By Harry Nara · Last updated
May, and the reason is not the one you expect. You cannot choose an Amsterdam month on rain, because there is no dry season: April and May are the driest at about nine wet days and December is the wettest at fourteen, a range of roughly one and a half against fifteen or more in a monsoon city. It rains between nine and fourteen days in every single month, so the usual method of picking a dry window simply does not apply. What varies instead is daylight and price. December gives you about eight usable hours; June gives you seventeen. The annual temperature swing is 16.3°C. May sits at 9–18°C with the fewest wet days, light past ten in the evening, and rates below July for weather that is barely different. April is tied for driest and carries Koningsdag, which is either the reason to come or the weekend to avoid. The second half of September is the value window, when the museums stop being a queue and the rates fall week by week. November is the month to skip. One cost to budget for: the tourist tax is 12.5% of the room rate before VAT, the highest in Europe, and because it is a percentage it scales with the room rather than sitting flat.
Amsterdam Month by Month
| Month | Temperature | Rainy Days | Crowds | Budget / Day | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 1–6°C | 12 days | Low | €95–145 | Museums, Light Festival & Brown Cafés |
| February | 1–7°C | 11 days | Very Low | €95–145 | Museums, Day Trips & Value |
| March | 3–10°C | 10 days | Low-Medium | €100–155 | Early Bulbs, Parks & Quiet Museums |
| April Best | 5–14°C | 9 days | High | €115–175 | Koningsdag, Tulip Gardens & Terraces |
| May Best | 9–18°C | 9 days | Medium-High | €120–180 | Remembrance, Long Evenings & Heritage |
| June Best | 11–20°C | 10 days | High | €125–190 | Herring Season, Canal Boats & Food Lovers |
| July | 14–23°C | 11 days | Very High | €130–200 | Pride Festival, Canal Boats & Terraces |
| August | 13–22°C | 12 days | Very High | €130–200 | Canal Parade, Parks & Outdoor Markets |
| September Best | 11–19°C | 11 days | Medium | €115–175 | Museums, Heritage Days & Value |
| October | 8–15°C | 12 days | Low-Medium | €105–160 | Autumn Colour, Concerts & Museums |
| November | 5–10°C | 13 days | Low | €95–145 | Museums, Sinterklaas & Low Prices |
| December | 2–7°C | 14 days | High | €105–165 | Light Festival, Sinterklaas & New Year |
How to Choose Your Month
May. It ties April for the fewest wet days of the year at about nine, runs 9–18°C, and by the end of the month the light lasts past ten in the evening. Rates are below July and August for weather that is four degrees cooler and barely wetter. It also carries the two days that explain more about the Netherlands than any museum: the national silence at eight in the evening on 4 May, and Liberation Day festivals the morning after.
April, at about nine wet days, which is the annual low. Read the calendar before you book, though. The tulip fields peak in the second and third weeks and Koningsdag lands on the 27th, so the month contains both the best and the worst dates of the Amsterdam year depending on what you came for. Hotel rates around the 26th and 27th often double and sell out months ahead, while a trip a week either side is ordinary shoulder-season pricing.
June. Around the solstice there is light before half past five in the morning and after half past ten at night, which is about seventeen usable hours plus dusk. Twenty degrees is mild for a European June, and that mildness is why Amsterdam works in summer where southern Europe becomes an endurance test. June is also measurably quieter and cheaper than July while offering much the same weather.
Late September, or February if the dark does not bother you. The September case is about how fast the numbers move: the first week is priced like August and the last is priced like autumn, for weather that has barely changed. February is cheaper again, and its particular advantage is availability rather than price, since restaurants and museums that ration entry in summer simply do not need to in the middle of winter.
January or February, which are the quietest and cheapest months by a clear margin. What you trade is light: eight or nine hours of it, in a damp cold that hovers just above zero rather than dropping below. The exchange makes sense if the trip is built around interiors, because the same budget buys a materially better address than it would in July.
Late November to mid-January, for the Light Festival. It is the one thing on the Dutch calendar that makes a virtue of the shortest days rather than apologising for them, and it is the reason winter here is not simply the off season. Walking it costs nothing; a boat costs money and sells out on December weekends. Either way it is the strongest argument for booking Amsterdam in the dark half of the year.
Worst Time to Visit Amsterdam
November, and specifically its first three weeks.
Thirteen wet days, ten degrees, and dark before five, with nothing in the calendar carrying the first three weeks. December has the same weather and the lights to justify it; November has the weather and a three-week wait.
It is also the cheapest stretch of the year outside January, which is the honest counterweight. If you want the museums to yourself and the rates at their floor, this is the month that delivers both. Just know that the last week is a different proposition entirely, because the Light Festival switches on and both the crowds and the prices change with it.
Amsterdam Season by Season
Spring
Two fixed windows decide most spring trips. The bulb gardens open in the middle of March and close in the middle of May, and Koningsdag is a single legislated date, 27 April, moved to the 26th when the 27th is a Sunday. If either is the reason you are coming, the dates choose themselves years ahead.
The three months are not interchangeable. March still belongs to winter in everything but name, and carries the windiest weather of the year plus the clock change on its last Sunday. April and May then deliver the two driest months on the calendar, four degrees apart, with May holding the light until well past nine.
