The Fault In Our Stars Filming Locations In Amsterdam

The Amsterdam section of The Fault in Our Stars is short, and everything in it sits inside the seventeenth-century canal ring within a twenty-five minute walk. That makes it one of the most practical location circuits in this index: no car, no tickets except one, and a route that is worth walking whether or not you have seen the film.

Four stops carry the sequence. Two are on public canal frontage, one is a restaurant, and one is a museum that requires a timed ticket booked weeks ahead.

The four stops, in walking order

The bench on Leidsegracht

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The canal walk: Keizersgracht and Herengracht

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The restaurant on Leliegracht

The Anne Frank House

How long the walk takes

The whole circuit is flat and paved and takes about two hours. Amsterdam's centre is closed to through traffic and dense with cyclists; the cycle lane is a road and should be treated as one. Trams run to Leidseplein at the southern end of the walk and to Westermarkt at the northern.

The rest of the European files are in the Europe hub, and the full index of productions is in the location index. The other European location file with the same problem, where the thing people come for is no longer there, is the Pont des Arts, and the American equivalent list is the USA master guide.

What has changed since 2014

Very little, which is what a protected canal ring is for. The bench has been replaced, the Anne Frank House has moved to timed entry and rebuilt its visitor route, and the restaurant has changed its terrace furniture. The canals, the houses and the bridges are exactly as filmed.

Doing the walk properly

The four stops sit inside the seventeenth-century canal ring and the whole circuit is about two and a half kilometres on flat ground. A sensible order and timing:

1. Start at Leidseplein mid-afternoon and walk north up Leidsegracht to the bench.
2. North-east along Keizersgracht, crossing to Herengracht where the canals bend, for the walking-scene frontages.
3. Leliegracht for the restaurant, arriving around six if you intend to eat.
4. Prinsengracht and the Anne Frank House exterior, three minutes further, best in the last hour of light.
5. Finish at Westermarkt, where there is a tram back.

Two hours at a photographing pace. In summer the canal ring stays light until well after nine, which makes a late-afternoon start the better option.

Reading the canal ring

The three main canals (Herengracht, Keizersgracht and Prinsengracht) were dug in a single planned expansion beginning in 1613, in that order outward from the centre, and they were graded by wealth. Herengracht carried the largest plots and the widest houses; Prinsengracht was the cheapest and carried warehouses alongside dwellings.

That is visible from the street. Wider frontages and stone ornament on the inner canal, narrower brick and hoisting beams on the outer. The hoisting beam projecting from the gable is not decorative: the staircases were too narrow for furniture, and goods went in through the windows. Almost every house still has one, and many are still in use.

The Anne Frank House, practically

The museum operates entirely on timed online tickets, released on a rolling schedule and gone within hours of release. There is no ticket office queue to join and no same-day option in practice; anyone arriving hoping to walk in will not get in.

Once inside, the route is one-way through the offices, up behind the bookcase into the annexe, and out through an exhibition. Photography is not permitted anywhere inside. The rooms are deliberately left unfurnished, and the visit takes about an hour and a half.

The exterior on Prinsengracht is public and photographable at any hour. The queue that used to run along the canal no longer exists because of the ticketing change, which means the street actually photographs better now than when the film was made.

Around the four stops

• The Jordaan, immediately west of Prinsengracht: narrow streets, small courtyards and the best walking in the city centre.
• The Nine Streets, between Herengracht and Prinsengracht: three blocks of small shops, and the most pleasant way to cross between the canals.
• Westerkerk, next to the Anne Frank House, with a tower that can be climbed by guided tour in season.
• The Amsterdam Museum and the Begijnhof, ten minutes south-east, for context on how the ring was built.

Practicalities

• Cyclists. The cycle lane is a road. Stepping into it to take a photograph is the most common way visitors get hurt here.
• Trams run to Leidseplein at the southern end of the walk and Westermarkt at the northern; a contactless card works directly.
• Season. The ring is at its best in April and May and in September. July and August are crowded and the canal-boat traffic is constant.
• Bridges are the viewpoints. Most of the good compositions on this walk are taken from the middle of one, and standing there for a minute is fine as long as you are not in the cycle lane.

Frequently asked questions

Where in Amsterdam was The Fault in Our Stars filmed?

Four locations carry the Amsterdam sequence: the Anne Frank House on Prinsengracht, a canalside restaurant on Leliegracht, a bench on Leidsegracht, and the Herengracht and Keizersgracht canal frontages used for the walking scenes. All four are within a twenty-five minute walk of each other.

Is the bench from the film still there?

A bench is there. The original was removed in 2014 and, after enough visitors arrived to notice, a replacement was installed on the same stretch of Leidsegracht. It is a public bench on a public canal, not a monument, and it is not marked.

Can you film inside the Anne Frank House?

No, and no production has. The interior scenes in the film were shot on a set. The museum itself allows no photography inside; the exterior on Prinsengracht is public.

How long does the Amsterdam walk take?

About two hours at an easy pace, including the canal stretches between stops. Add ninety minutes if you want to go into the Anne Frank House, which requires a timed ticket booked well in advance.