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- Cruise through Amsterdam by Day and Night (Light Festival Special)
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The canals of the Dutch capital are beautiful at any time of day. The Amsterdam Light Festival is the ultimate time of year to experience the canals by day and night.
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- 2 1-hour long boat tours through the Amsterdam canals
- See the best of the city during the day and night
- See artworks light up the city at night
Includes
60-minute daytime cruise
75-minute Amsterdam Light Festival cruise
Children
Child ticket for 4-13 year olds
Free entry for 0-3 year olds when accompanied by a paying adult
Languages
The daytime cruise has an audio guide available in Dutch, English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Catalan, Turkish, Polish, Thai, Indonesian, Russian, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, Hebrew and Hindi
The Amsterdam Light Festival cruise has an audio guide available in English and Dutch
Check-in
For both cruises check-in 15 minutes before departure
Ticket information
Ticket directly available on smartphone
Tickets can be rescheduled or cancelled up to 24 hours in advance
Only service dogs (who must be identifiable as such) are allowed on the boat
Parking
At QPark, LOVERS guests park at a special rate. Book your parking space here.
More information
Amsterdam Light Festival dates: 28 November 2024 - 19 January 2025
Some of the images on this page are from previous edition of the Amsterdam Light Festival or artist impressions
For questions about the product, please contact [email protected]
Accessibility
- Free access to bathroom
- With audio description
LOVERS Canal Cruises, Prins Hendrikkade 25
Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Public Transport
The nearest stop is Central Station (metro, tram, bus & train).
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See the beauty of the Amsterdam canals with a canal cruise
The Amsterdam canals are iconic, they make up one of the city’s UNESCO World Heritage sites. And if you don’t take a canal cruise while in the city, you cannot really say that you have been to Amsterdam. There is one time of year when you should really see the canals in the daylight and at nighttime, and that is during the Amsterdam Light Festival.
A canal cruise during the day
When you hop on a boat during the day, you get the best view of Amsterdam’s famous sights. While on board the LOVERS Canal Cruises boat, you’ll make your way through iconic canals such as the Herengracht, Keizersgracht and Prinsengracht. No boat tour is the same as the route is decided by the captain to avoid traffic jams on the canals.
The audio guide on this daytime boat tour is a GPS guide, so that the information you hear in one of the 19 languages always matches the views out the windows. So along the way, you may learn about the Nine Streets, the Skinny Bridge, or the Anne Frank House. A day-time Amsterdam canal cruise offers you the best way to see the city as it should be seen, from the water!
Amsterdam Light Festival canal cruise
The Amsterdam Light Festival is an annually returning event that is becoming a winter tradition for many locals. LOVERS Canal Cruises has been an official partner of the festival since its inception in the winter of 2012-2013. Every year, new light art pieces created by artists from around the world are displayed along the canals.
Each year, the festival has a different theme. This year the theme is Rituals, through which the light art will portray rituals that are meaningful to the people who live in Amsterdam, as the city celebrates its 750th anniversary. The light art is only viewable during at night and the boat route gives you the best possible view of all the artworks on display.
20 Reviews
4.8
Average rating from
Tripadvisor
and Google
Wouter Malaga
The tour is great.. but this year, the light festival was quite disappointing compared to years ago
Dec 9, 2024Sarah N
It was good
Dec 2, 2024Kyros
Booked tickets for the Amsterdam Light Festival and overall first-ever canal cruise in Amsterdam. It was a very nice experience, captain was really cool and thankfully despite the cold weather, the boat was really warm inside. Also, we had the ability to re-book our tickets very easily through their site just a few hours before our original booking in order to make it on time. The only unfortunate thing was a “heavy traffic” in the canals, which ended up with our cruise taking almost 2 hours-long, but we knew it was not something in agency’s hands. Would recommend it anyway!
Dec 1, 2024Liubov Liashko
My family and I recently went on a canal cruise with Lovers Canal Cruises to experience the Amsterdam Light Festival, and it was an absolute blast! The atmosphere was so chill, and we could see Amsterdam in a new light - from the water and in the darkness. The light artworks were amazing and made me think about the impact of technologies and AI on our everyday lives. My son, usually glued to his phone, was even more engaged than usual. The Amsterdam Light Festival canal cruise is definitely something I would recommend to anyone who wants to see Amsterdam in a whole new way.
