:00 to 21:00 from Wednesday to Saturday. The ticket is for a time slot and is non-refundable; under-25s pay NOK 100 and under-18s are free. One version of The Scream is always on show on floor 4. The National Museum at Aker Brygge holds the 1893 Scream in Room 60; it is NOK 220, open to 20:00 on Tuesday and Wednesday, and shut on Mondays, from 24 to 26 December and on 31 December and 1 January. Under-18s are free there too.
On Bygdøy the Fram Museum (NOK 180) and the Kon-Tiki Museum (NOK 180) are open every day, and a joint ticket for the two is NOK 325. The Viking Ship Museum is closed, and the new Museum of the Viking Age is planned for late 2027. The Oslo Pass is NOK 580 for 24 hours, NOK 845 for 48 and NOK 995 for 72, covers about 30 museums and Ruter transport, and is a phone app only (MUNCH tickets, National Museum tickets, Fram Museum tickets, Kon-Tiki Museum tickets, Oslo Pass, where to stay in Oslo).
Helsinki
Ateneum €21 online, €23 at the desk · Kiasma €23 · Helsinki Card €51 for 24 hours
The Ateneum, beside the Central Station, takes walk-ins and online bookings. It is €23 at the desk and €21 online, free for under-18s, shut on Mondays and open to 20:00 on Wednesday and Thursday; allow about two hours. Its free admission days in 2026 are 6 November and 11 December. Kiasma is €23 or €21, shut on Mondays and free for everyone on the first Friday of the month. The National Museum is closed for renovation until spring 2027, and the Helsinki City Museum is always free.
The Helsinki Card gives free entry to more than 30 attractions: €51 for 24 hours, €62 for 48 and €73 for 72 in the digital version with no transport, and €62, €78 and €94 as the CITY card, which adds zones A and B. On a short stay the Monday closures and the first-Friday free day matter more than the card (Ateneum tickets, Helsinki Card, free things to do in Helsinki, where to stay in Helsinki).
The passes, with the sums
Each sum is worked from the operators’ own prices in the city’s guide, for a visitor from outside the EU.
| City | Pass | Sum | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paris | Museum Pass, €85 for 48 hours | The Louvre €32, Sainte-Chapelle €22, the Conciergerie €13, Orsay €16, Les Invalides €17 and the Arc de Triomphe €16 to €22 come to €116 to €122 | The pass saves €31 to €37; without the Louvre and the Arc the other four come to €68, so single tickets win |
| Amsterdam | I amsterdam Explorer, 3 sights €44 | The Rijksmuseum €25, the Stedelijk €22.50 and the A’DAM Lookout €16.50 come to €64 | Saves €20; the Van Gogh Museum and the Anne Frank House are not on either card |
| Madrid | Paseo del Arte, €32.80 | The Prado, Reina Sofía and Thyssen come to €41 | Saves €8.20, and the free hours beat it |
| Berlin | Museum Pass, €32 for three days | The Gemäldegalerie, Hamburger Bahnhof and Humboldt Forum come to €39 | Saves €7 |
| Vienna | Vienna Pass, €109 for one day | Four big entries come to €107.90 | Costs €1.10 more |
| Florence | Firenze Card, €85 for 72 hours | The Uffizi, Accademia and Palazzo Vecchio come to €72; with the Pitti Palace €91 | Costs €13 more, then saves €6 with the Pitti Palace; with Santa Croce, Santa Maria Novella, the Arnolfo Tower and the Museo Galileo it saves €58.50 |
| Rome | Roma Pass, €38 for 48 hours | The Colosseum and the Borghese with transport come to €45 without it and €47.50 with it | Costs €2.50 more; it breaks even at about four paid sights in three days |
| Athens | No official pass | The Acropolis, the Acropolis Museum and the National Archaeological Museum come to €70 | The private Athens City Pass, from €78.90, pays only with its bus |
| Oslo | Oslo Pass, NOK 580 for 24 hours | The National Museum NOK 220, MUNCH NOK 220 and Holmenkollen NOK 200 plus a 24-hour Ruter ticket at NOK 137 come to NOK 777 | Saves NOK 197; without Holmenkollen the day is NOK 577, NOK 3 less than the pass |
| Helsinki | Helsinki Card CITY, €78 for 48 hours | The Ateneum €23, Kiasma €23, the Panorama bus tour €35, the Suomenlinna Museum €10, the Military Museum €10 and two HSL day caps of €10.60 come to €122.20 | Saves about €44; the Ateneum and the Suomenlinna Museum with transport come to €54.20, which loses about €24 |
The free days
| City | Free | The rule |
|---|---|---|
| Paris | Louvre on the first Friday after 18:00, not in July or August; Orsay on the first Sunday | A free slot is booked in advance; under-18s are always free |
| Madrid | Prado, last two hours; Reina Sofía evenings and Sunday midday; Thyssen Monday midday | The Reina Sofía wants a free online ticket |
| Berlin | Topography of Terror; the Jewish Museum’s core exhibition | Free all year |
| Vienna | The Secession, first Wednesday | Under-19s are free at four big museums |
| Florence | Uffizi, first Sunday | No reservation, so a queue |
| Rome | Vatican Museums, last Sunday, 9:00 to 14:00; Colosseum and Pantheon, first Sunday | Not the Vatican on Easter Sunday; the Pantheon and Colosseum tickets are collected on the day |
