The Anne Frank Story: A Private WWII Walking Tour of Amsterdam

Walk through Amsterdam’s WWII history with a local guide

This isn’t a script, it’s a conversation. Spend two hours walking from Amsterdam’s old Jewish Quarter to the Anne Frank House with a local guide who has over a decade of experience teaching WWII history. You move at a slow, reflective pace, stop at memorials and lesser-known landmarks, and hear the real stories of the Frank family, the Dutch resistance and the city’s Jewish community, all shaped by the questions your group most wants to ask.

What to expect on this private Anne Frank walking tour

This tour is built around real stories and real questions, not a fixed script. The pace is slow, the stops are reflective, and the conversation moves wherever your group’s interest goes.

We start at Cafe de Sluyswacht in the old Jewish Quarter, just steps from Waterlooplein metro, and walk through the streets where Amsterdam’s Jewish community lived, worked and worshipped before the war. Along the way you see the Portuguese Synagogue, one of Europe’s largest 17th-century synagogues, Resistance monuments, and Holocaust memorials that mark the deportations from this neighborhood.

Your guide weaves the bigger story in throughout: pre-war anti-Semitic sentiments, the bombing of Rotterdam, the February strikes, the Hunger Winter and the eventual liberation. You also hear personal stories of great resistance, of betrayal, and of the ordinary people who shaped how this city remembered the war.

The Frank family is at the heart of the route. Why did they leave Germany? How were they welcomed in the Netherlands? What happened to Otto Frank after the war, and why did Anne’s diary go on to become the most-read in the world? These questions, alongside the ones you bring with you, shape the way the tour unfolds.

The tour ends in the Jordaan, outside the Anne Frank House. Many guests book this experience right before their museum visit. The historical context and emotional grounding make the museum hit far deeper. Just remember: museum entry is not included, and tickets must be booked weeks in advance.

Planning your visit? Read our guide to walking Anne Frank’s Amsterdam, or see what else belongs on your route in 9 amazing Amsterdam places to visit.