Two people, one team, every job.
We're building this with a lot of joy, and we want you to enjoy the boat as much as we enjoy making the site.
Find a boat↗
The best boat isn't always the one with the biggest billboard.
Amsterdam has small canal cruise companies that are as good as the famous ones, and some that are better. Many are family-run or owned by a couple, with a real passion for smaller, more authentic trips, yet most visitors never find them because the loudest names collect the clicks. So we skip the big names. Every boat on BoatLocal comes from an operator like this, with real prices and open seats, so you choose on the boat and not on the marketing budget.
Meet the operators↗Amsterdam, from the inside
Beer was born and raised here. Ask about a canal and you get the pier it starts from, the bridge it passes under and the hour the light looks best on it. That local knowledge decides which boats we list.
A medical student's habits
Halvey is studying medicine and writes a lot of the code. Medicine teaches you to check a thing twice, which suits a booking system where prices, times and free seats have to be right the moment you look.
One team, no fixed lanes
We're a small team and we keep it efficient. Marketing, development, support: we do all of it together, and the lines between those jobs have blurred, so we pick things up side by side instead of handing them over. Beer brings the city, Halvey brings the build, and neither of us stays in a box for long.
Got a question, a boat we should know about, or an idea?
Write to hello@boatlocal.nl. A person answers.