TOP 5 EVENTS ON AMSTERDAM'S CANALS

The most fun way to celebrate King's Day in Amsterdam is sailing the canals with your own rental boat! Bring your own food and drinks and enjoy the festive atmosphere: live music and DJs everywhere, people celebrating on the water and on the banks, and plenty of stalls with delicious food and drinks.

By renting a boat and cruising the canals, you'll reach many great spots without having to walk through the crowds all day. This guarantees you a relaxed, festive and unforgettable King's Day!

On King's Day you can rent a boat from us for €349, excluding €2.70 per person tourist tax. You can pick up your boat between 10:00 and 12:00 and return it between 16:00 and 18:00.

Gay Pride is, after King's Day, the biggest party on Amsterdam's canals. The highlight of Gay Pride – which lasts an entire week – is undoubtedly the grand Canal Parade on Saturday afternoon. Around 80 colourful boats sail in a long procession through the canals to celebrate freedom, diversity and respect.

By renting a boat, you experience Gay Pride up close! You see all the party boats pass right in front of you. Enjoy the music and the atmosphere, have a drink and dance and sing along!

For Gay Pride you can only rent your boat for the entire day. If you pick up your boat between 07:30 and 10:00, you'll be on time to find a good spot for the parade. Afterwards you can return your boat between 16:30 and 19:00.

The rate is €349, excluding €2.70 per person tourist tax. You won't find anything cheaper in Amsterdam.

The Prinsengracht Concert is the annual classical open-air concert that takes place in front of Hotel Pulitzer on the atmospherically lit Prinsengracht. This concert is always broadcast on TV, but for the ultimate experience you really need to be there live. Admission to the concert is free and you can bring your own food and drinks.

Unfortunately, you cannot attend the concert on our boats. You can enjoy the concert simply from the street. The truly lucky ones find a spot on the VIP terrace, on a friend's boat, or in the window of one of the adjacent canal houses.

During the winter months (from late November to late January) the Amsterdam Light Festival (ALF) takes place every year, a major light festival on and along the canals. The projects by (light) artists from all over the world are best admired from a boat.

At Boats4rent we offer the possibility to rent your own boat and fully enjoy the Amsterdam Light Festival. With our open boats you can effortlessly explore the canals and sail past the enchanting light artworks. Our boats are suitable for groups of up to 6 people, and no boating licence is required.

Amsterdam's canals are not just for looking at and sailing through. In some places you can also swim wonderfully. Officially it's forbidden almost everywhere, but there are enough spots in the city where swimming is tacitly allowed – at your own risk.

Once a year, part of the canals and the Amstel river is closed off and turned into an official (2 kilometre long!) swimming course for the Amsterdam City Swim. This event raises money to fight the muscle disease ALS (also known from the Ice Bucket Challenge).

If you've collected enough sponsorship money, you can participate in the City Swim yourself. Otherwise, you can cheer from the sideline and/or make your own donation!

Every 5 years SAIL Amsterdam takes place, an enormous multi-day spectacle with the entry of a long procession of tall ships as its highlight. These large sailing ships and many other vessels can be admired up close from the quays. And some are even accessible to the public.

But the most impressive and – not unimportantly: also most relaxed – way to experience SAIL is of course by sailing yourself! Unfortunately, you cannot join the entry parade with our boats. And afterwards you're also not allowed to enter the SAIL area with our boats. This is for safety reasons: our boats are too small and too lightly motorised to mix with the 'big boys' on the IJ or the North Sea Canal.

However, there are plenty of other possibilities to sail through the SAIL area by boat. You can join one of the large tour boats or rent your own boat with a skipper.