Red Light Secrets – Museum of Prostitution

A lot of tourists visit Amsterdam and are fascinated with the lives and livelihoods of prostitutes who have worked the Red Light District for years. The Museum of Prostitution – Red Light Secrets is a “must visit” for these curious minds!

Red Light Secrets is the world’s first and only museum of prostitution. It is located at the very centre of the famous Red Light District in Amsterdam and offers a unique peek into the ins and outs of the world’s oldest profession. This museum is housed in a historical 17th-century canal house and is one of Amsterdam’s top attractions. A very educational museum and the perfect place to discover the hidden world behind the industry, learn about the trade from first-hand accounts by the working girls themselves and enjoy a behind-the-scenes look into this fascinating topic.

Red Light Secrets is a former brothel in a 17th-century monumental canal house. Ideally located in the centre of the Red Light District. Around the corner of the Old Church, the oldest building in Amsterdam (ca. 1213).

The museum is home to a lot of information on the good and the bad sides of the business. A short film introduces tourists to the other aspects of the Red Light District, which is much more than just a neighbourhood for paid sex. There are also different rooms for different types of experiences. A confessional wall where tourists can write their deepest sex secrets, some of which make the confessional wall, with no names of course. There is also a front room where you can sit in the window and pretend to be a working girl.

Buy your tickets and make sure you visit this museum. It provides some insight into what the life of a sex worker in Amsterdam is like.

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Our Review

We locals can recommend going on a discovery tour Red Light Secrets Museum. We feel that it’s both educational as well as entertaining, all while telling a realistic story about what goes on behind the scenes in the Red Light District of Amsterdam. The fact that the museum is housed in a former brothel and the guided tour is being told from the perspective of a former sex worker, guarantees a realistic story, without beating around the bush. The museum is fairly small, the experience will take you approximately 60 minutes.

The audio guide is available in English, German, Dutch, French, and Spanish. Throughout the museum, there are numerous spots where you can tap to activate the audioguide. The stories told are some real-life experiences of a prostitute. She speaks freely, without any taboos. Therefore, as a visitor, you get quite a good understanding of the Red Light District behind the scenes. However, the story is just the story of one individual.

As the museum is housed in a real brothel, many spaces and stairways are tiny. Therefore it can not be visited as a wheelchair user and it might also be difficult with impaired mobility without assistance.

Inside the museum

The rooms inside the museum are very realistic. Some of them look a bit outdated. But then again, when comparing these on the window rooms you see yourself in the Red Light District area, many of them are also not very modern looking from the outside. Scroll up, if you want to skip the sneak preview of some of the rooms.

At the end of the museum, there’s a wall where visitors can leave their Red Light Confessions. This, in our eyes, is a really fun gimmick and contains some hilarious and sometimes shocking confessions, make sure not to miss them!

Take a look at one of the following museums below or go back to the general Amsterdam museums page.