Amsterdam was built on water and there’s a different side of the city you only really see from a boat gliding along its canals, looking up at facades and marvelling how the city transforms and opens up, showing you another side of itself, like someone who you have just started to get to know. Amsterdam from a boat is a totally different perspective: the canal houses show their full height, the bridges line up in a different way, you can see the houseboats from the other side and wave to people sitting at the canal edge, eating a sandwich.
The houses along the canals were built with the water as their front. The gables, the hoisting beams, the proportions of the facades, all of that was designed to be seen from a boat, by people arriving with goods. When you walk the same route you are too close and at the wrong angle, so you catch fragments of it. From the water you get the whole thing at once. The city has around ninety islands, roughly 1,500 bridges and well over 100 kilometres of canals, and the seventeenth-century ring has been on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 2010.
I have lived here for about 15 years now and have sailed on the canals on various occasions, in different boats and seasons, and I am still amazed every time I am on the water. It’s one of the things that relaxes me so much, and it’s not just me, judging by the fact that at the first sign of a sunny day, locals jump on their boats and go for a ride along the canals.
In collaboration with Pure Boats. This article also contains affiliate links. All opinions are my own.
Canal cruising in Amsterdam in the cold season
But the boat season doesn’t stop when the cold weather comes. Boats continue to glide along the canals until the water freezes – although that doesn’t happen so much nowadays. Winters in the Netherlands are relatively mild, and, if it’s not raining, you will see people even in open boats, blankets over their laps and mulled wine in hand. I did that and I have to say it can still be very pleasant, as long as it’s not raining or howling wind.
There are, of course, ways to enjoy the canals in the autumn-winter season without worrying about the weather, and those are the covered boats where someone else takes care of the route and the rest of the outing. Like Pure Boats, a boutique canal cruise company that has been welcoming guests in Amsterdam since 2017. Their cruises, on bespoke electric boats, attract people in any season and they have won a few awards over the years. I tried two of the cruises and I liked the combination of the beautiful boats and the relaxed way the cruises are hosted.
Amsterdam Light Festival 2026 by boat
For now, the canal cruises will glide along the autumn-coloured canals, splitting the rusty leaves covering the water. But by late November, when the days become short and grey, and dark settles in at 5pm, the atmosphere transforms. And then, right on time, the Amsterdam Light Festival starts, which illuminates the canals after dark, turning them into an open-air exhibition and inviting everyone, tourists and residents alike, to cruise along light artworks.
This festival runs from 26 November 2026 to 17 January 2027, and this is its 15th edition. I have seen the Light Festival from a boat before and it is the way I would recommend, if you can. A good number of the works are made to be looked at from the water and you can see almost all of them in one go. The walking route has its charm but it’s long and not easy to do in one go.
Pure Boats run two options during the festival. There is a ninety-minute cruise (Luxury Small Group Amsterdam Light Festival Cruise) that goes out on the Stan Huygens from H’ART Museum and follows the full festival route, from €64 per guest. And there’s a two-hour version that leaves from Keizersgracht on the Danique or the Pure Spirit and gives you the ordinary canal city around the artworks as well, from €79. Both include an open bar with beer, wine, soft drinks and warm mulled wine, both are on heated boats with blankets, and both come with a captain or host who talks you through the works. There’s a private option too, from €430 for two hours, if you want the boat to yourselves.
If you’re planning to go, it’s worth booking early, as festival evenings on the canals can sell out, especially weekends and the holiday period.
I can’t wait to see what this year’s edition of the Light Festival will bring. Each year has its own theme and it’s always interesting to see what the artists come up with. The canals will bring their own contribution: water doesn’t sit still, so every artwork gets a second version underneath it, that shifts with the wake of the boat in front.
What the boats are actually like
⏺ The Ultimate Canal Cruise, on the Pure Spirit
This is their two-hour cruise and it’s their most popular one. The extra half hour makes a difference: there’s enough time for a proper loop around the city, with time to enjoy the open bar too.
I was on the Pure Spirit, which takes a maximum of sixteen guests on this cruise and departs from Keizersgracht 106. It’s a beautifully restored classic launch with a modular canopy, so it stays open when the weather allows and gets covered when it rains. There’s a sharing platter with Dutch cheese, nuts and olives, and a self-service open bar with local craft beers, wines, soft drinks and juices. The captain pours the first round and then leaves you to it, which I liked, because it takes the formality out of the whole thing.
Throughout the cruise, the captain tells you some cool facts about the spots you pass by, but the discussion feels more like a friendly dialogue and less like a standard tour. That openness cuts both ways: one guest had a great many questions, and for a stretch of the loop the conversation was theirs.
The ride was from 19:00-21:00, which in September meant we saw the city in daylight and at night, and it was amazing. The scenery slowly changed with the light, and I loved watching the city lights appear. I find being in a boat in Amsterdam at night to be the most relaxing thing: the city quiets, the orange lights from the streets and the bridges reflect on the water and create the cosiest ambience. We stepped out of the boat on the beautiful Keizersgracht, at the same spot where we left from, and it was so quiet and perfect for a night walk.
⏺ The semi-private cruise from Hotel de l’Europe
The second one I did is a different experience. It’s ninety minutes, it runs on the Stan Huygens boat, and it starts and ends at Hotel de l’Europe, which changes the feeling of the whole outing before you have even stepped on board.
The Stan Huygens deserves a paragraph of her own. She was built in 1991 and converted from diesel to electric later. This is the boat that the beer magnate Freddy Heineken sailed on regularly through the Amsterdam canals.
You can book a single seat in a shared booth, or reserve a booth for your own group, including the one at the stern. Two drinks are included, there are nibbles, and the hosting is low-key; there are stories and answers to questions, but also a lot of time for the guests to talk to each other.
Book your tickets with Pure Boats: Your Cruise in Amsterdam.
This is an affiliate link and if you book I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Before you book
Some cruises have a minimum age requirement, 14+ or 18+, so check before you book. If you are travelling with younger children, their Highlights of Amsterdam cruise is the one to look at: ninety minutes and comes with apple pie.
I said at the beginning of this article that Amsterdam opens up from the water like someone you have only just started to know. In winter it does it more slowly, with less light and more patience, and it is worth the wait. A boat, a blanket, a warm glass, and a city that looks nothing like the one I cycled through that morning.
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