Enjoy an extra long Amsterdam Light Festival Cruise, departing right next to Rijksmuseum. Hop on right after a museum visit, and admire the beautiful light art of the festival from the water. With comfortably heated boats and a free audio guide.
Amsterdam Light Festival 2025-2026 Canal Cruise from Rijksmuseum
Highlights
- Enjoy an extra long evening canal cruise past all the light art
- Hop on board at the dock just a 2-minute walk from the Rijksmuseum
- Discover the stories behind the art with the audio guide
Locations
Practical information
Children
Child ticket for 4-13 year olds
Free entry for 0-3 year olds when accompanied by a paying adult
Languages
The audio guide is available in English and Dutch
Check-in
Check-in 15 minutes before departure
Waiting time can occur even with a timeslot due to the many boats on the canals
Parking
At QPark, LOVERS guests park at a special rate. Book your parking space here.
Ticket information
Ticket directly available on smartphone
You can reschedule your tickets yourself via our self rebook page up to 24 hours in advance
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 boats
More information
Amsterdam Light Festival datum: 27 November 2025 - 18 January 2026
Some of the images on this page are from previous editions or artist impressions
For questions about the product, please contact [email protected]
Accessibility
Getting there
1071 BN Amsterdam
The nearest public transport stop is Rijksmuseum (tram 1, 7 & 9).
Description
Visit the Amsterdam Light Festival from the Amsterdam Museum District
This cruise departs right across from Rijksmuseum, and takes you past all the beautiful artworks of Amsterdam Light Festival. Combine your visit to Amsterdam’s renowned museums with a cruise along the beautifully lit canals with LOVERS, and admire the light art from up close. The works are all visible from the cruise route, so you won’t have to miss anything.
Amsterdam Light Festival returns for its 14th editions, in the winter months of 2025 and 2026, to brighten up the city and show lightart from all around the world. The theme of this year’s Amsterdam Light Festival is Legacy, and focuses on what people leave behind and how they will be remembered. Celebrate the festival, and the legacy of Dutch art, by combining your cruise with a visit to Rijksmuseum or any other museum at Amsterdam’s museum square.
Amsterdam Light Festival canal cruise 2025-2026
Amsterdam Light Festival is best admired from the water, all artworks are on or next to the canals, and LOVERS’ cruises go past all of them. The canal boats have big windows on all sides for great views, and are heated to a comfortable temperature in the cold winter months. An audio guide is included as well (available in English and Dutch), which will tell you all about the artworks and artists.
This cruise takes an extra long journey as well, past a few other highlights of the city before it reaches the festival area. After that the boats follow the festival’s route in its entirety, so you won’t miss any artworks, and get a little bonus cruise as well. And at the end, the cruise will drop you off right at Rijksmuseum again.
Book your Amsterdam Light Festival canal cruise tickets
Hop on board this beautiful Amsterdam Light Festival cruise from Rijksmuseum, after your visit to a museum, the ice rink on museum square, or whenever is convenient for you. LOVERS offer the best way to admire the festival, and this longer cruise shows you everything and a little more. Get your tickets now!
Reviews
13 reviews
The tour is great.. but this year, the light festival was quite disappointing compared to years ago
It was good
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!
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.
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! 👍👍👍👍❤️❤️
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
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.
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
The cruise was cozy and informative. Got to see the light festival as well.
Excellente balade sur les canaux d’Amsterdam, le capitaine Bouddha est intarissable sur sa ville, belle ambiance avec les lumières spéciales en ce mois de décembre
Wij met drie vrienden. Hadden via internet Amsterdam Light Festival kaartjes gekocht. Hadden we overlijden in de fam. konden we de kaarten omzetten... Dus hele menselijk bedrijf..... Rond vaart was druk maar wel erg leuk en mooi. Ga zitten en genieten. 👍 Neem de tijd. Wij gingen nu 14 dec.ik ben al een ander jaar geweest toen eerder in het jaar dan is het iets beter te doen (minder druk ) Vaar je iets sneller door. Maar zeker aanraden.
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.
Wenn sie im Dezember in Amsterdam sein sollten, so müssen sie unbedingt eine Fahrt mit der Thematik Licht Festival machen. Unbedingt.