My wife and I will be in Amsterdam in June 24 and are seeking a great tour company for a ride on the canals. I have been told to get a smaller boat that takes around 15 people and is open (no roof). I have been told to sit near the tour guide to hear him/her. I prefer a tour with no booze so we don't have to deal with that and can focus on the sights. Thank you.
Posted by
Green Bay
21210 posts
No roof is great, unless it rains.
Posted by
Bay Area SF & Uppsala Sweden
1029 posts
Hi there, while researching the same topic, I came across this list of threads about canal boat tours, may be useful. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/netherlands/canal-boat-rides.
Posted by
Snohomish, WA
2663 posts
We just got back from a canal cruise tonight. Our hotel recommended this one, www.fareharbor.com. He does a private one, but also will take up to 8 people so we chose that as it was only 55 euro pp. well tonight it was only the two of us, so we had a private 90 minute tour in a beautiful boat for very little money. He was very engaging and it was just overall excellent. He has all sorts of drinks from champagne to water, plus nibbles out. He dropped us off right back in front of our hotel.
Posted by
Walnut Creek, CA
611 posts
We loved our canal boat tour with "Those Damn Boat Guys".
https://www.thosedamboatguys.com
The boat we were on did have a cloth roof because it had been raining, but otherwise open to the elements. They said if the weather was good, there would be no roof. They provided blankets for warmth. It was a small boat, so no matter where we sat, we could hear and interact with the tour guide, boat driver.
While their website is irreverent and talks about being able to bring your own booze and weed,
The reality was that nobody on our boat of 10 people- mostly couples and one family with teenagers, brought any, nobody smoked anything and we were a sedate group focused on the sights. The tour guide was knowledgeable and funny and interacted with the passengers.
Posted by
Pacific Northwest
2684 posts
To offer an opposing opinion on Those Damn Boat Guys - we did their tour in April 2023 and it was awful.
The guide was only okay and he certainly didn’t share much history. He answered questions with limited detail.
He did, however, make continual alcohol and pot jokes. In addition, we had 4 people drinking the entire boat ride and one man who chain-smoked cigarettes and blew the smoke on us.
The guide was aware that this was happening and stated that the Damn Boat Guys’ website states that this kind of smoking and drinking is okay on the tour.
And it does state that so we had nothing we could say - but we would never take another ride with this group - despite the thousands of good reviews on TripAdvisor.
Posted by
Snohomish, WA
2663 posts
We did another canal boat tour yesterday, this time with Flagship Amsterdam. It was good, just very different from the private one of course. This one they keep to 30 people and you have the option to include wine and cheese. There was no smoking on it, which I was happy about. They cover the boat if it’s rainy, which it was.
The cruise yesterday ran us $41 US dollars and the private was $110.