The canals by boat

Amsterdam looks like a different city from the water. Streets that feel narrow and crowded on foot open up once you're on a canal, and the seventeenth-century canal houses were built to be seen from exactly that angle, gable stones and hoisting hooks facing the water rather than the pavement. The choice is really between two experiences: sit back on a guided cruise, or take the wheel yourself.

Guided, or at the wheel

A guided cruise needs no planning beyond picking a departure point; most run an hour or so through the main canal belt. Renting a self-drive boat is the more interesting option if you have three or four hours to spend: no licence is required anywhere in the city, a short briefing and a canal map are enough, and the appeal is stopping wherever you like rather than following someone else's route. Mokumboot, Boats4rent and Eco Boats Amsterdam all rent open, electric self-drive boats for up to six or eight people, with docks scattered across the centre and near the Jordaan.

The one rule worth knowing before you set out: keep the noise down. Amsterdam still gets more complaints, and fines, for boats playing music or blocking narrow canals than for anything else on the water.

Where to tie up

Part of the appeal of a self-drive boat is that a fair number of Amsterdam's cafes are built to be reached from the water as easily as the street.

• Café Bar Aen't Water, tucked on one of the central canals, with tables right at the water's edge for watching boats pass while you sit still for once.
• Hanneke's Boom, near Central Station on the Oosterdok. One of the best known moor-and-drink spots in the city, built from reclaimed wood with a jetty made for exactly this.
• Café de Ceuvel, across the IJ in Amsterdam Noord. An entirely vegetarian and vegan spot with a relaxed, plant-filled terrace worth the slightly longer detour.
• Café Café, right on the Amstel next to the Stopera. A straightforward waterside terrace for a long drink while the river traffic goes by.
• IJ-Kantine, at the NDSM wharf, with its own pontoon and a terrace that turns a boat trip across the IJ into most of the afternoon.

What to keep an eye out for

The canals carry their own calendar. Mid-August brings the Grachtenfestival, ten days of free and ticketed classical and jazz performances staged on canalside quays, in courtyards and on boats moored along the water, genuinely one of the more low-key, distinctly Amsterdam events in the calendar. From late November into January, the Amsterdam Light Festival turns the canal route into an open-air gallery of light installations, best seen from a boat since several of the pieces are built to be viewed from the water rather than the bridges above it; cruise tickets go on sale each October for that year's edition. If you're on your own boat during the festival, the official app sells access to the route map and artwork locations.

How to get there

Which pier depends on which boat, so check the operator before you set off. The nearest departures are on Stadhouderskade by the Rijksmuseum, twelve minutes on foot straight up Ferdinand Bolstraat, and the ones near Centraal leave from Damrak and Prins Hendrikkade, which is metro 52 from De Pijp to Centraal Station in four minutes.

The honest version of the canals by boat: pick a direction, keep it slow, and let a cafe with a jetty decide when to stop.