Summer
The city gets onto the water, and at 20 to 23°C the middle of the day is pleasant rather than something to hide from.
Two things surprise people. Summer is not the dry season, with July at eleven wet days and August at twelve, both wetter than April. And June beats the other two outright: the same weather, fewer people, and the longest days of the year.
Autumn
This is the season residents quietly recommend, and it is two different things at either end. September opens as summer and closes as autumn. November is 5 to 10°C, thirteen wet days, and dark before five in the afternoon.
What you buy is access. Museums that need a slot booked weeks ahead in April will take you on a Tuesday morning in October, the concert and theatre seasons restart after the summer gap, and rates fall week by week from the middle of September. The price is weather that stops cooperating: an autumn wet day sits over the city rather than passing through it.
Two narrower windows sit inside the season. The canal elms and the woods south of the city turn in the second and third weeks of October, and the first real storm strips them, so the colour is worth watching a forecast for rather than a calendar. And the equinox brings the first Atlantic systems of the year, which is when the free ferries across the IJ start being suspended on the worst days.
Winter
Winter here is bought and sold on one idea: that the dark is worth looking at rather than waiting out. No other northern European city has organised its coldest ten weeks around that.
The Light Festival occupies late November to mid-January and everything else in the season arranges itself around it. On either side sit the cheapest rooms of the year and the emptiest museums, which is the trade: you pay in daylight and get the city back in exchange.
It is rarely properly cold. Sitting close to the sea keeps Amsterdam a few degrees above freezing far more often than below, so the problem is damp and wind rather than frost. Canal skating needs a sustained hard freeze and now happens only occasionally; treat it as a windfall rather than a plan.
Events Worth Planning Around
The dated reasons to pick one month over another. Each has its own page with where to watch, what it costs and how to get there.
- KeukenhofThursday 18 March to Sunday 9 May 2027Seven million spring bulbs in a woodland garden at Lisse, open for about eight weeks a year
- Koningsdag in AmsterdamMonday 26 April to Tuesday 27 April 2027The king’s birthday, when Amsterdam turns orange and the pavements become market stalls.
- Pride Amsterdam and the Canal ParadeSaturday 31 July to Saturday 7 August 2027A week of Pride that ends with a parade of decorated boats through the canals.
- Open Monumentendag in AmsterdamSaturday 11 September to Sunday 12 September 2027The September weekend when Amsterdam’s private historic buildings open their doors, free
- Amsterdam Light FestivalThursday 26 November 2026 to Sunday 17 January 2027Commissioned light artworks installed along the canals through the darkest weeks of the year.
Seasonal Guides
Browse Every Month
Frequently Asked Questions
When is the best time to visit Amsterdam?
May, if you have a free choice. The short version is that it is as dry as Amsterdam gets, four degrees warmer than April, and cheaper than the two months that follow it for weather they barely improve on. April competes on rainfall alone and loses on everything else unless the tulips or Koningsdag are the reason you are travelling. And if the budget matters more than the forecast, look at late September instead, where the saving is largest relative to what you give up.
Does it rain a lot in Amsterdam?
Yes, and more evenly than almost anywhere else covered here. Rainy days run from about nine in April to fourteen in December, which is a range of roughly one and a half across the whole year. There is no dry season and no window to wait for, which is why choosing an Amsterdam month on rainfall does not work. Pack a hooded waterproof rather than an umbrella, because the wind destroys umbrellas, and plan on the assumption that some of your days will be wet whenever you come.
How many hours of daylight does Amsterdam get?
Between about eight hours in midwinter and seventeen in midsummer, which is a far wider swing than the temperature manages. At 52 degrees north that is the variable that reshapes an itinerary: the same list of four things is an impossible December day and an unhurried June one. It is also why the seasons here feel further apart than a 16 degree annual range would suggest.
Is Amsterdam expensive?
Yes, and one charge catches people out because it is not a flat fee. The city levies 12.5% of the room rate before VAT, which is the steepest in Europe. Being a percentage, it compounds a dear room rather than adding a fixed sum to a cheap one, so the summer premium arrives twice. Everything else is ordinary northern European pricing: roughly 95 euros a day in February and 200 in August, outside the room.
When is Koningsdag and should I plan around it?
It is fixed by law on 27 April, or the 26th when the 27th falls on a Sunday, with Koningsnacht the evening before, so it can be planned for years ahead. The whole city turns orange, the canals fill with boats, and for one day the permit rules are suspended so anyone may sell anything on the pavement. It is the best street party in the Dutch calendar. It is also the single worst date to have booked a museum, and hotel rates across those two nights often double and sell out months in advance.
Can you skate on the Amsterdam canals?
Rarely enough that it cannot be a reason to book. The city needs a sustained hard freeze and the North Sea keeps it a few degrees the wrong side of that most winters, so canal skating has become a windfall rather than a season. If skating is the point of the trip, the city’s outdoor rinks run to a schedule instead of to the weather, which is the difference between a plan and a hope.
What is the worst time to visit Amsterdam?
November, and specifically its first three weeks. Thirteen wet days, ten degrees, and dark before five, with nothing in the calendar carrying the first three weeks. December has the same weather and the lights to justify it; November has the weather and a three-week wait.
📚 Explore More
View all Amsterdam guides • Browse by month • All destinations