| Athens | State museums and the Acropolis, first and third Sunday, 1 November to 31 March | The Acropolis Museum keeps its own free days |
| Amsterdam | Children: the Rijksmuseum at 18 and under, the Van Gogh Museum under 18 | Both still need a booked start time |
| Tokyo | Tokyo National Museum, for under-18s and over-70s | Always free; the gardens are 300 yen |
| Oslo | MUNCH and the National Museum, for under-18s | MUNCH still needs a timed ticket; under-25s pay NOK 100 |
| Helsinki | Kiasma, first Friday of the month; the Ateneum on 6 November and 11 December 2026; the City Museum always | Both art museums are shut on Mondays |
What to book before you fly
| What | How far ahead | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Anne Frank House, Amsterdam | Released every Tuesday at 10:00 Dutch time for a visit six weeks later | Anne Frank House tickets |
| Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam | A start time; the Van Gogh Museum sells nothing at the door | Van Gogh Museum tickets |
| Louvre, Paris | A slot that cannot be changed or refunded | Louvre tickets |
| Accademia and Uffizi, Florence | A reserved time for each | Accademia tickets |
| Vatican Museums, Rome | The date on the ticket; closed Sundays except the last | Vatican Museums tickets |
| Borghese Gallery, Rome | A time slot; nobody enters without one | Borghese Gallery tickets |
| Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna | A reserved time slot since 8 September 2026 | Kunsthistorisches Museum tickets |
| Acropolis, Athens | A time slot on the Ministry of Culture’s shop | Acropolis tickets |
| Ghibli Museum, Tokyo | On sale at 10:00 Japan time on the 10th of the month before | Ghibli Museum tickets |
| MUNCH, Oslo | A timed ticket; the museum cannot promise a slot at the door | MUNCH tickets |
Where to stay
Stay near the first booked slot, because a missed time slot is not refunded at the Louvre, the Van Gogh Museum or the Accademia. Each city’s stay guide compares the areas: Paris, Amsterdam, Madrid, Berlin, Vienna, Florence, Rome, Athens, Tokyo, Oslo and Helsinki.
Other cities and other trips
For two or three days, see long weekend city breaks. For a budget break, see cheap city breaks in Europe. For eating, see food city breaks. For a pair, see romantic city breaks for couples. For a wheelchair or reduced mobility, see accessible city breaks. For Italy side by side, see Rome vs Florence. For the weather and festivals month by month, see where to go each month; all guides are gathered on Compare cities. For the northern capitals side by side, see Scandinavian city breaks, and for Helsinki’s museums against Tallinn’s, Helsinki vs Tallinn.
Common questions
Which city is best for a museum break?
Our judgement: it depends on what you want to see. Amsterdam and Paris each have one collection worth planning a day round, the Rijksmuseum and the Louvre. Madrid's three big art museums have free hours, Florence has the Renaissance in two timed slots, and Berlin puts five museums on one €24 island ticket. Oslo has MUNCH and the National Museum, which holds *The Scream*, and Helsinki has the Ateneum and Kiasma.
Which museums have to be booked before you fly?
In Amsterdam the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum, both a start time, and the Anne Frank House, whose tickets go on sale every Tuesday at 10:00 Dutch time for a visit six weeks later. In Paris the Louvre and Orsay, and in Florence the Accademia. In Oslo MUNCH, a timed ticket the museum cannot promise at the door. In Tokyo the Ghibli Museum, whose tickets go on sale at 10:00 Japan time on the 10th of the month before.
Do any museum passes pay for themselves?
The Paris Museum Pass does from about the fourth paid sight, sooner with the Louvre, and the Museum Pass Berlin does from the third paid museum. The Oslo Pass does on a day with three paid sights, and the Helsinki Card on 48 hours of museums and tours. The Firenze Card costs €13 more than the Uffizi, Accademia and Palazzo Vecchio bought separately, and the Vienna Pass at €109 comes to €1.10 more than four big entries at full price.
Where can I see great museums for free?
In Madrid the Prado is free in its last two hours and the Reina Sofía on most evenings. In Oslo children under 18 are free at MUNCH and the National Museum, and in Helsinki Kiasma is free on the first Friday of the month. In Athens the state museums are free on the first and third Sunday from 1 November to 31 March. In Rome the Vatican Museums are free on the last Sunday of the month, from 9:00 to 14:00, and the Colosseum on the first.
Which day of the week are museums closed?
Monday in Florence, Rome's Borghese Gallery, Berlin's Museum Island, the Musée d'Orsay, the Tokyo National Museum, Oslo's National Museum and Helsinki's Ateneum and Kiasma. Tuesday in Paris at the Louvre, in Madrid at the Reina Sofía, and in Vienna at the Leopold Museum and the Imperial Treasury. Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum is open every day.
