A canal cruise
A canal cruise? Hell Yes. There is no better way to see Amsterdam in a relaxing and kind of romantic (if that is your choosing) way. You don’t get to see everything as thoroughly as you most probably want but this is not the point of a boat cruise. The point is to see an overview of the historic center through its scenic canals while hearing the guide explain some of the city’s stories. Not all of them. That is also not the point.
The point is that you get to do something that you cannot do in most cities of the world. The fact that Amsterdam’s canal ring is a UNESCO-protected heritage site and that most of the canals are lined with beautiful Dutch houses from the golden age leaves no space for wavering. You definitely get on the boat. The only question is which boat and what kind of tour will it be.
There are tours with relatively large hop-on hop-off boats and others with smaller boats for ten people at most, boat tours that offer breakfast and brunch, wine and dining, just drinks, there are even tours for pizza, beer, and burger lovers. There are open-boat tours, semi-open and closed boats ideal for winter, candlelight cruises for romantics , tours for kids and custom-made cruises where you can decide your own route. There are gondola tours, pedal boat tour, and kayak tours. There is even a canal tour where you can party in an actual ice bar and one for eco-activists where you can fish for floating plastics. Last but not least there is an Amsterdam Light Festival Canal Cruise taking place from 30/11/2023 to 21/01/2024. Follow this link for more info on Amsterdam’s Light Festival.