Jan 26, 2024Dr Win Sutanto
A must if you are in Amsterdam. They simply are the best canal cruise operator in the capital. The staff are always very professional, efficient and super helpful and friendly. There are various cruises you can join. Today I took the cruise as part of the Amsterdam Light Festival. It was incredible! 👍👍👍👍❤️❤️
Jan 19, 2024Nyasha 'Naya' Underwood
The cruise itself was really nice, it teaches you history, our boat captin was funny and you get insights to Amsterdam's past and present. We went for the Amsterdam light festival... that was very underwhelming (to no fault of the cruise itself) just when you think of a light festival you expect to see more than a few small art fixtures... the streets of Amsterdam had more/better lights than that. I'd def go on lovers again... maybe they have a lunch on the water option or something
Jan 17, 2024M Lammers
Night canal cruise was ran very well, loved the commentary, would have liked more background to what we saw along the way. Light festival was average. Hard to see for those not sitting near window, thus more commentary would have made up for this.
Jan 3, 2024Christina
Christmas light festival
Very interesting and informative, Amsterdam by night is very different from Amsterdam by day. The guide was informative. We went on Christmas night and it was warm on the boat
Dec 27, 2023Sarthak Kumar
The cruise was cozy and informative. Got to see the light festival as well.
Dec 12, 2023Maxwell
Croisière sympathique qui dure environ 1h pour découvrir le festival des lumières et l’architecture d’Amsterdam. Malheureusement, vu un peu gâché par les gouttes sur les vitres. Il faudrait prévoir un moyen pour nettoyer les vitres après la pluie.
Dec 30, 2023Bernd_aus_Wesel
Unbedingt
Wenn sie im Dezember in Amsterdam sein sollten, so müssen sie unbedingt eine Fahrt mit der Thematik Licht Festival machen. Unbedingt.
Dec 4, 2023Becky F
A fab way to see Amsterdam
We had a really lovely time on the one-hour canal cruise. Our captain was very lovely and cracked a good few jokes throughout the tour. The GPS guided tour via the headphones was a fab idea and there were so many language options available which was a really pleasant surprise. We learned so much about the history of the city and the tour even helped us to find places to visit again in further detail after the tour. The price was extremely reasonable considering the excellent experience we got, and our boat even left a little early which was nice. All in all, we would definitely recommend it!
Feb 14, 2024Brad D
The captian made the experience
We really enjoyed it. We show I I amsterdam cards at the ticket office ans were on a boat and on our way within 10 minutes. Our captain (Tony I believe was his name) was lovely ,cheerful and very knowledge of the area, he also had 2 traniees with him and they were also lovely. The facilties were clean. If I hadn't have had the I amsterdam card I would have still paid what the price was (which I think is reasonable).
Feb 12, 2024peter G
Well worth the experience
1st time in Amsterdam and loved it Booked on the Lovers Canal cruise early in the morning to get a feel for the city and to get our bearings The tour showed the highlights of the city and the comentry was good
Feb 12, 2024Vladimir J
Cruising backward :(
sitting backward is really annoying... Except that I think it is very nice and the captain was a nice guy, he was really funny, making jokes.
Feb 9, 2024pieta
Go with Lovers
Booked through Get Your Guide literally 20 mins before boarding. They let us join a boat that was boarding as soon as we got there, which was great, no standing around as they weren’t so busy. We took a daytime trip and glad we did. Maybe evening cruises would be better in warmer months with open boats. The boat was modern, clean and warm and no condensation at all during any part of our cruise. The headphones were included and the audio commentary was interesting. The captain also added bits and pieces of extra info which was appreciated. It was a great introduction to the canals of Amsterdam as we decided to do this trip literally an hour after arriving in Amsterdam. It helped us with our bearings and with general historical info about the city. The reason for 4 rather than 5 stars is that we seemed to stay on one canal, no museums seen, no Anne Frank house, nothing like that, which was a shame as lots of tourists probably visit these places afterwards. Maybe the canal boat starting from the museums area take that route? We took the one from the station. There are lots of canal boat companies, but we were more than happy with Lovers as their boats appear a lot more modern than many others we saw. I would definitely recommend the cruise and my teenage daughter said it was one of the nicest things we did when in Amsterdam.
Feb 8, 2024silk44w
Great couples tour
A amazing tour with some great canal boat skills performed and a great host. This tour is very much for couples and being alone I felt a little out of place.
Nov 27, 2023GW__92
A Great Way To See The City
Done the open boat tour during the summer. A great way to see the city and the audio guide gave plenty of information along the way. Extremely relaxing to the point I almost fell asleep half way around. Would definitely do the tour again if I’m back in Amsterdam
Nov 18, 2023colleen S
Quick visit to see Amsterdam
Guide was very friendly and knowledgeable. Although it rained, I still enjoyed the tour. The only complaint was the audio was difficult to hear at times.
Oct 15, 2023far away from every day
Relaxing hour on the canals
Nice relaxing hour around the canals. Duco (sorry if I have not got the name correct) was informative with history and fun facts. Would recommend.
Aug 27, 2023ross
Good cruise
It was educational, slowed down at the right places. The pilot was polite and explained well- was fun and energetic.
Aug 10, 2023
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