The only museum in the world dedicated entirely to microbes, located on the ARTIS grounds in the heart of Amsterdam. The museum makes the invisible visible: living microbes, microscopes and interactive displays show you a world that's everywhere around you and inside you, but impossible to see with the naked eye. Entry includes daily Lab Talks with Micropia's own lab technicians and other interactive activities.
The collection is built around living microbes. Throughout the museum, real microorganisms are growing and moving in controlled environments. You can see them through microscopes and magnified displays. Lab technicians run talks multiple times a day, explaining what’s in front of you, why it matters and how it connects to your body, your food and the planet.
Every month the museum puts one microbe in the spotlight, you will learn all about it and see it live. Right now there is also a special exhibition about microbes of the Amsterdam canals. There is also a microbe stamp trail throughout the museum from bacteria to fungi, viruses to algae. At the end of your visit you can scan the stamp card in the ground floor and see them come to life.
Micropia is genuinely hard to compare to anything else, because there’s nothing else quite like it. The concept is innovative: making a completely invisible world visible, using real living organisms rather than models or animations. The execution is mostly excellent, the microscope stations work, the Lab Talks are informative, and they have done a great job at showing how microbes are part of our daily life and environment.
It’s definitely a museum where you have to be curious and willing to slow down and look closely (even if it doesn’t look pretty) and interact with the installations. I learned a lot of about things i hadn’t thought about before like: how microbes make bread rise, how they live in your gut, how they clean up oil spills etc.
The free entry for under-12s and the stamp trail make it work well for families. The Lab Talks elevate the solo or couple visit. And I personally enjoyed doing something out of the ordinary (history, walking, culture) and the installations were very cool and modern.The price for the museum is €17, which is bellow average for a museum in the city centre.
The museum is worth visiting if you’re curious by nature and biology,travelling with kids or just want to see something completely different.
Book your activity in under a minute and secure your spot. No hassle, choose your date, reserve instantly, and get ready for an unforgettable experience.
The museum is open daily from 10 to 17, it’s Book your entree ticket online, it’s a bit cheaper is you are visiting only the museum. If you are visiting the zoo you get discount on your museum ticket. Kids up to 12 years enter for free.
Online booking benefits
🎫 Pay €1 less then on-site.
🎫 Get discount on other ARTIS activities (add the extra activities while booking)
🎫 Instant confirmation: your ticket is mailed immediately after booking
🎫 No need to print: simply scan your ticket from your phone upon arrival.
🎫 Reschedule your booking for free by calling 020 5233 670.
ARTIS has its own parking lot, at a daily rate of €17.50. You can pay at the entrance desk or at the parking machine near the Planetarium. However, on busy days it fills up fast. If you’re visiting on a weekend or during school holidays, it’s safer to use one of the nearby Q-Park parking garages: Q-Park Weesperplein, Q-Park Oostor Q-Park Waterlooplein, all around 13 minutes on foot from the entrance.
Booking a spot at Q-Park in advance is worth it: your space is guaranteed and the barrier opens automatically on arrival. You can cancel free of charge up to 1 hour before arrival.
ARTIS Zoo is easy to reach by public transport from Amsterdam Central Station (16 minutes) and other parts of the city. You can reach the zoo with:
🚋Tram 14 to Muiderpoort station: step out at the stop ARTIS/Holocaust museum.
🚇Metro 51 to Isolatorweg: step out at the stop Waterlooplein and walk 10 minutes
🚇Metro 54 to Gein: step out at the stop Waterlooplein and walk 10 minutes
The House of Bols Cocktail Experience takes you on a sensory journey through the history and flavours of one of the world’s oldest distilled spirit brands.
It combines multimedia exhibits, aroma installations and interactive games that explore the art of mixology. At the end of the tour you can enjoy a freshly prepared cocktail, which is included in your entree ticket!
A complete lunch or dinner with dessert in one of the best-located restaurants in the city. Good food, generous portions and enough rock memorabilia to feel as if you are eating in a museum. The restaurant sits five minutes from Museumsquare and Leidseplein, the ideal place to eat between museums and sightseeing.
The Bols Cocktail 30 or 60 minutes workshop combines multimedia exhibits, interactive installations and a workshop where you learn the art of mixology. You will make two different cocktails and afterwards you can also another freshly prepared cocktail in the mirror bar.
Eight rooms of light, music and festival culture in a one hour. AMAZE takes you from the origin of sound through a laser show, a mirror maze and other surprising rooms. This is the only experience in Amsterdam built entirely around electronic music and the closest thing to a festival the city has indoors.
Two art shows, one extraordinary building and 325 works by the greatest painters in Dutch history. Fabrique des Lumières takes the art pieces off the museum wall and immerse you in a unique show with music that shifts from tranquil to fierce as the paintings move around you.
Moonwalkers is a 50-minute immersive experience co-created and narrated by Tom Hanks, built from thousands of NASA never seen before images. The exhibition focuses on the Apollo missions and the current Artemis programme, with interviews with active astronauts that give it a perspective that feels as much about the future as the past.
Soft light, water lilies and 150 years of Impressionism. The show follows the French painter through his life and masterpieces: the harbours of Normandy, the Seine at sunrise, the gardens of Giverny. All projected across 3,800 square meters of walls, floors and ceilings with music carefully chosen to make this a compelling experience.
Legendary footballers have walked these halls. Now it's your turn. The stadium tours takes you through the dressing rooms where the players prepare, down the tunnel they walk on match day, and into the dugouts where the most iconic moments in Ajax history were made. Besides you can see the trophy collection, the Gallery of Fame, the authentic clothing of Johan Cruijff and other international players.
A5D flight simulation that takes you across the landscapes, history and landmarks of the Netherlands through three immersive shows. The flight takes over 22 Dutch locations, with synchronised motion, wind, mist and scent effects. During the flight you’ll pass over tulip fields, the windmills of Kinderdijk, the Wadden Sea, Rotterdam’s harbor and many other iconic landscapes across the country.
An interactive experience where you can explore our country’s best-known traditions, landscapes and cultural icons through 10 immersive rooms in just over an hour. You will step inside a canal boat, cycle to music, wander through a giant tulip field and watch Dutch masterpieces come to life.
During the tour we learned some interesting facts: The palace is build on top of 13.659 wooden poles. The building has served as a palace since 1808. The Atlas statue represents Amsterdam as the middle of the world.
