Anyone planning to visit the cinema, museum, concert hall or theatre from time to time in the Netherlands should consider buying one of the subscription cards. Single tickets for a film or museum can sometimes cost quite a lot, but a regular visitor to cinemas or other cultural institutions with a card can save a lot. A
regular cinema ticket in the Netherlands usually costs around 10-15 euros, and in the case of children, students and seniors, you can count on a small discount. For regular cinema goers, this is not cheap entertainment.
The same applies to visits to museums or theatres. A ticket to the Rijksmuseum , one of the most popular museums in Amsterdam, costs 20 euros (and if you also want to see a temporary exhibition, you have to pay another 7 euros). The neighbouring Van Gogh Museum is no cheaper (19 euros), and a visit to the Maurtishuis in The Hague costs around 17.50 euros for an adult. It is even more expensive in theatres, operas and concert halls – prices of a few dozen euros are the norm.
So does taking advantage of the rich cultural offer of the Netherlands have to be ruinous for our wallets? Not necessarily. A good solution is to buy one of the subscription cards. Below we present a few of them: the cinema Pathé Unlimited and Cineville, the museum Museumkaart and the theatre and concert We Are Public.
Pathé Unlimited
Pathé is a chain of over twenty, mainly very large cinemas (multiplexes) in the largest Dutch cities. In Amsterdam, the chain has four locations (Pathé Tuschinski and Pathé De Munt near Rembrandtplein and Pathé City near Leidseplein and Pathé Arena next to the Ajax stadium), in The Hague three (Pathé Buitenhof, Pathé Scheveningen and Pathé Spuimarkt) and in Rotterdam two (Pathé Schouwburgplein and Pathé De Kuip). In addition, the chain is present in Amersfoort, Arnhem, Breda, Delf, Eindhoven, Groningen, Haarlem, Helmond, Tilburg, Utrecht, Zaandam and Zwolle.
In the Pathé cinemas, we will primarily see Hollywood (super)productions, comedies or films for children. Pathé’s offer is mainly aimed at viewers looking for entertainment at the cinema, so those who prefer a more ambitious, more demanding cinema will probably be more suited to the offer of cinemas belonging to the Cineville program (more on that later).
For regular visitors, Pathé offers two subscription cards: Pathé Unlimited and Pathé Unlimited Gold. The first costs 21 euros per month, the second 29.50 euros per month. Both give the right to enter all films in all Pathé cinemas. In the case of the Gold card, this also applies to 3D, IMAX and IMAX 3D screenings. A holder of a regular Pathé Unlimited card going to a 3D, IMAX or IMAX 3D screening will have to pay a little extra. The second advantage of the Gold card is a higher (25%) discount on drinks and food in Pathé cinemas. For holders of a regular Pathé Unlimited card, it is only 10%.
So if you often visit (or plan to visit) Pathé cinemas, buy a lot of cola and popcorn there and like 3D, IMAX or IMAX 3D films, then the Pathé Unlimited Gold card may interest you. If you simply go to a Pathé cinema at least two or three times a month, then it is worth buying Pathé Unlimited. Let’s look at the August (2021) offer at Pathé Spuimarkt in The Hague: a standard ticket for the 2D “Jungle Cruise” costs 11 euros, for 10 euros more you can already have a monthly Pathé Unlimited subscription. If someone goes to the cinema, for example, 10 times a month, then choosing Pathé Unlimited will save you a lot of euros per month.
To get a Pathé Unlimited card, it is best to register on the website HERE . These cards are digital only.
Cineville
For film buffs interested not only in Hollywood productions, but also lesser-known European films and more ambitious cinema, a good alternative is the Cineville card.
For €17.50 per month (up to and including 29 years of age) or €21 per month (30 years of age and over), you have unlimited access to the film offer of over 30 cinemas, mainly in Amsterdam (15 cinemas), as well as Rotterdam and Utrecht (3 each), and The Hague and Leiden (2 each). Other cities are: Maastricht, Haarlem, Zwolle, Alkmaar, Schiedam, Dordrecht, Diemen and Castricum (one cinema each under the Cineville program). The full list of cinemas where the Cineville card is valid, HERE .
The holder of this card can choose from around 100 different titles every week, Cineville advertises, although this applies mainly to Amsterdammers: a Cineville cardholder from, for example, Maastricht is more likely to be limited to the offer of the local Lumière cinema (the only one in the Cineville system in that city) and will not travel to Rotterdam or Haarlem on purpose if it turns out that that is the only place to see the film he wants that week.
