Amsterdam: An overview - Part 3

Canal cruises

As I have previous said canal cruises gives ones of the best and most relaxing ways of seeing the heart of the city. As well as providing an stunning backdrop to the city' s historical centre, floating down the canals are one of the most memorable ways to discover the city. If you are a first-time visitor the seeing Amsterdam when viewed from a boat seems to only add to its charm. Amsterdam’s many canal cruise operators generally offer a good level of quality and customer service.

There are a number of departure points throughout the city and the tours are available in over 20 languages. Depending on the time of year that you visit will affect the number of trips available. Typically in the summer most operator run their tour every half hour but this doubles to every hour in the winter season. While winter is not the best time for a trip do not pass it by as gliding around the canals with a steaming cup of hot chocolate is some you will never forget.

A few of the best known operators include Holland International, Canal Company, Blue Boat, Rederij Kooij, Rederij Plas and Lovers. All offer the normal short sightseeing trip that covers all the must see places for those on a tight schedule and lasts up to an hour and a half. If you have longer then the most can offer up to whole day trips, evening cruises or even dinner cruises.

If you do not want to just cruise around the canals all day but would like to do a bit of sightseeing as well then I would recommend the ' hop-on hop-off' service which is offered by Canal Bus as a really good option. It takes you round all the major attractions and you never normally have to wait more than 30 minutes to get your next boat. While you wait why not take advantage of one of the nearby cafes.

City Sightseeing Amsterdam Hop On and Hop Off

This service is run in distinctive red double decker buses and has really friendly staff. They have many multi-lingual commentary options as well as a live guide commentary. You can Hop On and Hop Off as much as you like at any of the 23 bus stops on the 3 different routes. There are 24 and 48 hours tickets with the 24 hour one currently costing around 20 Euros and for those that never want to be out of touch they now offer a free WiFi service as well.

Continued in part 4