J L

Review of Anne Frank House

Definitely worth a visit in spite of the crowd! Po...

Definitely worth a visit in spite of the crowd! Powerful, humbling, and emotional experience! I practically toured the entire house in tears!! I strongly recommend purchasing online tickets in advance for a morning time slot to beat the crowd. I registered for 9:45 and my line and the lines for earlier time slots were short (I went during off-peak season in Nov. though). Don't arrive too early because they won't let you in early anyway. Arrive about 15 mins early is fine (but don't quote me on that as they might loosen the rules). The content is beautifully and logically curated, with a lot of heart and respect. They're thoughtful enough to provide little booklets in various languages at the door so you're still able to read the descriptions if you are blocked by other people in the house. A wonderful, wonderful experience.

Complaints:
- There's no coat check although I know space is limited.
- The house could use more heating in some of the rooms. It can get real cold. (The fact that they don't let you check your coat is probably a blessing...)
- Many of the rooms are quite dark for the purpose of preserving a feel of the era, but some spots can use a tiny more lighting because the documents and photos on display can be difficult to see.
- Compared to other museums, the staff is quite cold, although I can imagine how tiring it is to deal with so many visitors per day.
- It would be wonderful if they could add Chinese editions of her book at the store among other language editions.
- They could use more staffers to guide the crowd in some of the rooms so the flow can move smoothly.