For the residents of Amsterdam, Cineville is a great thing. The offer of the 15 Amsterdam cinemas associated with Cineville is very wide and extends from Hollywood productions – although mainly those that are not pure entertainment, such as “A Nightmare on Elmstreet” or “Honest Thief” – to European cinema, such as the Polish “Ida” or Andrzej Wajda’s “Wałęsa, Man of Hope”. Cinemas are scattered throughout the city centre and have a diverse character: from the modern halls in the monumental EYE film institute in the north of the city (accessible by ferry from the main train station) to the student Kriterion in the east, the intellectual De Balie or the large cinema complex in the hipster De Filmhallen in the west of the city.
You can order the card online ( HERE , the website is also available in English: HERE ), paying by quick bank transfer (iDeal). When registering, you need to send an electronic photo, which will be on the card (the card is personal and cannot be lent to other people). A moment after making the payment, you will receive an email with a temporary card, which you can print out.
With a temporary card, you can use it and go to the movies. The correct, plastic card will be sent by post within a few days. In the case of most cinemas, you can reserve seats in advance, although each cinema has its own rules, most often described on the website of the given institution. The card entitles you to free admission to films in selected cinemas, but you must collect a ticket from the box office before each screening. However, instead of paying for it, you just show your card.
Museumkaart
The Netherlands has a rich museum scene, and many of its museums are among the best in Europe. Unfortunately, tickets to these cultural temples tend to be quite expensive. An adult planning a trip to Amsterdam and a visit to the Rijksmuseum (I want to see Rembrandt’s The Night Watch and Vermeer’s The Milkmaid!), the Van Gogh Museum (Sunflowers!), the Stedelijk Museum (Picasso and Mondriaan!), the Anne Frank Huis (It’s a moving, important story) and the Science Center NEMO (A good place for children) will pay a total of 90.50 euros for five tickets (20.00 + 19.00 + 20.00 + 14.00 + 17.50 euros respectively).
Therefore, anyone planning even occasional visits to museums (e.g. once every two months) should consider buying a Museumkaart . The card currently costs €64.90 for adults and €32.45 for people under 18. When you buy it for the first time, you also have to pay a one-off €4.95 in administrative costs (you don’t have to pay them when you renew the card for another year).
Museumkaart is a fantastic convenience and a big saving for regular museum goers. The card is a free entry ticket to around 400 museums in the Netherlands, including most of the most important and popular ones. The museums mentioned in the example above also belong to the Museumkaart network, so the holder of this card would not have to pay anything for a visit to these five museums and would save €88.
In Amsterdam, Museumkaart is a free entry ticket to 35 museums and other monuments (e.g. old churches), in The Hague there are 20 such institutions, in Rotterdam 13, and in Utrecht 10. A full list of all around 400 museums and other places where the card is valid can be found HERE .
The card can be ordered online ( HERE ) or purchased at one of the museums – however, it should be remembered that Museumkaart sales points are not located in all 400 museums participating in the program.
We Are Public
An interesting offer for residents of Amsterdam and the surrounding area is the “We Are Public” card. It can be ordered online at wearepublic.nl . The card costs 18 euros per month, but the minimum membership period is three months, so you can only cancel it after a quarter and after paying a total of at least 54 euros.
The card gives you the right to enter (free or with a discount, usually 50%) cultural events selected by the “We Are Public” team in the capital (sometimes also in the surrounding area, e.g. in Haarlem). These are mainly concerts, theater and dance performances, film screenings, exhibitions or lectures. Whoever has ordered the card and closely follows the current program at wearepublic.nl/programma, this one will probably find a few interesting events every month to go to for free or for half price. Thanks to this, by paying only 15 euros a month (and occasionally paying 50% of the ticket price) you can regularly visit the renowned Amsterdam theatres Stadsschouwburg and Carré, the famous Het Concertgebouw philharmonic or the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ and Bimhuis concert halls and many other places.
However, you have to take into account that members of “We Are Public” can sometimes only book tickets, for example, the day before a given cultural event, so you have to hurry. Sometimes you can book by phone, other times you have to go to the box office in person and collect your ticket on the day of the event. All this information can be found on the “We Are Public” programme page , so anyone who really wants a given ticket will know what to do to secure a ticket to their dream concert or performance.